The Star, Wednesday August 19, 2009
KUALA LUMPUR: The Government wants to see more women in senior management positions in the corporate sector. Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said women were under-represented at the decision-making levels of public-listed companies.
“The percentage of women who are members of boards of directors declined from 9.9% in 2004 to 6.1% in 2008,” he said in his keynote address at the Women’s Summit 2009 yesterday.
He said that women only held 12% of top positions in government-linked companies.
Women to the fore: Muhyiddin meeting delegates to the Women Summit 2009 in Kuala Lumpur yesterday. At left is the deputy Prime Minister’s wife, Puan Sri Norainee Abdul Rahman. – Bernama
He said it was important for women to continue to play a role in the country’s socio-economic development.
“The cost of women’s exclusion is too high for us to bear. Gender justice and women empowerment are not only essential to our economic development but also a great leap forward in nation building,” he said.
Muhyiddin urged the private sector, as the country’s largest employer, to provide more conducive working arrangements that took into account the equal sharing of responsibilities between men and women in the family.
“These include new and flexible working arrangements such as tele-working, part-time work and job-sharing,” he said.
He said that both men and women with talent were increasingly interested in blending parenthood with their careers.
“The careers they seek today, however, are not the traditional full-time office-bound roles,” he said.
He said top talent in future work models would be those who could strike a balance between their personal and professional priorities, while delivering high quality results.
“The idea of work until you drop and young high-flying executives suffering from corporate burnout will be a phenomenon of the past,” he said.
He said finding work-life balance was not just a women’s issue but a universal concern.
“I am looking forward to the day when we have a balanced and happy workforce that will help us build strong families, strong societies and, indeed, a strong nation,” he said.