Bernama – Wednesday, August 19
KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 18 (Bernama) — Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said today there is still a need to further improve the participation of women in critical areas such as decision-making in both the public and private sectors. The deputy prime minister said the women themselves must strive to earn these coveted decision-making positions based on merit, capabilities and experience.
While the government had agreed to the 30 per cent target for senior positions in the public sector to be held by women, their participation at that level in the corporate sector was still under-represented, he said in his keynote address at the Women’s Summit 2009 here.
On that score, he said, the corporate sector should emulate the public sector’s move to institute more participation of women at the decision-making level.
The percentage of women who were members of the board of directors in the corporate sector continued to decline from 9.9 per cent in 2004 to 6.1 per cent last year and only 12 per cent women were holding top positions in the government-linked companies (GLCs).
However women holding the highest positions, from general manager to president or CEO of companies, increased gradually from 13.5 per cent in 2004 to 26.2 per cent in 2008, he said.
In the question-and-answer session later, Muhyiddin said the policy to target more women to hold important positions had already been spelt out very clearly but the question now was how to enforce it and make it happen not only at the agency level but also the GLCs.
“This is something I will take note of and maybe there is a need for the government at the cabinet level to discuss and delve into details on how this plan could be executed,” he said.
To another question, Muhyiddin said it was demeaning to know that some companies in the private sector did not adopt the same policies and rules as the public sector in terms of retirement age, which has been extended to 58 in the public sector.
“I do not know why the private sector acts that way because women of that age are still very productive. You have sort of reached the peak in terms of experience, they should retain you, unless there is some male chauvinistic CEO who thinks that women should leave earlier,” he told a participant who had complained of gender discrimination in some private companies which set the age of retirement at 50 for women and 55 for male employees.
He said he would take the complaint seriously, including to look into laws that might need to be review.
He also said that the government would study closely the suggestion to make it mandatory for agencies and other sectors to employ more women.
Responding to another question, Muhyiddin said there was a strong case for women to fight for more representation on the GLCs’ board.
Asked why most GLCs boards were dominated by men and whether women would be given a chance to lead these companies, Muhyiddin said the weaknesses in the recruitment process, procedures, policies and implementation sometimes denied equally capable and qualified women the opportunity of holding important positions, including those in the government.
He said, however, that the 30 per cent policy for women participation did not apply in politics as it was subjected to certain considerations like acceptance by the electorate.
The one-day summit, themed “Can Women Turn Adversity Into Opportunity?” was attended by 1,000 participations from around the world.
– BERNAMA