Prof. Dr. Shanthi Thambiah, RE:CARE Co-Principal Investigator, spoke to Dina Murad from the Star to explore whether current efforts by the Malaysian government are sufficient for advancing gender parity and whether reaching 60% female labour force participation rate (FLFP) would be enough to secure a sustainable labour environment. Read the excerpt below for her thoughts:
Recognition of the care ecosystem
Prof Dr Shanthi Thambiah from Universiti Malaya’s Gender Studies Programme says that increasing FLFP is an important question for Malaysia right now, especially given the country’s economic transition and demographic shift towards an ageing population.
Higher participation can help ease labour shortages, reduce dependency ratios and strengthen household resilience. With rising living costs, urban housing prices and care expenses, dual-income households are increasingly necessary for middle-class stability.
However, increasing women’s participation cannot be separated from how care is organised. Malaysia relies heavily on unpaid care work performed by women. As more women enter paid work, there will be a need to expand childcare and eldercare infrastructure and ensure they are both affordable and high-quality.
“There will be a recognition of the importance of the care ecosystem. This is not just about women ‘working more’, but also about restructuring how care is organised in society,” Shanthi explains.
The next crucial step for Malaysia is to ensure sustained participation, not just getting women into jobs temporarily. But this will require several policy reforms.
It will mean building a strong care infrastructure, expanding public and employer-supported childcare, providing targeted subsidies for middle- and lower-income families, and developing a national eldercare strategy, says Shanthi.
“Countries like Singapore dramatically increased female labour force participation by treating childcare as economic infrastructure – not private charity,” she says. Without a formal elder care system, mid-career women will continue exiting the workforce.
Investment in community- and home-based eldercare services is therefore urgent, as care burdens remain the main structural exit point for women.
Quality of jobs matter
Shanthi cautions that a 60% target is insufficient if women are concentrated in low-paid, insecure, or informal work. At Malaysia’s current stage of development, the issue is no longer simply how many women participate, but the quality of jobs they hold.
“A 60% rate may look good statistically. But if many women are in informal or gig work, or in part-time roles without social protection, then household resilience remains weak, tax contributions remain limited, productivity gains are modest and gender inequality persists,” she says.
Raising participation without strengthening care infrastructure could also increase underemployment. Instead of focusing solely on a single percentage, Shanthi says that Malaysia may need multidimensional targets, including women’s share in formal employment, representation in managerial and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) roles, reduction of the gender wage gap, and improved social protection coverage.
This excerpt is from an article authored by Dina Murad. To read the full article, please visit the Star.
