By Nasuha Badrul Huzaini
SHAH ALAM, Nov 15 — Women’s non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the country have lauded Selangor for implementing gender mainstreaming initiatives to narrow the male-female divide and provide equal opportunities for women despite a challenging road ahead.
Persatuan Wanita Inspirasi Negara president Norhimah Aziz said the move by the state administration to appoint 17 gender mainstreaming officers has shown that Selangor is transparent and serious about implementing gender equality.
She said this should be emulated by other states so that more job opportunities will open up for women, especially in sectors largely dominated by men such as the military and the police force.
“However, awareness on gender mainstreaming is relatively low. Hence, the state government has to issue directives on the need to appoint women across all sectors, including in policy-making at the administrative level.
“Apart from that, the initiatives also require constant monitoring to ensure that they succeed. Lack of monitoring is one of the reasons why the previous Federal government failed to carry out gender equality initiatives.
“They might have been very vocal in promoting the 30 per cent quota for women involvement in government and politics but there were no specific officers assigned to monitor the process.
“Hopefully, the officers who have been appointed by the Selangor government will go to the ground and take note of the improvements needed for the sake of the women community,” she said when contacted by Selangor Journal, today.
Meanwhile, All Women’s Action Society executive director Nisha Sabanayagam said the organisation wants the appointment of 17 officers to be fully supported by the relevant government agencies.
“We understand the challenges involved in gender mainstreaming — it is a long term commitment and gender equality will not happen overnight.
“The ultimate outcome that we would want to see is the integration of a gender perspective into the preparation, design, implementation, and evaluation of policies, regulatory measures and spending programmes,” she added.
Selangor is the first state in Malaysia to implement gender mainstreaming as an effort to promote women’s rights and address discrimination towards the group.
The exercise, now in its second year, brings together the education portfolio under the purview of the Menteri Besar, the local council portfolio under state executive councillor Ng Sze Han, and the community welfare portfolio under state executive councillor V Ganabatirau.
