Our major retirement activity is volunteering with Empower, a NGO. I proof-read Equality Under Construction: Malaysian Human Rights Report 2010/11 - a mind numbing task, but a great introduction to Malaysia and issues, which are not confined to Malaysia - the labor force participation of women especially after marriage (low in Malaysia); the informal labor force, which includes workers who do piece work; the lack of legal protection for the LBGT community; the dominance of religious communities in family law (India for example has separate marriage laws for Hindus, Muslims, Christians and so on); and the plight of refugees who have no legal status and are defined as illegal immigrants. The book is an excellent resource, especially its inclusion of applicable the statutes and opinions.
I helped design questionnaires to assess training for women aspiring to political office. The training covered CEDAW (UN Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Discrimination Against Women), the relevance of politics/policy to women, and campaign strategies. The questionnaires worked well and confirmed that trainees felt they could use what they learned, explain the issues, and show others why and how to use various campaign strategies.
Doug and I created a database on women members of parliament. In conjunction with the 5 May General Election we helped create a map that shows the gender of the candidates in each constituency; it is posted at euc.empowermalaysia.org (euc = equality under construction). Relatively few women are running: 56 running for Parliament and 113 for state assemblies. Despite the pre-nomination rhetoric only 10 percent of the MP candidates were women - the percent of women nominated ranged between 8 and 14 percent for the various political parties. The percents for the state were relatively similar. Of the 18 current women MPs who are contesting, 12 entered parliament in 2008. Perhaps if most of them are reelected the more experienced women will promote a women's agenda (anti-sexual harrasment, consistent Shariah laws among states, marital rape, equal citizen rights for children born abroad with a Malaysian mothers and non-Malaysian father).
One of the first articles I read about the women candidates was on grooming - pretty amazing. We are taken aback by referring to women candidates as "roses" or "flowers." Taking women seriously doesn't seem to be part of the political culture, even though Bersih 2.0 has amazing women leaders. Since we are now in the US we haven't been able to follow coverage closely, but I suspect the women's issues and the policy views of women candidates aren't receiving much, if any, coverage in Malaysia. So no matter what the outcome Malaysians have work to do to assure that women's voices are heard and aren't marginalize
9 May 2013 - the election is over. 23 women were elected to parliament; 24 were elected in 2008. 56 women contested for parliament, including 7 independents. 16 of the 18 incumbents who contested were reelected. 56 of the 113 women who ran for state assembly won. 100% of the women who ran for parliament for DAP (an opposition party) won as did 96% of their state assembly nominees. DAP does a good job of selecting winnable candidates, but is it too risk adverse?
I helped design questionnaires to assess training for women aspiring to political office. The training covered CEDAW (UN Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Discrimination Against Women), the relevance of politics/policy to women, and campaign strategies. The questionnaires worked well and confirmed that trainees felt they could use what they learned, explain the issues, and show others why and how to use various campaign strategies.
Doug and I created a database on women members of parliament. In conjunction with the 5 May General Election we helped create a map that shows the gender of the candidates in each constituency; it is posted at euc.empowermalaysia.org (euc = equality under construction). Relatively few women are running: 56 running for Parliament and 113 for state assemblies. Despite the pre-nomination rhetoric only 10 percent of the MP candidates were women - the percent of women nominated ranged between 8 and 14 percent for the various political parties. The percents for the state were relatively similar. Of the 18 current women MPs who are contesting, 12 entered parliament in 2008. Perhaps if most of them are reelected the more experienced women will promote a women's agenda (anti-sexual harrasment, consistent Shariah laws among states, marital rape, equal citizen rights for children born abroad with a Malaysian mothers and non-Malaysian father).
One of the first articles I read about the women candidates was on grooming - pretty amazing. We are taken aback by referring to women candidates as "roses" or "flowers." Taking women seriously doesn't seem to be part of the political culture, even though Bersih 2.0 has amazing women leaders. Since we are now in the US we haven't been able to follow coverage closely, but I suspect the women's issues and the policy views of women candidates aren't receiving much, if any, coverage in Malaysia. So no matter what the outcome Malaysians have work to do to assure that women's voices are heard and aren't marginalize
9 May 2013 - the election is over. 23 women were elected to parliament; 24 were elected in 2008. 56 women contested for parliament, including 7 independents. 16 of the 18 incumbents who contested were reelected. 56 of the 113 women who ran for state assembly won. 100% of the women who ran for parliament for DAP (an opposition party) won as did 96% of their state assembly nominees. DAP does a good job of selecting winnable candidates, but is it too risk adverse?
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