A STUDY OF WOMEN'S LABOUR PARTICIPATION IN MALAYSIA

Abstract

Women's participation in the labour force is a phenomenon that is of increasing interest to social scientists, in particular, sociologists and economists. Female labour force participation has impact and implications at various levels, namely, the nation, community, family and self. This study is a modest attempt to examine the impact and implications of female labour force participation in Malaysia. Data constraints restrict the analysis to Peninsular Malaysia only. Female labour force participation rates affect the role of women in employment on the supply side. The study examines the changing trend in female labour force participation in Peninsular Malaysia, making use of the population census data of 1957, 1970 and 1980. It shows that overall participation had risen from 26% in 1957 to 34% in 1980, not a very dramatic increase. The overall level of female participation in Peninsular Malaysia is still much lower than that of males, and lower than that for females in many other developing and developed countries. Female participation has been affected by the general forces of modernisation, industrialisation and urbanisation. Cross analyses are also made with regard to female participation by age, marital status, ethnic groups, educational attainment, and urban/rural location. The analyses show rapidly growing female participation at the youthful age, higher participation rates for singles, Chinese females, and those with very low and very high educational attainment. Additionally, the participation rate is higher in the rural sector, and has a bimodal age pattern in contrast to the uni-modal urban pattern. The study also attempts to forecast the future size of the female labour force for the year 1990. Standard labour force projection techniques are used, and on the basis of three alternative assumptions, the labour force participation rates are in the range of 34% to 39%. Female labour accounted for 25% of the labour force in Peninsular Malaysia in 1957 and 33% in 1980. By 1990, it will continue to account for a minority share of the labour force. On the demand side, female labour in Peninsular Malaysia is examined in terms of their concentration by sector/industry, occupation and occupational status. Female employment has responded well to the rapidly changing structure of the Malaysian economy. One significant finding of the study is the increasing role of female labour in modern manufacturing and the corresponding relative decline in the traditional agricultural sector. Another finding is the strong occupational bias of females towards professional occupations such as teaching and nursing on the one hand, and unskilled and semi-skilled production and service occupations on the other. Females have yet to achieve breakthroughs in the traditionally male dominated managerial and administrative occupations. In spite of their increasing participation in the modern manufacturing and service activities, almost half of the working females are still in the non-employee categories of own account workers, and unpaid family workers.