Gender shift and its implications for the Malaysian economic structural change

The Malaysian government has been shaping the economic development for the past 30 years and implementing the policies which can change the economic structure. Malaysian economic structure has changed slowly from one which depend on export commodities to an industrial economy which is more modern in nature, skill intensive and using sophisticated technologies to produce various type of production, having better design and competitive to fulfill the global market demands. This article examines the distribution pattern of women in employment using secondary data pertaining to the four stages of the country’s industrial sector development. Results of the analysis show the following: (1) A distinct change in the economic role of Malaysian women since the first phase of Malaysia’s industrial development in the 1980s where women shifted from primary sector to manufacturing and services (clerical) employment. (2) A tangible improvement in the quality of women’s employment as reflected in the rise of the number of women with high paying jobs as compared to the low paying jobs in the agriculture sector. (3) The continued concentration of working women in traditional women occupations such as teachers, nurses, stenegraphers and saleswomen. (4) A conspicuous shift of women’s employment to new, non-traditional occupational types such as lawyers, medical practitioners, engineers and managers.