Participants of the 2024 World Women Economic & Business Summit have the opportunity to learn from accomplished women leaders from around the world.
Exposure to women leaders can have great impact on children – especially girls – so that they'll be inspired to achieve great things with someone to emulate, says Yayasan Hasanah Malaysia managing director and trustee Siti Kamariah Ahmad Subki.
At the recent 2024 World Women Economic & Business Summit session, “Women in Social Impact: Creating Change and Making a Difference”, Siti Kamariah shares an incident that reminds her of the importance of early exposure.
“While at a school in Hulu Selangor to launch our Learning Recovery Programme, children were asked to write their ambitions on the board. We observed that boys aspired to be a CEO, boss, policeman and even prime minister, while for girls, their ambitions include teacher, hairdresser or artist”.
Siti Kamariah says women empowerment is about what happens daily.
“None of the girls mentioned high-ranking positions like CEO, prime minister or even minister, for that matter – even for a fairly urban community. There was that disparity where girls don't dare to dream big while boys do,” she says.
“But after a woman minister was introduced to the children for an interactive session, some girls stated they'd like to become a minister,” she reveals.
The MD of Khazanah Nasional Berhad (Khazanah)'s impact-based foundation adds that funding is just one aspect of Yayasan Hasanah, and it's moments like these that mean the most to her.
“Women empowerment isn’t only about big slogans, it’s about what happens daily in classrooms and households.”
Abir launched Lean In Malaysia so young women can have mentors to look up to and ask for guidance.Lean In Malaysia co-founder and director Abir Abdul Rahim adds that it's important for young women to have mentors to look up to and ask for guidance.
When she returned to Malaysia after her studies overseas, Abir realised this gap.She then discovered Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg in 2013, which helps young women navigate themselves in the workplace and personal life, and was inspired to start Lean In Malaysia – a non-profit organisation that educates, enables and empowers women to achieve their full potential as change-makers towards an equal world.
“We saw that many women were hired in the workforce but they would drop out and never return.
“Almost 10 years after Lean In Malaysia began, woman still make up 56.7% of the labour force while men make up 83.3%. This discrepancy needs to be addressed and it's our aim to move the dial,” she says.
Zunaidah says it's important for employees to have the right mindset to be developed into global leaders. Photo: Women Leadership FoundationIn the session, “Women in the Global Context: Issues and Challenges”, Zunaidah Idris says it's important for leaders in organisations to have the right mindset to be developed into global leaders. Women Leadership Foundation founder and deputy chairman Datuk Zunaidah Idris says it's important for leaders in organisations to have the right mindset to be developed into global leaders.
“What helps expedite a person's progress to leadership is mentorship. It's not just one-to-one mentors, but having different mentors at different stages of your leadership journey.
“Mentorship should start early. For C-Suites employees to become CEOs of an organisation – moving from technical positions to management and providing vision, strategy and problem solving for the entire organisation, they must be prepared.
“Leadership is about motivating, inspiring and empowering others. Besides mentors sharing their experience, journey and wisdom, they provide mentees with networking to ensure that visibility, trust and respect is there,” she says.
Bhaopichitr says Thai women's workforce participation reduces once they reach 50 because of unpaid care duties. Photo: Thailand Development Research InstituteWhen a country has an ecosystem that empowers women, there will be more women in the workforce and in leadership positions, says Thai economist Dr Kirida Bhaopichitr.
“In Thailand, around 60% of women are in the workforce, with 25% of our CEOs and 40% of our CFOs being women. While this seems like a success story, there's still gender inequality,” she admits.
“We've observed that women are engaged in the workforce, but once they reach over 50 years old, their participation decreases by 10%,” says the Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI) Economic Intelligence Service director and Asean Economic Club Exco member.
“This is because of unpaid care work which becomes their responsibility – most of these women would resign to take care of their or their husband's ageing parents. As such, while it's important to have daycare for children, it's also necessary to have care services for older people.”
She emphasises that education for women and children is crucial.
“Women must have the skills required by businesses and the labour market, not just primary, secondary and tertiary education. They require lifelong learning, skills development and upgrading.”
According to Bhaopichitr, scholarships are important in poor communities, especially for girls. “Boys are prioritised to go to school instead of girls, so without scholarships, it's difficult for parents to send their daughters to school," she says.
Heinecke says Australia has implemented several measures to improve care economy in the country. Photo: X/Australian High Commissioner to MalaysiaTo encourage more women participation in the workforce, it's also crucial to invest in the care economy because usually, it's the women who must juggle work, give up work, or can't participate fully in the workforce because of care duties, says Australian high commissioner to Malaysia Danielle Heinecke.
“There are three aspects to the care economy – childcare, aged care and disability care.”
Firstly, to ensure it's viable for women and mothers to go to work, childcare mustn't cost more than what they can earn. In recent budgets, the Australian government has allocated a sizable amount to the childcare sector and this is pro-poor, meaning for lower income mothers who work, their childcare fees are borne by the government, she says.
Policies around paid paternity leave and work flexibility enable women to take on a greater role in the workforce because men can take on their role at home to look after the children.It doesn't matter whether it's a man or woman in any organisation in the country, everyone has access to the same benefits so they can take turns with childcare, she adds.One of the biggest issues in aged care is creating care industries that are sustainable, well-funded and attract workers. Some 95% of care workers are women and they're not paid well, says Heinecke.
“To professionalise aged care and make it a more viable profession, we've implemented worker policies to raise the wages of these workers.”
A national disability insurance scheme was created under disability care, Heinecke says.
“This recognises that home carers (usually women) can't do it all alone, and people with disabilities (PWDs) should have access to professional support. This has enabled more PWDs to be cared for by professionals and not reliant on family members, so that women can return to work.”
Heinecke says other policies implemented by the Australian government in 2023 to close the gender gap include a disclosure and transparency policy for companies (of over 100 employees) to reveal their organisation's gender pay gap yearly and a plan to consciously close this gap.There is also a 40-20-20 quota where no less than 40% of women are required in parliament, and as a result, gender parity has been achieved two years ahead of the 2025 target and Australian parliamentarians now are 44.5% women.
When more women are empowered into leadership positions, then pro-poor and pro-gender equality policies can be implemented because these issues concern women who are also mothers and caregivers in their families, she concludes.
