Table Of ContentINTERNATIONAL POLITICAL ECONOMY SERIES
General Editor: Timothy M. Shaw, Professor of Political Science and International
Development Studies, and Director of the Centre for Foreign Policy Studies,
Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia
Recent titles include:
Pradeep Agrawal, Subir V. Gokarn, Veena Mishra, Kirit S. Parikh and Kunal Sen
ECONOMIC RESTRUCTURING IN EAST ASIA AND INDIA: Perspectives
on Policy Reform
Deborah Bräutigam
CHINESE AID AND AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT: Exporting Green
Revolution
Steve Chan, Cal Clark and Danny Lam (editors)
BEYOND THE DEVELOPMENTAL STATE: East Asia's Political Economies
Reconsidered
Jennifer Clapp
ADJUSTMENT AND AGRICULTURE IN AFRICA: Farmers, the State and the
World Bank in Guinea
Robert W. Cox (editor)
THE NEW REALISM: Perspectives on Multilateralism and World Order
Ann Denholm Crosby
DILEMMAS IN DEFENCE DECISION-MAKING: Constructing Canada's Role
in NORAD, 1958-96
Diane Ethier
ECONOMIC ADJUSTMENT IN NEW DEMOCRACIES: Lessons from
Southern Europe
Stephen Gill (editor)
GLOBALIZATION, DEMOCRATIZATION AND MULTILATERALISM
Jeffrey Henderson (editor), assisted by Karoly Balaton and Gyorgy Lengyel
INDUSTRIAL TRANSFORMATION IN EASTERN EUROPE IN THE LIGHT
OF THE EAST ASIAN EXPERIENCE
Jacques Hersh and Johannes Dragsbaek Schmidt (editors)
THE AFTERMATH OF 'REAL EXISTING SOCIALISM' IN EASTERN
EUROPE, Volume 1: Between Western Europe and East Asia
David Hulme and Michael Edwards (editors)
NGOs, STATES AND DONORS: Too Close for Comfort?
Staffan Lindberg and Árni Sverrisson (editors)
SOCIAL MOVEMENTS IN DEVELOPMENT: The Challenge of Globalization
and Democratization
Anne Lorentzen and Marianne Rostgaard (editors)
THE AFTERMATH OF 'REAL EXISTING SOCIALISM' IN EASTERN
EUROPE, Volume 2: People and Technology in the Process of Transition
Stephen D. McDowell
GLOBALIZATION, LIBERALIZATION AND POLICY CHANGE: A Political
Economy of India's Communications Sector
Juan Antonio Morales and Gary McMahon (editors)
ECONOMIC POLICY AND THE TRANSITION TO DEMOCRACY: The Latin
American Experience
Ted Schrecker (editor)
SURVIVING GLOBALISM: The Social and Environmental Challenges
Ann Seidman, Robert B. Seidman and Janice Payne (editors)
LEGISLATIVE DRAFTING FOR MARKET REFORM: Some Lessons from
China
Caroline Thomas and Peter Wilkin (editors)
GLOBALIZATION AND THE SOUTH
Kenneth P. Thomas
CAPITAL BEYOND BORDERS: States and Firms in the Auto Industry,
1960-94
Geoffrey R. D. Underhill (editor)
THE NEW WORLD ORDER IN INTERNATIONAL FINANCE
Henry Veltmeyer, James Petras and Steve Vieux
NEOLIBERALISM AND CLASS CONFLICT IN LATIN AMERICA: A
Comparative Perspective on the Political Economy of Structural Adjustment
Robert Wolfe
FARM WARS: The Political Economy of Agriculture and the International Trade
Regime
International Political Economy Series
Series Standing Order ISBN 978-0-333-71708-0 hardcover
Series Standing Order ISBN 978-0-333-71110-1 paperback
(outside North America only)
You can receive future titles in this series as they are published by placing a standing order.
Please contact your bookseller or, in case of difficulty, write to us at the address below with
your name and address, the title of the series and the ISBN quoted above.
Customer Services Department, Macmillan Distribution Ltd
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS, England
Positioning Women
in Malaysia
Class and Gender in an
Industrializing State
Cecilia Ng
Research Fellow
Institute for New Technologies
United Nations University
and
Associate Professor
Universiti Putra Malaysia
Foreword by
Swasti Mitter
Deputy Director, UNU/INTECH
First published in Great Britain 1999 by
MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and London
Companies and representatives throughout the world
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978-1-349-27422-2 ISBN 978-1-349-27420-8 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-27420-8
First published in the United States of America 1999 by
ST. MARTIN'S PRESS, INC.,
Scholarly and Reference Division,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010
ISBN 978-0-312-21789-1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ng, Cecilia.
Positioning women in Malaysia : class and gender in an industrializing
state /Cecilia Ng.
p. cm.-(International political economy series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-312-21789-1 (alk. paper)
1. Women-Employment-Malaysia. 2. Women in rural development
-Malaysia. 3. Feminism-Malaysia. 4. Industrialization-Malaysia.
I. Ng, Cecilia, 1950- . II. Series.
HD6192.6.P67 1998
331.4'09595-DC21 98-19156
CIP
© Cecilia Ng 1999
Foreword © Swasti Mitter 1999
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1999
Please see the Acknowledgements for details of original publication of chapters.
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made
without written permission.
No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with
written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by
the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P 9HE.
Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to
criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
The author has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance
with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and
sustained forest sources.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 00 99
Contents
List of Tables vii
Acknowledgements ix
Notes on the Contributors XI
List ofA bbreviations xiii
Glossary XV
Map of Malaysia xviii
Foreword by Swasti Mitter XIX
Introduction 1
Part I Women and Rural Development
2 Rural Development Programmes, Women's
Participation and Organizations in Malaysia
with Siti Nor Hamid and Syed Husin Ali 11
2 Gender and the Changing Division of Labour in a
Rural Community 34
3 Malay Women and Rice Production in West Malaysia 61
4 The Batang Ai Resettlement Scheme: Reconstituting
Gender Relations in an lban Community in
East Malaysia 81
Part II Women and the Management of Technology
5 The Management of Technology, and Women, in Two
Electronics Firms in Malaysia
with Maznah Mohamad 95
6 The Descent of New Technology: Computerization and
Employment in Malaysia 116
7 Information Technology, Gender and Employment:
A Case Study of the Telecommunications Industry
in Malaysia
with Carol Yong 142
v
VI Contents
Part III Women's Movements and Struggles
8 Women in Malaysia: Present Struggles and Future
Directions
with Chee Heng Leng 169
9 The Woman Question: Problems in Feminist Analysis 190
Bibliography 205
Index 214
List of Tables
1.1 Gender membership in 2-L structure in Pulau Tawar and
Semanggol 26
2.1 Total labour utilization in padi production by operation
(person-days) of susah households during main planting
season, 1983 in Semanggol 38
2.2 Total labour utilization in padi production by operation
(person-days) of sederhana households during main
planting season, 1983 in Semanggol 39
2.3 Total labour utilization in padi production by operation
(person-days) of senang households during main planting
season, 1983 in Semanggol 40
2.4 Female labour utilization by operation and household
(person-days) during main planting season, 1983 in
Semanggol 45
2.5 Average time allocation of selected activities by class and
gender during main planting season, Semanggol 1983 50
3.1 Average labour utilization (hours/acre) of 40 households
by operation in Sawah Sempadan, 1987 65
3.2 Number of hours and man-days utilized by field
operation per acre of padi cultivated, average over
two seasons, 1975176 66
3.3 Average labour utilization (hours/acre) of poor households
by operation in Sawah Sempadan, 1987 66
3.4 Average labour utilization (hours/acre) of middle households
by operation in Sawah Sempadan, 1987 67
3.5 Average labour utilization (hours/acre) of rich households
by operation in Sawah Sempadan, 1987 67
3.6 Utilization of agricultural resources and training 74
5.1 Reasons for continuing with present work 105
5.2 Support for 'empowerment programmes' in Company A 106
5.3 Participation in 'empowerment' programmes in Company B 106
6.1 Peninsular Malaysia: employment by selected occupation
and sex (1975, 1985 and 1989) 128
6.2 Distribution of computer-related jobs by gender 132
6.3 Ranking of skills most important to female clerical workers 136
7.1 Ranking of office tasks and computer usage at TELMAL
by gender 149
Vll
Vlll List of Tables
7.2 Distribution of selected employees in TELMAL by
ethnicity and gender 151
7.3 Respondents' perceptions regarding productivity, freedom
of movement and decision-making 156
7.4 Ranking of skills most important to TELMAL workers 160
8.1 Employment distribution by industry and sex,
1990 and 1995 171
8.2 Employment distribution by industry and sex,
1990 and 1995 172
8.3 Employment distribution by occupation and sex,
1990 and 1995 172
Acknowledgements
The chapters, some co-authored with like-minded colleagues, were written
over a period of several years. I would like to thank Chee Heng Leng,
Maznah Mohamad, Siti Nor Hamid, Syed Husin Ali and Carol Yong for
their critical collaboration and insightful comments as we worked together
on the various articles. Heng Leng and Maznah also provided significant
viewpoints in the book's Introduction. I am grateful to the various publish
ers for allowing me to reprint the articles, all of which have been revised
for this present volume. In addition, my heartfelt thanks go to Meena
Shivdas for graciously going through the manuscript and for her com
ments which I deeply appreciate. I would also like to thank Tim Shaw for
his unending encouragement and substantive input to the text, and to
Aruna Vasudevan in making this book a reality. I am also grateful to
Swasti Mitter, Professor and Deputy Director of UNU/INTECH for her
positive support to me to complete this book.
I would like to thank the following publishers and editors for permission
to reprint the various articles in the book:
The Asian and Pacific Development Centre (APDC) to reprint Chapter 1
'Rural Development Programmes, Women's Participation and Organizations
in Malaysia', which was part of an APDC-initiated one-year research pro
ject on 'Agricultural Change, Rural Women and Organizations'. The arti
cle was published in the book Women Farmers and Rural Change in Asia:
Towards Equal Access and Participation (1987), edited by Noeleen Heyzer.
The Department of Anthropology and Sociology, University of Malaya to
reprint Chapter 2, 'Gender and the Changing Division of Labour in a
Rural Community', which originally appeared in the book Women and
Employment in Malaysia (1986), edited by Rokiah Talib and Hing Ai Yun.
Addison Wesley Longman Ltd to reprint Chapter 3, 'Malay Women and Rice
Production in West Malaysia', which first appeared in Women, Development
and Survival in the Third World (1991), edited by Haleh Afshar.
Chapter 4, 'The Batang Ai Resettlement Scheme: Reconstituting Gender
Relations in an Iban Community in East Malaysia', was part of a gender
sensitization training programme designed and implemented by the (then)
WID Programme of the Asian and Pacific Development Centre (APDC).
It was funded by the Asian Development Bank and executed by the
ix
