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Sigma: Journal of Political and International Studies

Grace Burns

Keywords

leadership experience, women in politics, Malaysia, Malaysian women

Abstract

Across the globe, there is a lack of gender parity in the political realm (Darcy, Welch, and Clark 1994). Solving this important issue will ensure increased representation for women’s issues (Bratton 2005), greater diversity and effectiveness in leadership styles (Kathlene 1994), and better outcomes for countries as a whole (Cole et al. 2017; Garikipati and Kambhampati 2020). In Malaysia, women rank highly on many indicators such as literacy and labor force participation (“World Bank Open Data” n.d.), but lowly in political polarization, due to cultural and religious factors (Ariffin 1992). Women are not socialized to view themselves as leaders and therefore are likely to remain primarily in the domestic sphere (Azizah 2002; Zakuan and Azmi 2017). Additionally, the country’s political structures make it difficult for female candidates to obtain promotions and win elections (Cheng and Tavits 2011; Iversen and Rosenbluth 2008; Sukhani 2020; Yeong 2018). Literature suggests several theoretical approaches to increasing female political participation in Malaysia, but few suggestions have been empirically tested (Atkeson and Carrillo 2007; Baqutayan and Abd Razak 2022; Gordon 2021; Lawless and Fox 2010; Yusoff, Sarjoon, and Othman 2016)

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