This article discusses the empowerment of women factory workers in Malaysia through the lens of Kabeer’s Social Relations Approach. The approach offers an institutional analysis of how gender inequality is produced and calls for the overall terms of exchange and cooperation to be shifted in women’s favour. Its application shows that Malaysian women factory workers face significant challenges, due to the character of institutions, and women’s difficulties in adopting and internalising the notion of ‘empowerment’.
Abdul AzizZ (2008) Mechanisms to promote gender equality in Malaysia: The need for legislation. Dossier No. 29, Women Living Under Muslim Laws, pp. 79–94.
2.
AbdullahKNoorNWokS (2008) The perceptions of women’s roles and progress: A study of Malay women. Social Indicators Research89(3): 439–455.
3.
AhmadA (1998) Women in Malaysia. Country Briefing Paper. Manila: Asian Development Bank.
4.
BormannSKrishnanPNeunerM (2010) Migration in a digital age: Migrant workers in the Malaysian electronics industry: Case Studies on Jabil Circuit and Flextronics. World Economy, Ecology and Development, Berlin. Available at: www2.weed-online.org/uploads/migration_in_a_digital_age.pdf.
5.
BroadbentKFordM (eds) (2008) Women and Labour Organising in Asia: Diversity, Autonomy and Activism. Abingdon: Routledge.
6.
Chee DinMRahmatHMashudiR (2011) Pregnancy and discrimination: Effect of the case Beatrice a/p At Fernandez v Sistem Penerbangan Malaysia and Others. International Journal of the Computer, The Internet and Management19(2): 29–33.
7.
CrinisV (2008) Malaysia: Women, labour activism and unions. In: BroadbentKFordM (eds) Women and Labour Organising in Asia, Diversity, Autonomy and Activism. Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 50–65.
8.
DavisL (1986) A feminist approach to social work research. Affilia1(1): 32–47.
Duelli KleinR (1983) How to do what we want to do: Thoughts about feminist methodology. In: BowlesGDuelli KleinR (eds) Theories of Women’s Studies. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, pp. 88–105.
11.
FernandezJ (2009) Intra-occupational gender earnings gaps in Malaysia. Jurnal Kemanusiaan14: 20–36.
12.
GrahamH (1983) Do her answers fit his questions? Women and the survey method. In: GamarnikowE. (eds) The Public and the Private. London: Heinemann, pp. 132–147.
13.
IsmailRJajriI (2012) Gender wage differentials and discrimination in Malaysian labour market. World Applied Sciences Journal19(5): 719–728.
14.
IsmailRMohd NoorZ (2005) Gender wage differentials in the Malaysian manufacturing sector. IIUM Journal of Economics13(2): 119–137.
15.
Jerit (2012) Victory for workers! Minister must ensure implementation. Available at: www.jerit.org/?p=572.
16.
JomoKSToddP (1994) Trade Unions and the State in Peninsular Malaysia. South East Asia: Oxford University Press.
17.
KabeerN (1994) Reversed Realities: Gender Hierarchies in Development Thought. London: Verso.
18.
KabeerN (1999) Resources, agency, achievements: Reflections on the measurement of women’s empowerment. Development and Change30(3): 435–464.
19.
KabeerN (2005) Gender equality and women’s empowerment: A critical analysis of the third millennium development goal. Gender and Development13(1): 13–24.
20.
KabeerN (2008) Paid Work, Women’s Empowerment and Gender Justice: Critical Pathways of Social Change. Pathways Working Paper, 3. Brighton: Institute of Development Studies.
21.
KabeerN (2011a) Between affiliation and autonomy: Navigating pathways of women’s empowerment and gender justice in rural Bangladesh. Development and Change42(2): 499–528.
22.
KabeerN (2011b) Citizenship narratives in the face of bad governance: The voices of the working poor in Bangladesh. The Journal of Peasant Studies38(2): 325–353.
23.
KabeerNHuqL (2010) The power of relationships: Love and solidarity in a landless women’s organisation in rural Bangladesh. IDS Bulletin41(2): 79–87.
24.
KabeerNSubrahmanianR (1996) Institutions, Relations and Outcomes: Concepts and Methods for Training in Gender-Aware Planning. IDS Discussion Paper, 357. Brighton: Institute of Development Studies.
25.
KabeerNSudarshanRMilwardK (eds) (2013) Organising Women Workers in the Informal Economy: Beyond the Weapons of the Weak. London: Zed Books.
26.
KarubiNKhaliqueM (2012) Socio economic realities at work: A study on female workers in the SMEs located in Malaysia. Information Management and Business Review14(6): 311–316.
27.
KaurA (2000) Working on the global conveyor belt: Women workers in industrialising Malaysia. Asian Studies Review24(2): 213–230.
28.
KumarNLucioMChe RoseR (2013) Workplace industrial relations in a developing environment: Barriers to renewal within unions in Malaysia. Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources51(1): 22–44.
29.
LimL (1993) The feminisation of labour in the Asia-Pacific rim countries: From contributing to economic dynamism to bearing the brunt of structural adjustments. In: OgawaNJonesGWilliamsonJ (eds) Human Resources in Development along the Asia-Pacific Rim. Singapore: Oxford University Press, pp. 175–209.
30.
LowKLGoySC (2006) Male–female earnings differentials in Sarawak, Malaysia. International Journal of the Humanities3(8): 171–180.
MarchCSmythIMukhopadhyayM (1999) A Guide to Gender Analysis Frameworks. Oxford: Oxfam.
34.
MiesM (1983) Towards a methodology for feminist research. In: BowlesGDuelli KleinR (eds) Theories of Women’s Studies. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, pp. 117–140.
NgC (2006) Muted struggles challenges of women workers. In: NgCMohamadMTanBH (eds) Feminism and the Women’s Movement in Malaysia: An Unsung (R)evolution. Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 106–130.
37.
OakleyA (1974) The Sociology of Housework. London: Martin Robertson.
38.
OakleyA (1998) Gender, methodology and people’s way of knowing: Some problems with feminism and the paradigm debate in social science. Sociology32(4): 707–731.
39.
OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) (2012) Women’s economic empowerment. The OECD DAC Network on Gender Equality (GENDERNET). Available at: www.oecd.org/dac/povertyreduction/50157530.pdf.
40.
OthmanN (2006) Muslim women and the challenge of Islamic fundamentalism/extremism: An overview of Southeast Asian Muslim women’s struggle for human rights and gender equality. Women’s Studies International Forum29(4): 339–353.
41.
Parti Socialis Malaysia (2012) It’s academic, no case … leave application denied. 14August. Available at: www.parti-sosialis.org/en/node/2340.
42.
RamasamyNRowleyC (2008) Trade unions in Malaysia: Complexity of a state-employer system. In: BensonJZhuY (eds) Trade Unions in Asia: An Economic and Sociological Analysis. Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 121–139.
43.
RazaviSMillerC (1995) From WID to GAD: Conceptual Shifts in the Women and Development Discourse. Geneva: United Nations Research Institute for Social Development. Available at: unrisd.org/unrisd/website/document.nsf/…/$FILE/opb1.pdf.
44.
RismanBJ (1993) Methodological implications of feminist scholarship. The American Sociologist24(3/4): 15–25.
45.
SivalingamG (1994) The Economic and Social Impact of Export Processing Zones: The Case of Malaysia. Multinational Enterprises Programme Working Paper No. 66. Geneva: ILO.
46.
Social Watch (2005) Plantation workers face poverty and poison, Malaysia. National Reports. Available at: www.socialwatch.org/node/10932.
47.
StanleyLWiseS (1990) Method, methodology and epistemology in feminist research processes. In: StanleyL (ed.) Feminist Praxis: Research, Theory and Epistemology in Feminist Sociology. London: Routledge, pp. 20–60.
48.
StanleyLWiseS (1993) Breaking out Again: Feminist Ontology and Epistemology, 2nd edn.London: Routledge.
49.
SultanaANoorZ (2011) Gender perspective of working mothers’ challenges in their family. Australian Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences5(12): 727–731.
ToddPPeetzD (2001) Malaysian industrial relations at century’s turn: Vision 2020 or a spectre of the past? International Journal of Human Resource Management12(8): 1365–1382.
52.
WangLK (2007) Ways of seeing Malaysian women: Sketches of women in magazines in the global age. Malaysian Journal of Communication23: 57–69.
WestmarlandN (2001) The quantitative/qualitative debate and feminist research: The subjective view of objectivity. Forum: Qualitative Social Research2(1): Article 13.
WyeCKIsmailR (2012) Labour market structure in Malaysia: Pre- and post-market gender comparison. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences2(10): 259–284.
