Gender equality level declined in 2021 - DOSM

PUTRAJAYA - Malaysia’s Gender Gap Index (MGGI) showed a score of 0.707 or 70.7 per cent in 2021, a decline of 0.7 percentage points as compared to 0.714 in 2020.

Chief Statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the three states that recorded the highest scores in 2021 were Kuala Lumpur at 0.842, Putrajaya (0.762) and Melaka (0.761).

Seven states recorded a score below the national equality level, namely Sabah (0.704), Kedah (0.703), Pahang (0.702), Perlis (0.699), Pulau Pinang (0.695), Perak (0.694) and Negeri Sembilan (0.686).

"Based on the MGGI 2021 score, Malaysia ranked 80th from 146 countries in the world. Simultaneously, within East Asia and the Pacific, Malaysia was in the ninth position in 2021, ahead of Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia and Japan.

"However, we were still behind New Zealand, the Philippines, Australia and Singapore,” he said in a statement issued by the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) today following the release of the Statistics on Women Empowerment in Selected Domains, Malaysia, 2022.

The MGGI identifies the gap between women and men across four sub-indices encompassing economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival and political empowerment.

A score with a value of 1.0 (100 per cent) indicates the equality of women and men has been achieved.

Meanwhile, Mohd Uzir said the achievement of women has surpassed men in the educational attainment sub-index with a score of 1.060, in the health and survival sub-index (0.960) and in economic participation and opportunity (0.709).

"Labour force participation rate (LFPR) for women was still low at 55.5 per cent in 2021 as compared to other South-East Asia countries such as Lao PDR (74.8 per cent) and Cambodia (74.0 per cent).

"Political empowerment recorded the lowest at 10.0 per cent (score of 0.10), showing that women were still lagging behind men in the ministerial position and Parliament,” he said. - BERNAMA