The first comprehensive study of the involvement of Malay, Chinese, and Indian women in the politics of Malaysia, this volume traces the rise and growth of the major women's auxiliaries of various political parties and notes their contribution to the evolution of the political party system in Malaysia. Unearthing previously untapped historical information, Dancz examines the nature of women's participation within the party system and analyzes the reasons why women became active, the conditions under which these auxiliaries were formed, and the political and social constraints under which they operated.

The authors review the direction of politics after Prime Minister Mahathir, as well as exploring Malaysia's foreign, education, and labour policies. They canvass the idea of a "new Malay", better adapted to modern society, investigate the position of the Chinese, examine the struggle for women's rights within the religious framework of Islam, and discuss the contributions of Malaysian NGOs to ongoing changes. They finally draw together crucial issues facing Malaysia in the 21st century.

This book is concerned with how the pursuit of national economic competitiveness by states has come to be intertwined with a globalised gender agenda—one in which women and the household economy are seen as ‘untapped’ resources. In many East and Southeast Asian economies, competitiveness and the dangers of the middle-income trap dominate economic policy agendas: states’ commitments to gender equality goals are frequently framed around ‘business case’ logics in which women’s empowerment and women’s increased engagement in the productive economy is linked to the national economic project of building and enhancing competitiveness. This book looks to the case of Malaysia in order to assess how the increasingly dominant view that gender equality is ‘smart economics’ plays out in practice. Drawing upon extensive case study research and interview data, the book hones in on the complex gender politics that are at work within government initiatives that seek to enhance competitiveness via increasing women’s labour force participation, efforts to strengthen marriage and family life, and attempts to boost women’s entrepreneurialism and status within the corporate world. Providing an account of the gender politics at work within ongoing processes of state transformation in Asia, this book will appeal to researchers and students in gender studies, Southeast Asian studies, International Political Economy and public policy.

This book explores the labyrinth of Centre-State relations in post-independence Peninsular Malaysia, focusing on four crucial components of the political structure--the Constitution, finance, administrative organization, and political parties.

This book examines the representation of women in the Malaysian Parliament with a focus on the substantive representation of women in the 10th and 11th Dewan Rakyat, the lower house of the Malaysian Parliament. It aims, in particular, to see whether or not female MPs acted for women by proposing women-related issues in the Dewan Rakyat, the female MPs in the forefront of representing women are called critical actors. An in depth look at who these representative is and what were the issues they proposed has been carried out through content analysis of the parliamentary debates. A series of face-to-face interviews was conducted with these critical actors to examine what made them critical actors; considering the factors motivating them to represent women and address the problems women face. All of these components offer important insight to explore and understand the substantive representation of women in the Malaysian Parliament. Experience and gender awareness were found to be the major factors that contributed to their effective representation of women in the Parliament. Additionally, information and networking appeared to be crucial in facilitating this process. This book is suitable for both academic and public reading. In particular, it can be useful for politicians, policy makers, academics, practitioner’s, activists and student of politics who are interested in understanding about women representation in the Malaysian parliament.