Malaysia Wants More Women To Join Scientific Fields

By Kazi Mahmood, IOL South Asia Correspondent

KUALA LUMPUR, July 21 (IslamOnline) - Malaysia wants more women to join the scientific fields, believing they can succeed and make significant contributions to the country, Bernama news agency said Sunday, July 21.

The success of Datuk Dr. Mazlan Othman, the first Malaysian to be appointed the United Nations Outer Space Office Director, is a classic example, the agency said.

Women can also go far in the science field as history had also proven women do not lag behind in making significant contributions to science with the discovery of comet by American astronomer, Maria Mitchell, in the 18th century, Bernama wrote.

Nevertheless, the involvement of women in science was still lacking as compared to men although it cannot be denied their services were crucial to the field.

In Malaysia, the rate of women holding higher positions in business, government departments and other private enterprises has been on the increase in the past 20 years.

The country has a woman as Governor of its national bank, the Bank Negara. It also has two women ministers and has recently created a Ministry to handle women's affairs.

University Malaya's Science and Technology Study Centre lecturer Prof Dr Azizan Bahrudin said statistics and studies showed the number of women engaged in the science sector now was far higher than in 30 to 50 years ago.

"But the issue of not many women are involved in the field of science still persisted," she told Bernama.

She said overall half of Malaysia's population was women and theoretically 50 per cent of the country's creativity, new ideas and science technology were with women.

There is ample avenue to fully exploit their potential to steer the country's development dependent very much on science and technology.

Malaysian women are known for their good communication skills, and Dr Azizan said the advantage could also be capitalized to establish links to communicate with one another.

The Malaysian government has for years appealed to women not to stay at home but to join the work force and help the country consolidate its economic base.

It is acknowledged that half of the country's work force is women, most of the teachers in the country too are women. "There is not a leadership problem with working women, it is only the lack of guidance to take up mechanical and scientific fields that made women venture less in these arenas." IslamOnline was told.

Although generally about 60 to 70 per cent female students succeed at bachelor's degree level in science at universities but on reaching master's stage, men accounted for more than 60 per cent, Bernama noted.

The authorities also believed women were to do research, for administration and as policymakers.

Malaysia firmly believes women's participation in science research was important for the country's economic and social development.

Bernama also quoted National Science Centre Director A. Jayanath who said the national economy could be rejuvenated with more women coming forward to venture into various branches in the science sector.

He said as Malaysia was moving towards a knowledge-based economy, the critical aspect in terms of manpower is their ability and capacity in acquiring skills in science and technology.