Urgency Of Representation Beyond Rhetoric

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Women today embody multifaceted leadership. They are not only policymakers but also caretakers, professionals, and community builders - expected to excel in every dimension.
Yet, the political landscape continues to tolerate mediocrity among men while demanding perfection from women.
As I observed, the pattern remains clear: male politicians often ascend through networks of privilege rather than performance.
Attending elite schools or affiliating with powerful figures becomes an unspoken qualification. This gendered disparity must end.
Leadership should be defined by fairness, empathy, and the capacity to govern responsibly, and not by inherited access or symbolic presence.
The uneven starting line
While merit is often celebrated as a fair standard of progress, genuine equality requires acknowledging that men and women rarely begin from the same starting point.
Women continue to face overlapping challenges, including from persistent gender bias in hiring decisions, to limited workplace support for motherhood, to the unspoken expectation of carrying domestic and caregiving responsibilities.
Some organisations still favour male candidates, citing the “cost” of maternity leave or presumed interruptions in career continuity.
These systemic biases mean that while men often experience uninterrupted professional trajectories, women are more frequently required to reorient their careers - after marriage, motherhood, caregiving responsibilities, and, in some cases, after navigating the personal and structural consequences of separation.
Each pause demands resilience and reinvention, while their male counterparts often move forward unimpeded.
Recognising these structural realities is not to diminish men’s achievements, but to affirm that equality cannot exist without equity, and that fairness must account for the very different roads travelled to reach the same destination.
Women, peace, and security
The discourse on women, peace, and security (WPS) has evolved beyond the realm of advocacy into a measurable indicator of institutional progress.
It is no longer enough to celebrate women’s inclusion symbolically because the real test lies in how systems respond to their leadership, voices, and lived realities.
Among the many compelling insights shared throughout the SEA Women’s Leadership Conference held in the Malaysian Parliament, two particular interventions stood out as deeply resonant.
The first came from the executive chairperson of Polity, Nurul Izzah Anwar, who encouraged women to be vocal. Her succinct speech embodied the moral gravity of decades of exclusion, serving as a reminder that silence has too often been the expectation placed upon women who seek to lead.
Nurul Izzah AnwarShe further articulated a critical dimension of the WPS framework by emphasising that women and children disproportionately bear the costs of war, despite being the least involved in its instigation.
In most conflict settings, they constitute the majority of those displaced, impoverished, or subjected to structural and physical violence. Nurul Izzah’s point underscores that WPS is not merely a discourse on representation, but a rights-based agenda centred on the lived consequences of conflict.
It demands the inclusion of women not only as advocates of peace, but as essential agents of post-conflict reconstruction and social resilience.
Representation and politics of budgeting
Building upon that, Yeo Bee Yin, chairperson of the Parliamentary Special Select Committee on Women, Children, and Community Development, drew attention to a more structural dimension - the gender imbalance in decision-making.
She noted that the overwhelming majority of budgetary and policy decisions in Malaysia are still made by men. Consequently, funding priorities often reflect masculine perspectives, favouring competitive or high-profile sectors over social development and welfare.
Yeo Bee YinHer observation underscores a fundamental issue. When women remain underrepresented in political institutions (only around 14 percent of Parliament), critical areas such as early childhood education, family welfare, and social services receive inadequate investment.
The absence of women in these decision-making spaces perpetuates a cycle where policies fail to address everyday realities that women understand most intimately.
Yeo’s argument reframes WPS not merely as an equality issue but as an economic governance challenge. Inclusive representation ensures that public spending aligns more closely with societal needs, creating a governance model that values care, prevention, and community well-being as equally vital to national security.
Leadership through gender lens
On the other hand, the officiating address by Dewan Rakyat speaker Johari Abdul offered an institutional perspective on leadership and integrity, setting the tone for the day’s deliberations.
He emphasised that leadership is shaped by behaviour, intelligence, and compassion. His remarks reflected an admirable belief that leadership transcends gender and rests on individual competency.
Dewan Rakyat speaker Johari AbdulHowever, within the context of gender discourse, such ideals invite a broader reflection. The notion of “good behaviour,” for instance, is often interpreted differently when applied to men and women in public life.
While assertiveness is celebrated as a strength among male leaders, it is sometimes misread as defiance or emotionality when exhibited by women.
Recognising these implicit biases is not a critique of the principle itself, but rather an acknowledgement of the structural barriers that continue to shape women’s leadership journeys.
Johari’s emphasis on moral character could be further strengthened by empirical insights such as data demonstrating lower corruption rates and higher social investments in contexts where women occupy leadership roles.
Such evidence-based framing would not only enrich the argument but also reinforce his long-standing commitment to inclusive governance and ethical leadership.
From symbolism to structural change
The WPS agenda, as envisioned by the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325, is not about elevating women for the sake of balance, but because peace processes and policies designed without women’s participation are statistically less sustainable.
Studies by UN Women and the Council on Foreign Relations consistently show that peace agreements are 35 percent more likely to last at least 15 years when women are involved in the negotiation process.
Therefore, the call for women’s leadership is not sentimental but empirical. The issue is not about proving women’s capability, but dismantling systems that pretend neutrality while privileging male dominance.
Societies that wish to progress must normalise female leadership not as an exception, but as an expectation.
At its core, WPS is not a women’s issue. It is a national resilience issue. When women lead, societies become more equitable, economies more inclusive, and governance more accountable.
Malaysia has long recognised women’s strength; it is now time to institutionalise it.
Across all three sessions of the conference, spanning economic security, household welfare, and women’s leadership in times of crisis, speakers collectively amplified the urgent need to embed WPS principles into governance and policy design.
Their insights offered not only a critical understanding of the systemic barriers women face but also practical pathways to dismantle them.
The diverse range of perspectives, from policymakers and academics to activists and community leaders, brought what can only be described as a breath of fresh air to Malaysia’s ongoing conversation on gender equality.
Platforms such as this do more than raise awareness; they ignite a renewed motivation among women with leadership potential to take up space, to serve with integrity, and to lead without apology. - Mkini
ZAREEN SEJAHAN is a former journalist with experience covering both general and political news. She holds a Master’s degree in Media Communications & International Journalism from the University of Glasgow.
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.

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