WOMEN AND EDUCATION, MEDIA AND ICT

AMINAH AYOBSULTAN IDRIS EDUCATION UNIVERSITY

MALAYSIA

ROUNDTABLE SESSION: PROGRESS TOWARDS THE EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN

NAM PUTRAJAYA DECLARATION +5 JULY 20-21, 2010, SWISS GARDEN HOTEL, KL

INTRODUCTION

• The Unesco's statistics for 2009 placed Malaysia at 11th out of 137 nations that allocated a huge budget for education, 25 per cent or a quarter of its budget.

• Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak had stated that the education process is not only restricted to the classroom alone, but it is a lifelong process that moves on either in or out of the teaching and learning climate. CREATING A SOCIETY WITH KNOWLEDGE

• OPPORTUNITIES FOR ALL

I. WOMEN AND EDUCATION

• Education Act 1996 ensures every Malaysian children received quality and free 11 year education.

• Male and females - have equal access to education • Out of ± 12,000 schools, only 75 primary and 135 secondary schools

are non–coed educational. • Both co-ed and non-coed schools offer similar standard of premises,

equipment, curriculum, teaching staff and opportunities to the students.

• 98% of girls ages 6+ to 11+ are in primary schools and 95% ages 12+ to 16+ continue into secondary schools. Attrition rate of boys is slightly higher than girls.

• The dropout rate of girls after primary and secondary school are lower compared to boys.

WOMEN AND EDUCATION

• Literacy rate:• In 1999, 88.51% of men and 77.20% of women

were literate. • In 2005, 95.85% for men and 95.17% for

women• In 2007, estimates give 97.5% for men and

97.01% for women were literate.• This is an indicator that most Malaysians have

fully utilized the education facilities made available to them.

WOMEN AND EDUCATION

• Both curricula, primary and secondary schools aims to foster the holistic and integrated development of individuals in the intellectual, socio-emotional, spiritual and physical aspects towards producing balanced, harmonious and responsible citizens, regardless of gender.

• Textbooks and other teaching materials do not consistently portray males as managers and females as typists. Realising the need to eradicate all discrimination and stereotyping in the content of textbooks, the Ministry of Education set specific guidelines for textbook writers.

WOMEN IN HIGHER EDUCATION• Gender stratification:• In 1998, a large number of females pursuing Arts courses as

compared to Engineering. The difference is due to students' interests and cultural socialization, not due to discriminatory regulations.

• In 2010, more females are taking science, physics, chemistry, mathematics accountancy, economics, Commerce, ICT, etc

• With regard to technical courses, males outnumber females in the course like Food Technology , Culinary, Hospitality , Tourism and Fashion design.

• Although females constitute 54.69 % of the graduates in Science, they constitute only 32.3 % of the graduates in Engineering.

WOMEN IN HIGHER EDUCATION• Selection of students is based on academic merit and there is

no discrimination. • Enrolment in 1997/98: female students outnumbered male

by a majority of 9,065 in a total student population of 112,299.

• Although female students dominate in the arts and science stream with 60.79 % and 58.32 % participation respectively, female participation is only at 26.91 % for the technical stream. Female participation is at the highest in Law with 64.88 % out of a total of 7855 participation;

• In 2009, in all IPTAs the number of females students are 3X MORE compare to male students – 63.6% .(UPSI 78:23%)

2009: Admission into IPTA

• Total: 153,470. Female: male : 61.65% : 38.35%• Arts : 67.84% : 32.16%• Sciences: 63.00%: 37.00%• Technical: 39.75% : 60.25%

• There are more females in Science, Medicine, Agriculture and Engineering; the Department of Higher Education reports that for 1997 in a total output of 6, 480 persons for these four fields, females constitute only 42.44 % of the total

WOMEN IN SPORTS• There are no regulations or prohibitions to hamper the

participation of females in sporting activities. Equal facilities are also made available to both males and females. There is no dress code for males and females but it does not impede the full participation of females in sports.

WOMEN IN TEACHER EDUCATION

• The 1998 enrolment in the 31 teacher training colleges revels that females outnumber males in all programs; the total number being 15,059 (66.26%) females as compared to 7,667 (33.74%) males.

• women show greater interest in pursuing the field of teaching, with up to 70% of -its applicants being female.

SULTAN IDRIS EDUCATION UNIVERSITY (SIEU/UPSI)

TEACHER EDUCATION IN MALAYSIA

• SIEU & 12 EDUCATION FACULTIES IN PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES – educate & train secondary school teachers, principals & education counselors through their Bachelor, Masters & PhD degree programs.

• 27 TEACHER EDUCATION INSTITUTES (IPGM) –train Pre-schools and Primary school teachers

also through the Bachelor & Diploma Programs.

• No of teachers produce is 7500 – 9000 yearly

ENHANCED TEACHER EDUCATION CURRICULUM

• Shift from behavioral to constructivist approaches.reflective practitioner model, learner centered strategies (Active Learning, Problem-based Learning)

• Advocates the development of pedagogical content knowledge. Revised courses, used interdisciplinary approaches, included Multicultural & Human Rights Edu., also GENDER issues awareness.

PBL PILOT TEAM

CURRICULUM MANAGEMENT WORKSHOP

Gender Imbalances in TE

B.Ed Diploma PGDipEd

Male 2969 8 474

Female 7663 416 2391

500

1500

2500

3500

4500

5500

6500

7500

8500

Student Teachers by Gender at SIEU (2010)N

o of

stu

dent

MALE = 23%FEMALE = 77%

MALE FEMALE

Primary School 70645 159276

Secondary School 55537 118395

10,00030,00050,00070,00090,000

110,000130,000150,000

Statistics of teachers by gender (Malaysia, 2010)

male femalePrimary 30.7 69.3

Secondary 31.9 68.1Overall 31.2 68.8

WOMEN AND EDUCATION

• PTPTN & SCHOLARSHIPS• Both the scholarships and loans are available

to males and females that meet the requirements and criteria set by the Ministry of Education. Gender is not taken into account when short-listing candidates for scholarships and loans award. In fact females received 61% of the total teaching scholarships and loans in 1998.

IN SUMMARY: WOMEN AND EDUCATION

• In Malaysia, females have equal opportunities as males to pursue education up to the highest level. The data reveals that female students stay longer in school and complete 11 years of basic education. It also reveals that there are more female than male students in the teacher training colleges and public institutes of higher learning. However, female participation in the engineering -related field is low; not more than 30 % in both the polytechnics and the public institutes of higher learning. However this is by choice rather than by design.

II: WOMEN AND ICT

• Access to technologies• Girls (and boys) are now being exposed to

computers and the Internet at very early ages – in pre-schools and nursery centres.

• Girls are IT savvy• They are engage in Social communication• Generation Y

WOMEN AND ICT

• Now women have become active promoters of the use of ICT and e-commerce and enhance their capacities in IT training and skills. Women also have become more involved in ICT policy making and development to ensure that women’s needs are incorporated in policies related to infrastructure, access, training and education.

• Policy makers in directly have mainstream gender in the complete range of policies that comprise their national ICT and e-commerce strategies, with the objective to enhance women’s participation in the digital economy and thus increase national capacity and achieve greater economic development and growth.

• Many such programs have been conducted for women at various levels by many agencies and the government.

Women business owners and e-commerce

• More women are using the Internet to conduct business. This save time on travelling or selling in the local markets.

• Home-based businesses using the Internet offers networking opportunities which proves to be profitable rather than marginal.

• The ability of women to earn income at home while raising a family – with the technology to communicate inexpensively with customers around the world, and handle accounting and order processing online – has opened unlimited acsess to women to be successful, without have to sacrifice their basic roles as wives and/ mothers .

• Women in ICT-related employment• The use of new technologies has created a range of new employment

opportunities. Through the use of networking technologies, large amounts of information can be transported at a very low cost from the core office to satellite or sub-contracting units. This has led companies to externalise and decentralise non-core sections of business operations to distant and often cheaper sites.

• Employment for women in these IT-related services has grown enormously in areas such as outsourcing and teleworking.

• Women now predominate in these services requiring rather routine, low-level skills or limited technical training. They include activities such as customer call centers, data entry and processing, transcription services, claims processing and remote secretarial services

• Being in this type of job, it is more difficult for women to move into the higher-skilled, better-paid IT-related service sector.

Teleworking

• Teleworking = work involves storing, processing, retrieving and delivering digitised information - offering interesting employment opportunities for mothers with small children or women living in remote areas.

• Home-based teleworking, in theory, could enhance the participation of women in e-commerce as it allows certain flexibility both in timing and location of work.

• For mothers with young children and inadequate childcare facilities, home-based teleworking could be an attractive solution to continue work and earn an income.

• Teleworking is gaining interest among Malaysian women now.

Women’s Use of the Internet • In 2006, eMarketer estimates that there will be an

estimated 97.2 million female Internet users ages 3 and older in 2007, or 51.7% of the total online population – the actual percentage exceeded the estimates. In 2009, female internet users are 51.9% of the total users.

• In 2011, 109.7 million US females will go online, amounting to 52.1% of the total online population (eMarketer.com, March 2007)

• Though men are early adopters of technology, women dominate social media. Women between ages 35 and 50 are the fastest-growing segment in social media. (Rapleaf.com, 2007)

WOMEN IN DIGITAL ECONOMY• Barriers faced by women:• Only those who can afford and have the skills will

benefit, while the poor risk being marginalized. • Any strategy to increase their participation in the digital

economy would increase national capacity and help raise the national standard of living.

• Reaching these women will be the major challenge for policy makers trying to bridge the digital – and particularly the gender digital – divide.

• Barriers faced by women are access to the technologies themselves (both hardware and connectivity) training, English language (i.e. access to Internet content) and lack of financial resources to acquire access.

III: WOMEN AND MEDIA• Portrayals of Girls and Women:• Media openly stereotypes women —the femme fatale, the

supermom, the sex kitten, the nasty corporate climber, etc. • Television, film, popular magazines and advertisements are

full of images of women and girls who are typically white, desperately thin, and made up to the hilt.

• Many would agree that some strides have been made in how the media portray women in film, television and magazines, and that the last 20 years has also seen a growth in the presence and influence of women in media behind the scenes. Nevertheless, female stereotypes continue to thrive in the media we consume every day.

THE PORTRAYAL OF WOMEN IN MEDIA

• Websites are also providing snapshots of women and girls—from effects on body image and self, the portrayal of identity to ramifications in sports and politics.

• It exposes the objectification and eroticization of females, giving negative stereotyping.

• Media stereotypes are inevitable, especially in the advertising, entertainment and news industries, which need as wide an audience as possible to quickly send the messages to the customers.

Media Coverage of Women and Women's Issues

• Women professionals and athletes continue to be under-represented in news coverage, often stereotypically portrayed when they are included.

• Women in politics are similarly sidelined. • Women in the news are more likely to be featured in stories

about accidents, natural disasters, or domestic violence than in stories about their professional abilities or expertise.

• Inadequate women’s coverage seems to be a worldwide phenomenon. In 2000 the Association of Women Journalists studied news coverage of women and women’s issues in 70 countries. It reported that only 18 per cent of stories quote women, and that the number of women-related stories came to barely 10 per cent of total news coverage.

• Women and Sports• Women athletes are also given short shrift in the media.

MEDIA IMAGE OF WOMEN

• Female athletes are increasingly photographed in "hyper-sexualized poses." [Griffin, 2007: "When it was once enough to feminize women athletes, now it is necessary to sexualize them for men. Instead of hearing, 'I am woman, hear me roar,' we are hearing 'I am hetero-sexy, watch me strip”]

• Beauty Before Brains - the way a woman looks is far more important than what she has to say. Being smart, smarter, smartest isn’t enough. You need to have the beautiful face, slim and trim legs, to get the coverage.

• Until now, the media has not managed to overcome the typical stereotypes that are associated with women.

Women’s Portrayal in Television Entertainment

A Study of Women in Television and Film, San Diego State University (2008): On screen, females accounted for 43% of all characters. And female characters continued to be significantly younger than their male counterparts.

• Why Social Media Means Big Opportunities for Women

• Jessica Faye Carter is an award-winning author and columnist. Her company, Nette Media develops social media technologies for women and multicultural communities, and she blogs at Technicultr.

• Women have firmly established their presence on the social web, and account for the majority of users on many popular social media sites. But what does this mean for the future of women in social media?

• Companies are starting to use social media to secure real-time feedback from women on products, services, and marketing campaigns—sometimes before they go to market.

• Margarita Quihuis, a researcher at Stanford University’s Persuasive Technology Lab , sees social media as a relationship enhancement tool. For women in business, social media allows women to develop relationships with people previously out of reach, and they can demonstrate their expertise using blogs, webinars, and other social tools.

• The Mobile Web• Women comprise

47% of current mobile web users, and between 2008 and 2009, the number of women using the mobile web increased by 43%, compared with a 26% increase in the number of men.

• Joyce Kim, CEO of Soompi.com, a Korean pop and Asian music and entertainment community said, “a good percentage of our traffic originates in Asia where mobile usage is more widespread.”

Empowering women in the rural areas to use ICT and the internet

Hingga kini terdapat 1,053 peniaga wanita yang berniaga di Internet di bawah wanitamelayu.com," ujarnya ketika ditemui di pejabatnya yang terletak di Bandar Mahkota Cheras, Kajang, Selangor.

Women in e-business

Women in e-business • Malaysia Internet Summit | Usahanita jual dan latih peniaga di internet• Januari 29, 2010• Suzana Mustafa ataupun lebih mesra dikenali sebagai Puan Ann berasal

dari Labuan, Sabah. Beliau berusia 40 tahun dan merupakan ibu kepada empat orang anak.

• Beliau pernah bekerja sebagai pambantu setiausaha syarikat, dan kini beliau mampu menubuhkan syarikat sendiri hasil perniagaan Produk Sulaman Reben dan Perniagaan internet.

• Puan Ann merupakan pengasas laman web forum WanitaMelayu.com dengan jumlah ahli lebih dari 51,000 orang.

• Dengan semangat untuk memartabatkan kaum wanita, beliau banyak berkongsi ilmu secara percuma dengan ahli-ahli forum melalui laman web tersebut. Beliau telah berjaya membimbing lebih 1,200 usahawan sukses wanita yang majoritinya adalah golongan suri rumah dengan berniaga melalui internet.

• Puan. Ann telah menulis buku “Jahitan Asas Sulaman Reben” dan “Bunga Reben Jilid 1″ terbitan Utusan Publication.

• Dengan idea yang kreatif, beliau telah menghasilkan beberapa produk sulaman reben dan berjaya memasarkan di pasaran luar melalui internet.

ANJUNG TUDONG

LIHAT PRODUK TUDUNG DUBAI NN TERBARU! EDISI KHAS RAYA..

1 . EntrepreNet-Kementerian Pembangunan Usahawan dan Koperasi Laman web ini mengisahkan kejayaan usahawan wanita luar bandar yang dilaporkan dari berita Bernama.

2 . Federation of Women Entrepreneurs Association of Malaysia (FEM) Aktiviti keusahawanan kaum wanita di Malaysia.

3 . National Association of Women Entrepreneurs of Malaysia (NAWEM) Maklumat dan senarai rangkaian perniagaan wanita serta aktiviti perniagaan di dalam dan luar negara.

4 . NURITA Portal Maklumat pembangunan dan latihan IT yang ditawarkan oleh Kementerian Pembangunan Wanita, Keluarga dan Masyarakat untuk kumpulan terpinggir khususnya ibu tunggal.

5 . Persatuan Usahawan Wanita Bumiputera Negeri Sembilan (USAHANITA) Aktiviti usahawan wanita Negeri Sembilan.

6 . Persatuan Usahawan Wawasan Wanita Malaysia (WAWASANITA) Laman Maklumat untuk usahawan wanita berkongsi pengalaman dan kejayaan. web ini diwujudkan untuk mempertemukan usahawan-usahawan wanita dan membantu serta membangunkan ahli-ahli untuk perniagaan yang berjaya dalam alam sekitar yang kompleks dan mencabar ini.

7 . Persatuan Wanita Bumiputera dlam Perniagaan dan Profesyen Malaysia (PENIAGAWATI) Maklumat berkaitan usahawan wanita bumiputera dan dunia perniagaan.

8 . Wanita Niaga Dot Com Maklumat berkaitan perniagaan termasuk perniagaan internet dalam portal komuniti untuk usahawan wanita di Malaysia.

9 . Women Entrepreneur Network (WENA) Tingkatkan kemahiran dan ilmu keusahawanan dari laman web persatuan usahawan wanita.

10 . Yayasan Pembangunan Keluarga Darul Ta’zim Dapatkan maklumat berkaitan wanita dan institusi keluarga dalam menangani masalah sosial.

11 . Yayasan Sultanah Bahiyah Maklumat untuk meningkatkan taraf ekonomi diri dan keluarga terutama untuk wanita luar bandar.

PUSAT INTERNET DESA MARANG

Wanita >> Wanita usahawan/pendapatan>> Keusahawanan

Wanita dalam Dakwah dan Pendidikan

TERIMA KASIH

40Lawatan Menteri 28/10/09

Education is not the filling of a pail,

but the lighting of a fire

W.B. Yeats