KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 25 — Women should make up 50 per cent of top positions in the public sector, former ambassador Datuk Noor Farida Ariffin said today in response to Putrajaya’s announcement that women now comprise 33 per cent of decision-making jobs.

She added that the federal government should provide support services to make it easier for women to hold top decision-making positions, as women are also expected to be homemakers.

“I don’t believe in the quota system. Maybe initially it’s fine, but if we’ve already reached that level of 30 per cent, even though I think it should be 50 per cent, that should be the target because it should reflect the population,” Farida told Malay Mail Online after giving her opening speech at the “United Nations Women Fund for Gender Equality Project: Strengthening the Voices of Young Women as Gender Equality Advocates.

“But also for women what we need is all the support services because women are also homemakers. In our society, women may reach the top but those who are also married with children they go home and they have an extra job, whereas most men don’t,” she added.

The former Sessions Court judge said that while certain government departments, like the Attorney-General’s Chambers, actively practise meritocracy and allow women to hold top positions, Putrajaya as a whole has more work in store for it to ensure women are fairly represented.

National news agency Bernama reported yesterday Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak as saying that women’s involvement at the decision-making level in the civil service reached 33 per cent as of last June, exceeding the 30 per cent target set by the government.