KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 13 — A wife’s primary role is to care for her husband, two-thirds of Malaysians told international market research firm YouGov in a recent survey on global attitudes towards gender equality.
According to the UK-based company’s survey, of the 2,768 Malaysians polled, 67 per cent agreed with the view that a wife must prioritise her husband above all else.
In the gender breakdown of the figure, 70 per cent of Malaysian males surveyed agreed while a significant 63 per cent of women also shared the same sentiment.
Only 31 per cent of the 2,678 Malaysians polled disagreed with the view.
In comparison, YouGov’s survey of Asia-Pacific countries (APAC) showed an average of 54 per cent agreeing that a wife’s primary role was to her husband and 43 per cent disagreeing.
The global average—based on 24 countries polled—showed 26 per cent agreeing that the man came first and 70 per cent who disagreed.
But in the same survey, 68 per cent of Malaysians polled believed that women and men are equal, and of that, 72 per cent also said that men should spend more time doing housework.
Malaysians overwhelmingly favoured the idea of women making careers of their own with 92 per cent saying so, while only 27 per cent said a woman’s place is in the home.
The trend backing gender equality continued among Malaysian respondents with 75 per cent believing that women and men should generally get equal pay, but this figure is lower than the global average and APAC average of 88 per cent and 82 per cent who believed in equal wages for both gender groups.
Malaysians polled were divided over whether it’s likely to cause problems if women earn more than their husbands, with 46 per cent agreeing and 50 per cent disagreeing that there would be problems.
While 38 per cent of Malaysian respondents said they had no preference over the gender of their bosses, a relatively high percentage at 53 per cent preferred a male boss, while only seven per cent preferred a female boss.
In the YouGov survey findings released yesterday, a whopping 93 per cent of Malaysian respondents felt that university education is equally important for men and women, while 70 per cent said women and men are equally intelligent, as compared to 13 per cent and 11 per cent who respectively voted men and women as being the more intelligent gender group.
Almost one-third of Malaysians polled felt it was unattractive for women to express strong opinions in public, while 65 per cent disagreed.
Malaysian respondents were again split over whether women are an oppressed group in the world as a whole, with 45 per cent agreeing and 48 per cent disagreeing, while 66 per cent agreed that creating more opportunities for women should be one of the top global concerns against 30 per cent who disagreed.
When asked if female singer Beyoncé is a positive role model, those who agreed (36 per cent) and disagreed (34 per cent) accounted for about one-third each, while 23 per cent said they did not know and nine per cent did not know who Beyoncé is.
The YouGov survey involved 14 questions answered by respondents in 24 countries, namely Algeria, Australia, China, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Morocco, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sweden, Thailand, Tunisia, UAE, UK and USA.
In the firm’s own ranking of the 24 countries according to gender equality attitude, Malaysia took the 15th spot with an overall score of 30, falling behind neighbours Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia that scored 41, 39 and 31 to take the 12th, 13th and 14th spot respectively.
Malaysia also had a poorer score compared to China and Hong Kong, which both came just before Singapore with scores of 44 and 42.
The top five countries with the most progressive views on gender equality in this ranking were Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Australia and Norway with overall scores of 72, 68, 62, 59 and 59 respectively.
