KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 14 — Gender equality goes well beyond mere numbers in terms of opportunities for women to advance in their careers, according to former International Trade and Industry Minister Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz.
And any quota that is less than 50:50 between women and men cannot be considered fair, she said at a luncheon talk titled: “What gender equality?” organised by the English Speaking Union of Malaysia at the Royal Selangor Golf Club, here today.
Rafidah said in gender equality, what’s more important was the qualitative aspects rather than numbers, and women should not be regarded as mere as “quota fillers” just because of their gender, but more importantly because they were equally or better qualified.
Using an analogy, she said when discussing gender equality, it was wrong to say that two plus two equals to four without taking into account the qualitative aspects.
“Two plus two is not four when only one of the four is of good quality while the other three are rotten,” she said.
Rafidah said it was also wrong to adopt a mindset that there was a glass ceiling that prevented women from achieving gender equality, or that to have more women filling certain quotas, they would have to meet the standards of men.
The predominantly women audience at the talk gave Rafidah a rousing applause when she said: “We women are better than men!”
Nevertheless, she said women, on their part, should not demand something that they did not deserve but to rise purely based on merit.
“We, women should be the best that we can in terms of credibility, competence, skills and ability,” she added. — Bernama
