Malaysian employment legislation for women at work : a socio-legal study on Malaysian secretaries

Abstract

Many women have diverted from their traditional single role as home makers who are financially dependent on their husbands to the double roles of being home makers and wage earners. In fitting into their second role as wage earners women are often confronted with their main challenge of being treated fairly as their male counterparts. In analysing the situation of employed women this study looked into the socio-legal aspects of employed women. For convenience this study was divided into legal and social aspects. Among the challenges faced by employed women in the legal aspects are inequality of wages, inequality of employment opportunities, lack of maternity benefits, lack of child care facilities and the presence of sexual harassment (these were the legal issues). The other problem in holding dual roles is the juggling act of balancing work and family which often cause work-family conflict. Therefore the social aspects of this study looked into the work conditions namely time at work, workload, conflict at work and lack of support at work; family conditions namely number of children, presence of young children and lack of support at home; and work-family conflict (these were the social predictors). This study determined the effects of the issues/predictors on employed women’s well-being. The participants of this study were limited to secretaries/clerks in the Klang Valley. One hundred and eighty participants volunteered in filling up the questionnaires and thirty of these participants also volunteered to be interviewed. In conclusion, this study found that the above issues/predictors did affect employed women’s well-being but in different ways including psychological distress, physical health symptoms and low job satisfaction. Participants of this study believed that more precise legislation or regulations are needed. This study has shown that legislation can reduce the problems faced by employed women to enhance their well-being. This study is significant in that it reflected the fusion of the problems of employed women in terms of legal aspects and social aspects, where both demonstrated the outcome of negative wellbeing of employed women. This study also showed that legislation as a whole can help reduce both legal and social problems ultimately enhancing employed women’s well-being.