Sexist posters by the Women and Family Development Ministry (KPWKM) in Malaysia have gone viral and made international headlines. As the country is currently in a partial lockdown, also known as Movement Control Order (MCO) since 18 March, the KPWKM has released a few posters with tips on how to avoid marriage conflicts during the MCO which is set to end on 14 April.

Prominent women like Singapore’s President Halimah Yacob, Co-Founder of ride-hailing transport services Grab - Tan Hooi Ling and even sports legend, Nicol David have made headlines in the region for their tremendous achievements. A growing number of women today are participating in the male-dominated tech industry, politics, and sports, among other fields.

Everywhere around the world, nations are gearing up for peaceful rallies and activities in conjunction with International Women’s Day (IWD) this Sunday, 8 March. The campaign theme for this year’s IWD is #EachforEqual. According to the World Economic Forum (WEF), the core message of the theme is to have “an equal world in an enabled world”.

According to the Global Gender Gap Report 2020 by the World Economic Forum (WEF), it will take another 163 years for East Asia and the Pacific region to reach gender parity at its current rate.

Just last week, a National Urgent Response (NUR) alert was circulated in Malaysia informing the public of yet another case of a missing girl, Fulmina Abdul Ghufur. The 11-year-old Myanmar national went missing on 15 February after she went to a shop and did not return home. A NUR alert is used to spread information quickly and as fast as possible to help trace missing children (below 12 years of age) who could be victims of crime or abuse.

Xuan Thu started at the front desk of Victoria Resort in Can Tho, located at the southern end of Vietnam, and worked her way up to the very top. In a year, she was made Front Office Manager and within another four, she was promoted to Room Division Manager.

In 2019, Zuraidah Daut, a social activist in the east coast state of Kelantan in Malaysia initiated an investigation into the mystery of a girl’s absence from school. What she discovered was appalling. The girl was too poor to buy sanitary products and missed out on days of school. This motivated the activist to start the “Projek Oh! Bulan” (Oh! Moon Project) where she would set empty boxes at grocery stores and salons for people to donate menstrual supplies for those in need.

In 2016, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) reported that women made up half of all documented migrant workers in ASEAN. These women are normally employed in the care industry and most often are underpaid and certainly undervalued. The World Economic Forum (WEF) reported that one of the significant reasons why the gender gap remains large is because care in most countries almost always fall on the woman. It does not however, mention the perceived i

While Malaysia’s male politicians continue to squabble over power, all the women seem to be left with are breadcrumbs.Recently, the World Economic Forum (WEF) released its 2020 Global Gender Gap Report. While it was unsurprising that Nordic countries like Iceland, Norway, Finland, and Sweden were the top performers, some ASEAN countries like the Philippines – which managed to secure the 16th spot out of 153 countries – didn’t do too shabby either.