For this class, I decided to write about my home country, Malaysia. I am interested to learn more about women’s health issue in Malaysia while comparing both traditional and modern medical techniques used.
Malaysia is a small South East Asian country which consists of fourteen states. According to the Department of Statistics Malaysia (2011), the total population of Malaysia is 28.3 million with average annual population growth rate of 2.0% in a ten years period. Urbanization is one of the major indicators of population density in Malaysia. As a developing country, Malaysia has been experiencing an economic boom since 1988. which caused the proportion of urban population to increase to 71.0 percent in 2010 compared with 62.0 percent in 2000. In term of economy, Department of Statistics Malaysia (2011) states that as of April 2019, the major contributor to the economy of Malaysia includes imports of precious metals to nearby countries such as Singapore, China and Japan. Education in Malaysia has improved a lot compared with ten years ago. New Straits Times (2019) reported that the number of out-of-school children has been decreasing from 117,810 in 2009 to 41,794 in 2017. Besides, gross enrolment ratio of tertiary education has increased from 35.79 in 2009 to 41.93 in 2017. The strong growth performance resulted in fundamental structural changes in the economy. There were accompanying changes in the composition of employment, and women’s increasing participation in the growing manufacturing sector was noteworthy.
Nevertheless, gender inequality remains as a major issue as the female labor force participation rate still lower than the men. Using the 2011 Malaysia’s Household Income Survey (HIS), it shows that the distribution of wealth is more skewed than of income. the top 10% of Malaysian households control 35% of the country’s wealth while the bottom 40% own 8%. (Khalid, 2011).
Works cited:
- Department of Statistics Malaysia. (2011). Population Distribution and Basic Demographic Characteristic Report [Data file]. Retrieved from https://www.dosm.gov.my/v1/index.php?r=column/ctheme&menu_id=L0pheU43NWJwRWVSZklWdzQ4TlhUUT09&bul_id=MDMxdHZjWTk1SjFzTzNkRXYzcVZjdz09
- Khalid, M. A. (2011). Household wealth in Malaysia: Composition and inequality among ethnic groups. Retrieved from https://ukm.pure.elsevier.com/en/publications/household-wealth-in-malaysia-composition-and-inequality-among-eth
- Sani, R., Mustafa, Z. (2019, January 2). What lies ahead in 2019 for higher education?New Straits Times. Retrieved from https://www.nst.com.my/