Feminism and the Women's Movement in Malaysia

An Unsung (R)evolution

Maznah Mohamad, Cecilia Ng, tan beng Hui

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2006
• ISBN:
  9781134188826
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Sciences sociales
• Subtopic: Études ethniques

Combining both personal and academic insights into the Malaysian women's movement, this study provides an in-depth account of the multiple struggles of the Malaysian women's movement, from securing gender equality in a patriarchal society to achieving unity among members of a multi-ethnic society that are further divided along class and religious lines.

Most historical versions of national struggles have created icons out of male figures. The authors of this book have provided a corrective to this. They detail the importance of the role of the women's movement, led by numerous unsung personalities in promoting social change in Malaysia. The book centres on a crucial argument: that in the context of an ethnically fragmented post-colonial, authoritarian society, an autonomous woman movement, which began in the early eighties had actually achieved significant political success. However the study observes that by the late 1990s, feminist issues were also readily appropriated by the state and the market, and also suggests that the emergence of 'market feminism' poses specific challenges for the future of the Malaysian women's movement. This thorough and engaging account of feminism and the women's movement in Malaysia will capture the interest of scholars, policy makers and activists.

1 Introduction

Like any other social movement, women's organized struggle in Malaysia has had to weave in and out through the peculiarities and complexities of the nation's cultural, political and economic circumstances and history. Malaysia's mosaic of state-driven democracy, identity politics and multiculturalism provides the terrain for allowing or frustrating the growth of the women's movement into what it is today — unique in itself but with its feminism existing within the interstices of a state which is authoritarian and nested within a capitalist system.

This book may be one of several accounts of the origin, evolution and establishment of feminism in Malaysian history and cultural consciousness. Yet it deals with a significant and fundamental question: how has feminism, as a cultural influence or a driving social and political force, left its mark on Malaysian society? Does it form the core or merely the fragments of Malaysia's transformation from a colony to an independent nation state? Does it appear as grand politics or micro-narratives in the lives of Malaysians?

To place the contents of the book within a historical framework we first summarize several of the early theoretical perspectives and debates circulated in the West that were applied for an understanding of feminism. Some of the concepts may seem detached from our specific Malaysian experience but we cannot deny the influence of Western-inspired ideas on the course of the women's movement in this country. It is pointless to seek an essential Malaysian feminism unique in its own identity or origins, given that territorial markers cannot curb cultural and ideological exchanges. This said, all of these external influences have had to articulate with realities on the ground. As such, we also cannot negate the fact that national influences and indigenous norms have given Malaysian feminism its distinct character.

Even so, we contend that there have been many variants of feminism in Malaysia. However, this variation is not merely a manifestation of changing history. Feminism as understood and embraced by society can differ even within the same historical moment. Although feminism is not always successful at uniting all women towards a common cause, it is at minimum an ideology that contests power, ranging from colonial systems to patriarchal cultural orders and state regulation. Indeed, Malaysian women are still divided by their ethnic and cultural roots, not to mention differences based on class. However, the construction of a gendered perspective has gained ground because social movements as a whole have depended on women as symbols as well as the backbone of their transformative ideals. Precisely because gender symbolism is a terrain that is easily manipulated by the wielders of cultural and political power, an authentic feminist project of attaining gender and social justice is, at the same time, difficult to realize. The Malaysian feminist project, being a product of historical circumstances and of the way the state has evolved, is an apt manifestation of this condition.

By nature, the state must accommodate many expressions of interests for its own legitimacy — including that of patriarchy as well as that of religious and ethnic communalism. The success of the Malaysian authoritarian state may thus hinge on its construction and subsequently the containment of distinct ethnic communities. Together with this, the phenomenon of Islamic resurgence among Malay-Muslims and religious revivalism in the direction of conservatism among non-Muslims have also provided much leeway for the strengthening of patriarchal authority in society.

Feminists can thus only hope to function within the gaps of this political system which accommodates ethnic-based rather than gender- or class-based demands. This model of governance is often referred to as the consociational model, where the ruling structure is represented by an elite group who purportedly speak for and make claims on behalf of their ethnic communities.¹ However, the state's position on gender equality is inconsistent. On the one hand its authoritarian facet is strengthened by ethnic politicization. On the other it cannot afford to ignore the growth of new, non-ethnicized politics led by civil society groups. These include the women's movement.

This book intends to look at this multilayered and often confounding process. It seeks to explain why the women's movement is not able to fully play a key role in reforming society even though it may have contributed to mitigating the slide of authoritarianism into an even more despotic plane. It is in this context that we review some of the more important early perspectives on feminism elsewhere before drawing in the Malaysian experience as a basis for rethinking the issue. The later section of this chapter sets out the purpose and main arguments of each chapter within the book.

Understanding feminism and its discontents

The term ‘feminism’, which refers to the struggles of the women's movement, became widely used in Europe, the United States and the colonized countries in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. According to well-known Sri Lankan historian Kumari Jayawardeena, the concept of feminism is neither a recent phenomenon originating from the West, nor was it imported or imposed from the West into Third World countries. In her classic book Feminism and Nationalism in the Third World (1986), she argues that debates on women's rights and education were held as early as the eighteenth century in China. Furthermore, feminist struggles were already evident in India, Iran, Turkey, Egypt and Japan in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

In Malaysia, Muslim intellectuals in the 1930s, educated and influenced by the reform movements in the Middle East, demanded Muslim women's right to education. The Malay Women Teachers’ Union, founded in 1929, encouraged formal schooling for Malay women. Sexual molestation and harassment of female estate workers were already key issues for protest action in the late 1930s in Selangor and again in 1950, this time in Perak.²

Today, feminism has gone beyond its original meaning of fighting for women's rights and legal reforms in education, property rights and suffrage.³ Its definition has extended to include an awareness and analysis of women's discrimination and exploitation in the family, at work and in society, as well as conscious efforts by all — women and men — who wish to end gender inequality. As such, feminism is a social and political movement for changing women's subordinate position. As a movement, feminism is holistic and inclusive. It seeks to link up with other progressive movements for social and democratic change, and it is not exclusive to women since changes sought are to benefit men as well.

In the early stages of feminist consciousness-raising in the West, there was an assumption that because of a shared identity and experience among women, they would be united towards working and struggling together. That is, as women, they would be able to support one another's anguish and idealism. However, this notion of ‘sisterhood’ — the belief that women automatically relate to and provide one another with support simply because they share a common sex — proved to be a myth by the late 1970s after Black women criticized women's groups for being elitist, white and middle-class. These groups, it was said, had little understanding or, worse, were condescending of the struggles of Black and poor working-class families.

Later on as the women's movement expanded globally, women in the Third World similarly attempted to develop a more indigenous women's movement, away from the dominance and analysis of the West. Given this fragmentation, when we speak of ‘feminism’ in this book, we refer to a plurality of feminisms rather than of a unitary, if not false, feminism that binds women together. Certainly numerous types of feminism can be distinguished by looking at their analysis, practices and strategies. As argued by Wieringa (1995: 3–4):

Feminism is not a one-dimensional social critique, but a multi-layered, transformational political practice and ethics. The transformation is towards feminisation and democratisation on domestic, social and political levels, as well as towards economic levelling and an end to racial discrimination. But in different social and historical contexts, feminists may have other issues to fight for.

Theorizing feminism

Early Western literature on feminist theories focused on several main strands of feminism — liberal feminism, radical feminism, Marxist and socialist feminism, and postmodern feminism (Jagger, 1983; Tong, 1992). However, it is important to remember that in reality the distinctions are not so neat, simplistic and clear-cut, and might even overlap in some areas. A brief summary and critique of these strands can assist us in further delineating the nature of feminist practice in Malaysia, and in understanding why the Malaysian variant has to be scripted based on local experiences.⁴

Liberal feminism

This strand of feminism is rooted in the concept of liberalism which emerged with the growth of capitalism. Basically, liberalism says that all human beings are potentially rational and seek to maximize their own self-interest. Liberals also believe that the state and society should protect the rights of the individual and should allow everyone to maximize their self-interest, and thus their self-fulfilment.

Following this, liberal feminism believes men and women are essentially equal, but women have been discriminated against by laws which need to be changed. Hence there is much emphasis on campaigns for legal reform and equal rights, for example in the areas of education, employment, training and financial management. Ultimately, the belief is that self-interest and rationality will prevail, and equality as a principle will be universally accepted.

However, liberal feminism has been criticised for looking at the individual as a self-sufficient, neutral and abstract entity. Those characteristics are not equally attainable and are unrealistic as a goal since we all belong to particular groups or identities, for example ethnic, class, sex or age groups, and have different personal capacities and needs. In fact, these structures can act as barriers towards achieving self-fulfilment in life. Thus laws might be passed, for example, in relation to equal employment rights, but this will not guarantee that poor women will gain access to these opportunities, as class barriers prevent the poor as a group from acquiring those rights.

Radical feminism

The identification of feminism with radical politics grew out of the women's liberation movement in the United States in the late 1960s, in tandem with the anti-Vietnam war movement. Many of the founders were white, middle-class, college-educated women, some of whom were involved in various New Left groups but became disillusioned by male dominance in such organizations which supposedly preached transformation and justice. Subsequently, these women came together in consciousness-raising groups and discovered that many of them shared similar experiences of male oppression.

This position views that, as a social class, women are oppressed by men. Patriarchy is made possible by the unpaid domestic service of women in the home and by the exploitation of women's bodies through marriage, sexual slavery, pornography, reproduction and rape. In their belief that ‘sisterhood is global’, radical feminists stress that any woman in the world has more in common with another woman — regardless of class, race, ethnicity, nationality — than she has with another man.

For them, the way to combat patriarchy is through the creation of a culture for women whereby they can reshape their lives outside of patriarchal definitions. For example, lesbian feminism was argued to be a political act to counter the ideological and institutional domination of male privilege. In terms of concrete actions, radical feminists have been active in setting up women's centres dealing with rape, domestic violence and women's health needs. At the global level they have networked rather successfully on issues involving international sexual slavery and human trafficking.

This position, however, has its share of critics, with the main objection being its universalistic and essentialist arguments. As radical feminism does not refer to any historical context — implying that biology is unchanging and given — it has been heavily criticized as falling into biological determinism as well as being ‘class blind’. It cannot, for instance, account for the unequal relations and conflict between poor men of colour and rich white women. In this case who is more deserving of ‘liberation’ becomes a moot question, one which the notion of ‘global sisterhood’ cannot reconcile.

Marxist and socialist feminism

If radical feminism views gender relations as the primary oppression in life, Marxist feminism — where socialist feminism has its roots — points out that class relations and the capitalist system are the cause of women's subordination. Because of their concern with the pitfalls of the capitalist system, Marxist feminists focus on the exploitative conditions of working-class women. According to this position, once capitalism is overthrown and class society is disintegrated, gender inequality will disappear as well.

Again, this perspective has been criticized as being functionalist, especially for ignoring the reality of women's position in the household. Studies conducted in socialist countries in the 1970s and 1980s pointed out that women remained subordinated at work and at home — a situation that Marxist feminism cannot explain, as it is gender-biased, if not blind.

Attempts to deal with the ‘unhappy marriage’ between Marxism and feminism led to the birth of socialist feminism whose main objective was to develop a political theory and practice that would synthesize the insights of radical feminism and the Marxist tradition. Socialist feminists argue that class and gender as well as race/ethnic relations of power are all critical in the understanding of society. No single social relation is privileged, that is no one factor is regarded as more important than the other. The struggle then should be equally against capitalism as it is against male dominance in the home as well as against oppression in the workplace and society.

Negotiating the feminist impasse: postmodern feminism

The experiences of the women's movement point out that there are different paths to feminist analysis and practice. Women have proven to be divided, sometimes extremely so on the basis of ideology, class, ethnicity, culture, age or sexuality. For example, some Black women say they have more in common with Black men than with white middle-class women. Women in apartheid South Africa found solace in their families, questioning the Western critique of the family as the first site of women's oppression. Others in the South find that problems of poverty and indigenous women's issues are not the concern of women in the First World.

In recent times, a new strand of feminism — postmodern feminism — has emerged in response to this situation and critiqued the feminist movement for replacing one universal, rational, male subject perspective with another universal idea of ‘woman’, ‘gender’ or ‘sex’. Hence postmodern feminists reject traditional assumptions about truth and reality and refuse to construct a unitary theory on gender subordination.

While postmodern feminists have been applauded for recognizing diversity among women, they have been equally castigated for being too preoccupied with dissecting and analysing ‘truths’ and for deconstructing diversity, multiplicity and difference. In turn, as a theory that is meant to inform practice, postmodern feminism has often been criticized for causing paralysis, if not chaos, among activists (Tong, 1992: 232).

The relationship between feminism and the women's movement

The role of the women's movement

The women's movement can take a diversity of forms and interests. Taking off from Wieringa (1995: 7), a women's movement is defined as ‘the whole spectrum of conscious and unconscious individual or collective acts, activities, groups or organisations concerned with diminishing gender subordination, which is understood as intersecting with race and class oppression’. It is also true that there might be and have been disagreements among various segments of the movement in relation to agendas, strategies and demands.⁵

To deal with the question of agenda-setting and autonomy, Molyneux (1998: 70) describes three ideal types of women's movements — independent, associational and directed. Independent movements function on the basis of wome...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Routledge Malaysian Studies Series
• Full Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• About the authors
• Foreword
• Preface
• Abbreviations
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Accommodating feminisms: The women’s movement in contemporary Malaysia
• 3 The violence against women campaign: A never-ending story?
• 4 An unholy alliance?: Women engaging with the state
• 5 Negotiating political Islam: Women in Malay-Muslim organizations
• 6 Muted struggles: Challenges of women workers
• 7 Querying the forbidden discourse: Sexuality, power and dominance in Malaysia
• 8 Conclusion: The women’s movement and discourse on sexuality
• Appendix A
• Appendix B
• Appendix C
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index