PETALING JAYA: Despite decades of policy focus and rising educational attainment, women’s participation in the labour force in Malaysia has only seen modest gains.
Existing policy strategies emphasise increasing participation rates but overlook deeper structural factors including caregiving responsibilities, labour market barriers and social expectations.
Khazanah Research Institute’s (KRI) latest discussion paper, “Interwoven Pathways: The Care and Career Conundrum in Women’s Empowerment”, explores the interwoven pathways that women navigate when making decisions about work and care, with particular focus on housewives.
Their unpaid care and domestic work are far from idle, yet rarely recognised as “productive”. It remains essential, as it provides care for dependents, reduces pressure on public services and enables other household members to work.
Despite this vital role, such work continues to be undervalued, unprotected and often misunderstood.
Drawing on survey findings, the paper highlights that most housewives cited caregiving as the main reason for them becoming a housewife and leaving or not entering paid work. Among those with prior work experience, many earned low wages, with 27% reporting less than RM1,500 in their last job, reflecting labour market barriers that discourage sustained employment.
The vast majority now face financial insecurity, with only 29% perceiving that their families earn enough to cover lifestyle, emergency savings and retirement. Nearly 9 in 10 housewives (88.9%) rely entirely on their husbands for income, which leaves them economically vulnerable, limits their bargaining power and undermines long-term financial security.
Despite their contributions, they also face various negative perceptions. Among the housewives, 60% faced sentiment that they have “a lot of free time” despite their time-intensive reality of unpaid care work, while 45.5% said they were perceived as not contributing to their families.
Weak support systems further compound these challenges, with concerns over affordability and quality of formal care services, while government initiatives to expand care services or support women’s re-entry into work have had limited reach and impact.
The paper highlights several key implications for policymakers and stakeholders.
☻ Recognise housewives and value unpaid care work in national policies by improving data collection on care work with time use surveys and integrating it into economic planning.
☻ Design inclusive income-security mechanisms for housewives and unpaid caregivers by enhancing existing schemes and introducing a care allowance for unpaid or informal caregivers.
☻ Support access to education, training and reskilling for housewives and other unpaid or informal caregivers through flexible and community-based programmes.
☻ Expand and improve access to affordable and quality care services via direct aid to families, subsidies to care centres, expanding of public provision, and professionalisation of the care sector.
☻ Promote shared caregiving responsibilities by adopting gender-responsive labour policies, including stronger paternity leave provisions and incentives for flexible working arrangements.
☻ Strengthen community-based support networks for unpaid carers to build a supportive infrastructure and provide practical resources for unpaid carers.
☻ Integrate gender and care considerations into national statistics to improve policymaking, monitoring and evaluation.
This discussion paper is part of KRI’s broader research on Gender and Care Work and is authored by Puteri Marjan Megat Muzafar, Adam Manaf Mohamed Firouz, Ilyana Syafiqa Mukhriz Mudaris and Nur Alya Sarah Abd Hamid. The primary data is derived from a survey collaboration between KRI and Persatuan Suri Rumah Rahmah Malaysia.
