GENDER DISCRIMINATION IN EMPLOYMENT PRACTICES: A CASE STUDY OF THE MALAYSIAN CIVIL SERVICE

Abstract

Gender discrimination and disparity have been rampantly discussed at all levels of society, from household to education to government institutions. Without discounting the others' importance, this study is interested in discovering possible discrimination according to gender at the workplace. The authors believe this is an important area of study because a healthy workplace would lead to healthy employees and a more balanced household and nation. On the other hand, if employees are discriminated against by their genders, this would lead to lopsided work arrangements that might burden certain people over others. This study was conducted to discover whether gender discrimination exists in employment practices in the Malaysian public sector. Unfortunately, from the individual and focus group interviews that were done with public sector employees working in local authorities and the State Secretary of one state in Malaysia, it was found that gender biases continue to exist due to the lack of understanding and misconception of what constitutes gender discrimination. Therefore, this paper proposes four steps that could be taken by the public sector immediately to tackle this issue of gender discrimination in employment practices.