I REMEMBER MEETING a fellow undergraduate at Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM). We were in our early 20s, and she was pursuing a degree in history. We crossed paths regularly over the three years. Then, just months shy of graduating, I saw her packing her things. She told me she was leaving university to get married.
Another friend, who studied accountancy, was equally decided; she planned to join the workforce for a decade, and then exit to become a full-time homemaker. Back then, I struggled to make sense of these decisions. For me, it seemed natural to pursue education, find meaningful work and hopefully contribute to society. I hadn’t yet grasped how deeply gender expectations and structural limitations could shape women’s trajectories—even among those who were excelling in academia.
Despite outnumbering their male peers in higher education institutions for over a decade, Malaysian women remain markedly underrepresented in the workforce. While female graduates consistently make up more than 50% of all tertiary-educated individuals in the country, their labour force participation rate has stagnated below 56%—lagging behind many of Malaysia’s regional peers.
Why has educational attainment not translated into equal economic participation for women?
