Opting Out – Choice or Circumstance ?
7 min read
When a woman opts out of the workforce, is it choice or circumstance?In both cases, the catalyst to this situation is motherhood which affects women at all le...
November 2025
This November, Penang Monthly explores language, place and memory. As GTLF returns, we highlight Penang’s multilingual streets and the dialects that keep local history alive.
Martina Rozells – Penang’s first First Lady
5 min read
During the year 1772 Light allied himself with Martina Rozells, a lady regarding whose antecedents an element of romance has been attributed by some contempor...
Empowering Selangor Women
6 min read
The Selangor Women’s Affairs portfolio is led by YB Rodziah Ismail. Under the previous Barisan Nasional-led state government, it was possible for the stat...
PWDC - A Snapshot
1 min read
Today, four months down the road PWDC is set with nine fulltime and part-time staff on the go. Headed by chief executive officer (CEO) Sri Husnaini Sofjan who w...
Right Time, Right Place and Some Luck
5 min read
On January 2, 2012 a new state-initiated body emerged – the Penang Women’s Development Corporation (PWDC) – as the result of the Chief Minister's 2012 budget speech when the state announced it had tripled the budget for women’s development.
16 Women
19 min read
Chong Eng Member of Parliament for Bukit MertajamThe “woman in grey” is well known for her pursuit of gender equality. Under h...
Master Photographers: The Professor & The Doctor
5 min read
Penang has an uncanny knack for being able to constantly surprise – both in art and Politics – and in Ismail Hashim and Dr. Ooi Cheng Ghee, has thrown up two photographers par excellence.
Skilling Future Workers
5 min read
The manufacturing sector has been the bastion and catalyst of economic development for Penang for more than four decades now. The state economy continues, nev...
The Evolution of Penang’s Chinese Associations
6 min read
As frontier territory, Penang generated many self-help groups in the early days. The Chinese were most keen on forming their own associations, organised according to a string of principles. These fulfilled many functions, but current challenges require them to adapt more than ever.
George Town's "Mr Festival"
7 min read
Lee WuShu Art (Malaysia).With only RM400,000 from the state and a tight six-week deadline, the first George Town Festival (GTF) was inaugurated in 2010...
The Creative Economy Appears Devised for Penang
3 min read
THE TERM “Creative Economy” sometimes sounds like an oxymoron in that human creativity is more often than not associated with the arts, executed more for passio...
Events in April
3 min read
ACTIVITIESGather ‘round your little ones for a fun Easter outing at Hin Market! There are plenty of fun family-friendly activities from the easter egg hunt to p...
Explore column