According to United Nations Populations Fund (DWFPA), Malaysia Countifv O'ice programme analyst Tenghu Aira Tenglru Razi the gender wage gap, motherhood penalty and leader gender stereotypes are a few reasons behind women 's di'iculty in reaching executive-level positions. \"Companies can begin by ensuring that male and female employees receive the equitable parental leave. "1" his is essential for building a family foundation of shared care labour duties 7 which goes a long wav in keeping women in the workforce, \" she told The Malaysian Reserve (TM) T enghu Aira suggested that companies should designate a workplace crechefor working parents to leave their children so they can have a healthy balance of work and childcare. Moreover, employers will also need to stand up to end the Gender Pay Gap in their organisations which will attract more female emplovees and encourage them to seelt promotions since they are guaranteed equal pay for equal work. "T he Gendered Workforce is another challenge through which women remain disproportionately represented in low-wage jobs, while men dominate the high- estpaving fields, \" she added. Another key issue which hinders women 's Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) and Malaysian women is raising mvareness of unwanted and unacceptable behaviour that creates another barrier to a worlplace 's success. Since women tend to have lesser pay than their male counterparts, they would sujr from retirement the most. Addressing the Challenges In 2016, the World Economic Forum revealed that women in top positions are still a small number. There were only 3 7% at the managerial level, VP level (29%) and Csuite level (19%). However, the percentage of female leaders is slowly rising. A 2022 report by Grant Thornton showed that the proportion of leadership roles held by females worldwide stood at 19% in 2004, the number rose to 31% in 2021 and 32% in 2022. In the Asia-Pacic region, 3 0% of leadership roles are held by women, while 3 7% of such roles are held by women in Asean nations. Unfortunately, women are still underrepresented at evety level of the corporate hierarchy! where the gap is more prevalent at senior levels. A diverse workplace creates an inclusive culture and environment that creates solutions which can solve complex problems, raise employee productivity and bring job satisfaction 1" he upcoming 15th General Election {15GB would mean a change in government, which also means a change in policies. Therefore, the Women's Aid Organisation (WA 0) has formed a GE 1 5 manifesto to make female workers safer and encourage diversity in the workforce. "T he recent amendments to the Employment Act 1955 prohibits the termination of female emplovees who are pregnant or suering'om illness arising out of their pregnancy. "However, this does not extend protection against discrimination for jobseekers to prevent discrimination against pregnant (and potentially pregnant) women looking for jobs, \" it said in the manifesto. More female graduates, but less female workers THE times are changing. More and more women are enrolling in higher educational institutions and have outnumbered men. In the late 1950s when Malaya first gained its independence, women only made up 10.7% of the total undergraduate population at Universiti Malaya (UM. Now, women nrake up more (62%) than the men undergraduate population. A Statista report in 2022 indicated that there were 358, 600 female students against 234,080 male students enrolled in Malaysia's public higher institutions in 2020. T he number of males attending universities has also been decreasing since 2016, but this is not just a local trend In the US, there are six female university students for every four male students which is the largest femalearrale gender gap in the history of higher education. Gender stereotvpes. Women are Studious One of the reasons why there is a huge gender gap in higher learning institutions in Malaysia was because Malaysian girls have been known to perform better in secondary school A Unicef report also revealed that female students have outperformed their male counterparts in four key subjects which are English, Mathematics, Science and Bahasa Malavsia as well as reading. Compared to boys, girls also perform better when it comes to staying in school and are less likelv to drop out. On the other hand, boys are more likely to be drawn into unhealthy gender stereotypes which inhibits them from frilly partaking in academic life and enrol in universities. A study conducted by the Penang Institute revealed that there are more negative stereotypes in boys than girls when asked in a Malaysian context. "Particr'pants felt somewhat strongly in agreement with statements such as 'boys have to hide their fears, 'girls are ambitious', \"girls have a clear vision of the future compared to boys', 'girls are more disciplined' and 'girls are hardworking'. \"These answers indicate that girls benefit from positive stereo- types which encourage them to go to university, while conversely boys are given negative stereotypes; implying that masculine attributes include being undisciplined, la:y, lacking in ambition and without vision, \" the report says. Therefore, boys have a hard time trying to join activities which are inrportant to nourish in higher education as reading and writing are perceived as feminine pastimes Higher Graduates but Lower Workforce Participation Despite more women participating in universities and being more likely to graduate compared to nren, they are still underrepresented in the labour force. According to the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DoSM, female graduates trrake up more than half of the unenurloytrrent rate (54. 2%) compared to males (45.8%}. T he majority of unemployed females had to adhere to housework or family responsibilities (35.3%} followed by attending training or school programmes (32.3%) and the rest were going to further their studies (4 9%) \"Looking at gender distribution of employed graduates in 2021, the share of females was higher at 51. 9% or 2 3 7 million persons while males comprised 48.1% (2.2 million persons}. \"Compared to the previous year, the number of female eirrploved graduates experienced a higher annual growth of 7.4% in 2021 as opposed to an increase of 2.5 % in the number of male emnloved graduates. \" DoSM said in a report. WAO also hoped that the new government would include policies that ensure more women in leadership positions, equal pay, equitable access to employment opportunities, family- supportive workplaces, and zero tolerance for all forms of discrimination and harassment. All these policies should also comprise the whole employment cycle from recruitment, retention to resignation or retirement. \"According to the World Bank, Malaysia's income per capita could increase by 26.2% if all economic barriers are removed for women. Ensuring gender equality in the workplace benets all strata of society in the long run. \" Question 2: Using the above article as your research interest and inspiration, write a report that consists all of the following items. The length of your answer should be justied with the marks shown at Research problem (5 marks) b. Research questions (10 marks) or Research objectives (10 marks) d. Research Hypothesis (10 marks) e1 Research design: methodologies and analysis tools (20 marks)