Study shows women reluctant to take up jobs in heavy industries, says Fatimah

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Fatimah (centre) and Madeline (third left) hold the report on the Study on Women Labour Force Needs for SCORE. Also seen are (from right) Abdul Hair, Camilla, Megir, Faridah and Siti Rohani.

Fatimah (centre) and Madeline (third left) hold the report on the Study on Women Labour Force Needs for SCORE. Also seen are (from right) Abdul Hair, Camilla, Megir, Faridah and Siti Rohani.

KUCHING: There is low participation of women in the major heavy industries in Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE), indicating that the sectors are not suitable for women.

In noting this, Welfare, Women and Community Wellbeing Minister Datuk Fatimah Abdullah pointed out that women were still reluctant to move into traditionally male-dominated occupations in the heavy-risk industries like iron, steel, glass, energy and timber.

“The factors for low representation of women in heavy industries include unsuitable environment, nature of the job that probably requires heavy lifting and other heavy tasks as well as mismatch of skills,” she told a press conference at her office in Bangunan Baitulmakmur here yesterday.

Fatimah was earlier given a briefing on the interim final report of a ‘Study on Women Labour Force Needs for SCORE’ by University Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) led by UKM’s Tun Fatimah Leadership Centre director Associate Prof Dr Madeline Berma.

Associate Prof Dr Siti Rohani Yahaya, Associate Prof Dr Faridah Shahadan and Associate Prof Dr Abdul Hair Awang were present.

According to Fatimah, the objectives of the study, which is now 90 per cent complete, were mainly to identify the trainings and skills necessary for employment in specific sectors, critical needs of the 10 main industries, the gap in knowledge and skills to meet the ever-changing needs of industries, to strategise and come up with intervention programmes and propose an action plan to develop a women labour force for SCORE.

“From the initial report, we know that women are not attracted to jobs in the heavy industry which make up nearly 10 of the primary industries in SCORE except tourism and hospitality,” she revealed.

However, she said the study also showed that there were many opportunities for women in the secondary sectors and support services like catering, laundry, education and so forth.

“The secondary sectors and support services will be very important for the entire SCORE development and the state of Sarawak overall,” she said.

“It is not necessary for women to be involved in all the sectors under the heavy industries in SCORE. They can take on other roles as well,” she added.

The study, she pointed out, also revealed that there was higher unemployment rate among women compared to men.

“So we want to find out the reasons as to why there are more unemployed women compared to men despite the fact there are more female graduates than male graduates every year,” she said.

She said the study would be refined to reflect the gap between the female labour force and offers in SCORE.

This was so that they could come up with a guideline to shape intervention programmes, strategic planning and basis of policies, she said.

She said the five thrusts of the study were awareness of SCORE development projects, involvement of women in economic activities in SCORE, increasing number of professional women in various fields, increasing the number of women technopreneurs and to provide holistic programme for women workforce in SCORE.

“We don’t want women to be unemployed and we don’t want them to miss out from the development of SCORE. Through the study, we can maximise the women workforce because women can contribute significantly, not only to SCORE but the state of Sarawak,” she added.

Camilla Lawrence who represented Recoda and permanent secretary to the Welfare, Women and Community Wellbeing Ministry Datin Megir Gumbek were also present.