Siti Sapoo (seated middle) with the attendees yesterday.
KOTA KINABALU: Gone are the days when women’s place is just good for cooking in the kitchen. Today, they are equally skilled and educated as men to further improve themselves, their families and contribute towards nation-building.
And since women are working hard to improve their standards today, they are also fighting for gender equality, to erase challenges that are based on the definition of men’s and women’s roles in the community.
“There is a lot work that still needs to be done to overcome the gender inequality, be it in politics, economy or social,” said Community Development and Consumer Affairs Minister Datuk Jainab Ahmad Ayid when launching the International Women’s Day 2014 celebration themed ‘Equality for Women is Progress for All’, here, yesterday.
She stressed that changing the people’s attitude takes time and it cannot promise total transformation without the support from the movement machinery in the community.
“Gender equality means to erase all these differences. But all these efforts will just go ashtray if the people fail to understand the true meaning of the gender concept, especially in instilling it within the daily lives and the nation’s development process.
“The gender concept has a lot to do with public perception on the roles of men and women. We realise that sometimes the right perception may not be favourable to one of the genders, especially in this ever-changing world,” she said in her speech, read by her permanent secretary, Datuk Siti Sapoo Ahok.
She added that the government has done a lot of efforts to strengthen women’s roles in Malaysia, and organising the Women’s Day celebration is meant to honour and to recognise the women’s contributions in nation-building.
“At the international level, this recognition began in the 1970s through various conferences especially designed for women to create effective strategies to improve and to lift up women’s status in the community, besides erasing the imbalance structures that put aside women’s interests in development.
“The amended Federal Constitution that offers equal rights to women shows that the government recognises them, and as such, I hope that all individuals, particularly women, would continue to work hard and play their role in nation-building,” said Jainab.
At the event, Jainab also launched the AVON Pink Day Programme, which is dedicated to creating public awareness on breast cancer.