Definición de la implementación

The third research question concerned the impact of the introduction of quotas in Malaysia from the perspective of senior women in public and private sectors. This highlights the third empirical contribution of this research, where Malaysia was the first Asian country to adopt the mandatory quotas for women in decision making positions. Although quotas aim at increasing

women’s representation in senior managerial positions around the world (Liao, Loureiro and Taboada, 2019), the discussion is pierced with arguments for and against on how to get into the boardroom. Adams and Ferreira (2009) argue that quotas seem to have insulted competent women who can achieve senior positions on their own, prevailed tokenism and created another form of gender discrimination. Pande and Ford (2011) argue that if women and men are different in terms of managerial abilities, quotas may have a negative effect on allocation of board members. For instance, if quotas lead to the appointment of less experienced female board members, this may result in lower performing boards. Quotas can have negative effects on potential female board members in many ways because they are seen as unfair and do not align with the concept of equal opportunities. If women think that a quota has made their advancement path easier, they may be less likely to invest and believe that they might end up in senior positions because of their gender, rather than their qualifications and innate ability. When mandatory quotas have been implemented, the organisations may have not developed a justifiable pipeline for women managers in future recruitment and selection.

As discussed in Chapter Six, senior women in private sector organisations were more motivated towards advancing their careers. Although there is continued support for gender quotas, the analysis of the study indicates that the implementation is still at unsatisfactory levels in the private sector. Gendered power relations continue in an institutionally patriarchal society despite the commitment to integrate women into decision making positions. The majority of private sector senior women managers in the study acknowledged that management is considered masculine which supports the study of Koshal et al (1998). As in the public sector, there were mixed views about the adoption of gender quotas in the private sector. Seven private sector women who agreed with the implementation of quotas mentioned the importance of creating awareness and providing women with the experience and knowledge of quotas (see Chapter Eight). Being the first female appointed to the boardroom, Rose claimed that quotas had encouraged women to join the male dominated boardroom. This echoes the critical mass theory by Kanter (1977) where the government sets a minimum percentage for women’s representation on corporate boards. Kanter (1977) distinguished tilted groups (at a ratio of 65:35, male:female) and balanced groups (60:40 to 50:50). The debate on critical mass as argued in the Western literature (Kanter, 1977; Dahlerup, 1988) was reflected in the analysis of this study when some women supported the movement to challenge the structural power relations of Malay male privilege in Malaysia. This empirical study is also important to the policy makers as it provides better insight on the need to impose the 30 percent quota to change the mindset of men towards accepting women in senior management (Ismail et al., 2019; Izharuddin, 2019).

The Tenth Malaysian Plan (2011 – 2015) encourages women’s involvement in training opportunities to enhance their career trajectories in the knowledge-based economy. Women are expected to become more skilled to increase the number of women entering paid work.

Despite looking as a radical approach to equal representation in senior positions (Dahlerup and Freidenvall, 2010), women senior managers can champion and change the patriarchal culture, values and attitudes that are prejudicial to other women in organisations (Seierstad, 2016). The empirical findings of this research suggest that although more than two thirds of the respondents tend to favour the policy, the private sector organisations are not ready for the quota, which explains why the companies will not be sanctioned in any form (Lim et al., 2019). Yet, as argued in Chapter Two, the government has shown their positive commitment by establishing comprehensive monitoring and evaluation mechanisms to track the progress of having 30 percent women in decision making positions. Pande and Ford (2011) suggest that quotas can change attitudes regarding female leadership by having an impact on discrimination and by correcting biased beliefs about women in leadership positions. Quotas can have a role model effect for women who wish to pursue board positions and it may improve their aspirations. Plus, women can be viewed in a new light as qualified and confident individuals with the ability to lead, make policy decisions and serve as role models to other junior female managers to participate in the paid labour force (Kelan, 2012; Durbin, 2016).

The effect of quotas can encourage women to invest more in their education and careers if they see senior managerial positions as available. The empirical study indicates that senior women managers are highly qualified, with the majority of them holding at least a degree. Malay senior women, because of their privilege are even better qualified as they are more likely to have postgraduate qualifications compared to their non-Malay counterparts. This represents a shift from an equal opportunities’ framework to a positive measures’ framework that aims at equality through action. Gender quotas can compensate structural barriers to entry rather than following the ‘equal treatment’ route, which is unlikely to have an impact in a context of strongly embedded public and private patriarchy.

9.2.4 Using an Intersectional Qualitative Approach and Feminist Methodology Focusing