Juanita Elias - Gender Politics and the Pursuit of Competitiveness in Malaysia: Women on Board

This book is concerned with how the pursuit of national economic competitiveness by states has come to be intertwined with a globalised gender agenda one in which women and the household economy are seen as untapped resources.

In many East and Southeast Asian economies, competitiveness and the dangers of the middle-income trap dominate economic policy agendas: States commitments to gender equality goals are frequently framed around business case logics in which womens empowerment and womens increased engagement in the productive economy is linked to the national economic project of building and enhancing competitiveness. This book looks to the case of Malaysia in order to assess how the increasingly dominant view that gender equality is smart economics plays out in practice. Drawing upon extensive case study research and interview data, the book hones in on the complex gender politics that are at work within government initiatives that seek to enhance competitiveness via increasing womens labour force participation, efforts to strengthen marriage and family life, and attempts to boost womens entrepreneurialism and status within the corporate world.

Providing an account of the gender politics at work within ongoing processes of state transformation in Asia, this book will appeal to researchers and students in gender studies, Southeast Asian studies, International Political Economy and Public Policy.

Juanita Elias is Professor of International Political Economy at the University of Warwick, UK. She is a feminist political economist particularly interested in gendered regimes of work, care, and migration in Southeast Asia. Her articles have appeared in journals including: Review of International Studies; Asia Pacific Viewpoint; The Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies; International Feminist Journal of Politics; Globalizations; and Asian Studies Review. She has co-edited the Edward Elgar Handbook on International Political Economy and Gender (2018, with Adrienne Roberts); The Everyday Political Economy of Southeast Asia (with Lena Rethel); and, The Global Political Economy of the Household in Asia (with Samanthi J. Gunawardana).

Series Editors: James Brassett (University of Warwick, UK),

Susanne Soederberg (Queens University, Canada) and

Eleni Tsingou (Copenhagen Business School, Denmark).

The RIPE Series published by Routledge is an essential forum for cutting-edge scholarship in International Political Economy. The series brings together new and established scholars working in critical, cultural and constructivist political economy. Books in the RIPE Series typically combine an innovative contribution to theoretical debates with rigorous empirical analysis.

The RIPE Series seeks to cultivate:

Field-defining theoretical advances in International Political Economy

Novel treatments of key issue areas, both historical and contemporary, such as global finance, trade, and production

Analyses that explore the political economic dimensions of relatively neglected topics, such as the environment, gender relations, and migration

Accessible work that will inspire advanced undergraduates and graduate students in International Political Economy.

The RIPE Series in Global Political Economy aims to address the needs of students and teachers.

Money-Power and Financial Capital in Emerging Markets

Facing the Liquidity Tsunami

Ilias Alami

The Exclusionary Politics of Digital Financial Inclusion

Mobile Money, Gendered Walls

Serena Natile

Gender Politics and the Pursuit of Competitiveness in Malaysia

Women on Board

Juanita Elias

For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/RIPE-Series-in-Global-Political-Economy/book-series/RIPE

Women on Board

Juanita Elias

First published 2020

by Routledge

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2020 Juanita Elias

The right of Juanita Elias to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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ISBN: 978-0-367-17965-6 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-0-429-05869-1 (ebk)

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This project has travelled a long way since it was first conceived as a research grant application to the Australian Research Council (ARC) in late 2008. The award of this grant brought me, in 2010, to the Griffith Asia Institute (GAI) at Griffith University, Brisbane. I gratefully acknowledge the ARC (grant number FT0991711) for funding the initial research project that undergirds this book and thank GAI for providing me with an institutional home for the first three years of this project. I would like to extend particular thanks to those who commented and provided feedback on initial drafts of the ARC Future Fellowship application including Ian Hall, Jason Sharman, and Michael Wesley. Thank you also to many other Griffith University colleagues who provided support, encouragement, and engagement with my research. In particular Sara Davies, Samanthi Gunawardana, Rene Jeffery, Carolin Liss, Greta Nabbs-Keller,and Wes Widmaier.

Relocating to the University of Warwick in 2014 saw me continue working on this project and there are many Warwick colleagues who deserve a mention here. In particular, Lena Rethel has been a constant source of feedback and motivation initiating our two-member only Malaysian Political Economy book watchers club (with very occasional weigh-ins) to ensure that our book projects reached fruition. Thank you, Lena, for reading so much of this book project and providing such useful and expert feedback. Shirin Rai and Chris Moran provided really useful comments on the introduction and Mat Watsons feedback on the book proposal was hugely appreciated. Thank you also to James Brassett for championing this project within the Routledge RIPE series. I would also like to thank many other Warwick colleagues for all their useful advice, collegiality, conversations, and support. In particular, Shaun Breslin, Chris Clarke, Andr Broome, Ben Clift, Nicola Pratt, Shirin Rai, Ben Richardson, Celine Tan, Lisa Tilley, and Nick Vaughan Williams. It really has been a wonderful experience to have been surrounded by such a dynamic group of like-minded, supportive, and engaged scholars. Although this research was initially funded by the ARC, I also want to acknowledge the additional financial contribution made by the Department of Politics and International Studies at Warwick as well as the Warwick-Monash Alliance. This supported extra field trips and travel to Malaysia and research assistance.