Nota Penyelidikan Gender dan pekerjaan di Malaysia: Perlunya tempat kerja yang ‘mesra wanita’ (Research Notes Gender and work in Malaysia: The necessity of a ‘woman-friendly’ workplace)

Abstract

Pembahagian pekerjaan boleh dibuat secara mendatar dan menegak. Walaupun pembahagian mendatar telah banyak berubah namun masih lagi berlaku di Malaysia. Ini menunjukkan bahawa pekerja wanita kini tidak lagi bertumpu dalam sektor pertanian tetapi sudah terlibat dalam sektor pembuatan dan perkhidmatan. Sedangkan majoriti pekerja lelaki masih lagi bertumpu dalam industri perlombongan dan perkhidmatan pembekalan, selain sektor pertanian. Dalam pembahagian pekerjaan secara menegak, pekerja wanita dan lelaki masih bertumpu dalam hierarki yang berbeza. Tumpuan wanita masih jelas dalam pekerjaan tingkat rendah, kolar-biru dan peringkat bawahan pekerjaan kolar-putih dan profesional. Bagi pekerja lelaki pula lebih banyak berada dalam kategori pekerjaan mahir dan profesional serta memegang jawatan kanan. Artikel ini bertujuan membincangkan langkah dan peraturan di tempat kerja yang `mesra wanita’ sebagai salah satu cara bagi mengurangkan berlakunya pembahagian pekerjaan mengikut gender. Unit sampel sebanyak 12 buah keluarga dipilih daripada keluarga yang mempunyai tiga generasi perempuan bagi tujuan pengumpulan data. Hasil kajian mendapati bahawa responden yang bekerja menghadapi masalah dari segi penjagaan anak-anak di rumah. Oleh itu mewujudkan peraturan di tempat kerja yang “mesra wanita” adalah satu keperluan.

Katakunci: cuti bersalin, parental leave, pembahagian mendatar, pembahagian menegak, perlindungan bersalin, pusat penjagaan kanak-kanak

Horizontal and vertical division of work in the organization still takes place in Malaysia. However, horizontal division of work has changed a lot with female employees no longer confined to agriculture and participating in manufacturing and service sectors. In the vertical division of work, female and male employees are still found to be focused in different job hierarchies. While women are stucked to the lower levels blue collar jobs and to the low levels of the white collar and professional jobs male workers continue to dominate the professional and skilled job categories as well as holding senior positions. The relatively slow upgrading of female employees may have to do with their maternal roles and concerns which hamper their work performance . This article discusses rules at the workplace that is "woman-friendly" as one of the ways to reduce the occurrence of a gendered division of work. For the present study, 12 families were sampled from those that have three generation of women. The findings showed that respondents were faced with problems of taking care of the children when they were out working, hence their divided attention to their work. For these women to progress at work creating rules at the workplace that are truly "woman-friendly" is imperative.

Keywords: child care centre, horizontal segregation, maternity leave, maternity protection, parental leave, vertical segregation