1

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Introduction

According to (Lim, 2006) the Northern Region is one of the four regions in

Peninsular Malaysia, which include the states of Perlis, Kedah, Penang, and Perak.

Regarding to economic development, Penang and Perak can be classified as middle-

income states while Kedah and Perlis were being classified as low-income states.

(Aslam & Hassan, 2003)

With a population of 1.77 million Penang is the leader in manufacturing

activities and the growth centre for northern Malaysia. In 2007, 200 multinational

corporations had large scale operations in Penang, making it the second growth

centre in Malaysia, after the Klang valley. Furthermore, Penang’s position in

northern Malaysia has been reinforced by the development started under the

Northern Corridor Economic Region (NCER) program. The program includes 21

districts in Penang island and the mainland, and the states of Kedah, Perlis, and

northern Perak. The Northern Corridor Economic Region program aims to accelerate

economic growth and elevate income levels in the north of Peninsular Malaysia. It is

part of a national strategy focusing on regions which can benefit from land, labor an

2

natural resources, combining these with manufacturing experience and international

linkages. The aim of the Northern Corridor Economic Region is to become a

competitive, world-class sustainable economic region. It is expected that the

Northern Corridor Economic Region would be a destination of choice for foreign and

domestic businesses to invest

Women are the most vulnerable to the effects of external shocks in the form

of commodity price collapse and changes in terms of trade and economic crisis. An

immediate assessment of the immediate impact of the economic downturn on the

labor market has been the marked increase in the retrenchment of workers. The

slower GDP growth is expected to result in a significant decline in employment

growth and loss of jobs. The level of employment is projected to decrease in all

sectors except for the export-oriented industries. Malaysian women are highly

important contributors to the country’s economic and social development. Their

access to health and education and their participation in the economy have increased

rapidly over the years. (Ahmad, 1998)

1.2 Background

This research is about to conduct a statistical analysis of women

participations and contributions in maritime industries of northern region of

Peninsular Malaysia. Currently, women represent an increasing share of the world's

labor force. In maritime industry, it always associated with men; however, there is no

doubt that women can gain the advantages when it comes to securing paid jobs in

this industry.

Some factors such as wage differentials, occupational segregation, higher

unemployment rates and the disproportionately high representation of women in the

3

informal and subsistence sectors serve to limit women's economic advancement.

Furthermore, social and cultural attitudes, employment policies and a lack of options

for balancing work and family responsibilities, or for controlling the timing and

spacing of births, contribute further to inequality compare to the men in the labor

market.

1.3 Problem statement

Apparently, women involvements in maritime industries in Malaysia are

lower compare to the involvement of men in this sector. This research will apply a

statistical method to understand the reason of this situation occurred and understand

why the women choose maritime field as their career compared to other careers.

This research will also underline a several issues that related to women that

need to be taken seriously to encourage women to work maritime industry, mostly to

women as seafarers. The major issues that need to be taken seriously to encourage

women to participate in maritime industry such as sexual harassment, maternity

leave, gender inequality and working amenities and facilities.

This research also will understand the factors that contribute to women efforts

in role their play in maritime industry. Compare to men, women also have their own

perspective and credibility to play in development and progression of maritime

industry.

4

1.4 Research objective

The main objective of the study is to conduct a research about women

contribution and participation in Northern Region of Malaysia. The study aims to

understand why the women in maritime industry in this region whether in the private

and public sector choose to make maritime careers as their jobs. Moreover, the

questionnaire will be designed to determine the women contribution and

participation in this industry. This research has outlined THREE (3) objectives as

objective research. The objectives stated as below.

i. To find whether there is significant difference between average number of

women involved in decision-making level and average number of women

involved in operational level in maritime company of Northern Region of

Malaysia.

ii. To analyze the ratio between women and men workers in the maritime

companies of Northern Region of Malaysia.

iii. To evaluate the factors that can increase the influences and contributions of

women participation in maritime industry of Northern Region of Malaysia.

1.5 Research questions

The research questions have outlined as below.

i. Does the average number of women involved in the decision-making level

differ from the average number of women involved in operational level in

maritime company of Northern Region of Peninsular Malaysia?

5

ii. What is the ratio between men and women in maritime companies of the

Northern Region of Peninsular Malaysia?

iii. What are the factors that can increase the influences and contributions in

women participations in maritime industry of Northern Region of Peninsular

Malaysia?

1.6 Significant of study

This research is intended to help women to be better in attributes of working

contribution in maritime industry. As far as we concern, women have been

significant of considering much values toward their participation in any industry,

which virtually can be more important of improving their quantities number when

joining the maritime industry.

It is important to recognize and analyze the importance of women

contribution in the maritime industry. By that, it can be seen about their participation

and contribution towards the industry. It is significant to understand how they have

participated and what field of work in the maritime industry which they usually

involved. Furthermore, it can be found whether there is significant average number

of women involved in operational level and decision-making level in the maritime

company.

This research will give an initial image about women’s contribution and

participation in the maritime industry of Northern Region of Peninsular Malaysia. It

is important by having these circumstance to analyze what the women has performed

by entitled their contribution and participation in the maritime industry.

6

This research also important to determine the ratio between men and women

work in maritime companies. It needs to be analyzed whether the ratio is becoming

larger or becoming smaller according to the respond from randomly selected

companies. These respondents will give the perception toward women in their

companies.

1.7 Scope of study

The scope for our study is Northern Region of Peninsular Malaysia, which

are included states of Perlis, Kedah, Penang, and Perak. FIVE (5) random companies

need to be selected as respondents to the research. The five selected companies have

been chosen as follow:

i. Asia Slipway & Engineering Sdn. Bhd. (Shipbuilding/Ship Repair) Kuala

Kedah, Kedah.

ii. Boustead Naval Shipyard (Logistics) – Lumut, Perak

iii. Boustead Langkawi Sdn. Bhd. (Shipbuilding/Ship Repair) – Langkawi,

Kedah

iv. Lumut Maritime Terminal Sdn. Bhd. – Lumut, Perak (Sea Port)

v. Ipoh Cargo Terminal Sdn. Bhd. Ipoh, Perak (Inland Port)

vi. Penang Port Commissioner, Penang (Port Commissioner)

7

1.8 Limitation of study

This research study has been conducted upon the women occupations that

worked on land based in maritime industry neither including the women who are

currently working at sea nor seafarers.

The number women as seafarers in Malaysia estimated lower, not only in

Malaysia but also in whole world. According to (Zhao, 2004) women only make up

18-20 per cent of the total labor force on cruise ships around 20,000-23,000 in

number and only 2 per cent in South Asia/Middle East.

For conducting this study, the researcher will only perform a research within

28 weeks to complete this research. In addition, the University will give RM250.00

for conducting this research within this period.

8

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Introduction

As in most countries around the world, women make up for almost half of the

total population of Malaysia. In view of the current concern and commitment of the

Malaysian Government towards its development and in the spirit of sharing of

information (Mat & Omar, 2002) In Malaysia education, it guarantees the right of

education to all, and the government provides eleven years of free, non-compulsory

basic education.

The educational system consists of six primary years, two lower secondary

years and three upper secondary years. There are no restrictions on girl’s

participation in the educational system. Women’ participation rate is slightly higher

than that of boys at the primary level and the difference widens at the secondary level

where 95.6 percent of girls attend compared to 83.3 percent of boys. Fewer girls drop

out compared to boys at both the primary and secondary levels.

2.2 Northern Region of Malaysia

Besides, being the centre of trade and services sector for the northern region,

Penang hugely benefited from the Malaysian government program for industrial

development, which stressed import substitution industrialization. The outcomes of

9

this vigorous and ambitious objective of Malaysian government ushered in massive

industrial establishment, growth, industrial free zone and create considerable job

opportunities for many young adults especially women.

In fact, most of these industrial units depended on young women to assemble

products and perform other non-skilful jobs in their factories. In essence, driven by

the availabilities of easy-to-get jobs at Penang’s sparely factories in the states’

industrial free zone, many young women migrated to the Island city to join the

workforce; thereby re-echoing one of the characteristics of current global industrial

trend since 1930s. The increasing numbers of women in the workforce was

associated with various historical factors and economical transformation. For

example, in the 1930s and after the Second World War, there was an astronomically

increase on the number of women entering the workforce due to a dire economic

need and the shortage of men in the workforce. (England & Farkas, 1986)

On top of that, the institutions could advocate the right practices among

administrative officers. However due to the several limitations, the purpose of the

research is to explore and understand the relationship between management practices

and job satisfaction among middle level management at public institutions of higher

learning in Northern Region. (Romle & Shamsudin, 2006)

2.3 Women and shipping

In some countries, the shipping industry offers a way out of poverty for many

workers. Employment in the shipping industry provides access to foreign currency

and a regular salary with a direct impact on the economic viability of seafarers and

their extended families. There is no intrinsic reason why women should not

participate in and benefit from employment within the shipping industry. However,

10

the shipping industry is traditionally regarded as an exclusively male preserve and

only one or two percent of the global workforce of seafarers is women. (Tansey,

2000)

She also stated the relevance of sea experience too many shore-based jobs

means the resource of women with appropriate skills is limited and will continue to

act as a long-term constraint on the representation of women in the maritime sector

as a whole. There may also be cultural resistance to women working outside the

home, but the principal objections to employing women at sea appear to centre on the

lack of adequate separate facilities for women on board and stringent physical

requirements.

In addition, the perception that seafaring is a man's job can lead to lack of

training and work-experience opportunities for women, compounded by employers'

reluctance to appoint those women that are trained. To break the cycle, adequate

training has a critical role in the integration of women into all spheres of professional

life, with special emphasis on improving accessibility at all levels to potential women

applicants.

2.4 Women in Maritime Industry

Women's status in society and their participation in economic activities are

strongly influenced by religious and traditional social issues and customary patterns

of division of labor. Lower enrolment of girls in technical schools and universities

may stem from these socio-cultural issues with a direct effect on their subsequent

role in a country's commercial and economic structure. (Tansey, 2000) By bolstering

women's education and participation in the economy, society as a whole will benefit.

11

This is the essence of the United Nations Women in Development initiative, which

has been taken up across the United Nations system.

2.5 The IMO Women in Development Program

The aim of the Women in Development program was to make this concept an

integral part of IMO's technical co-operation program, initiated in 1966, which

assists in the strengthening of national and regional maritime capacities through a

variety of maritime-related projects. (Tansey, 2000)

By improving the access of women to all levels of training and employment

in the maritime sector, the technical co-operation program as a whole is

strengthened, not least because women often represent an underused resource in

many countries.

The WID Program is incorporated into the technical co-operation program as

a global, cross-sector element, by focusing on equal access to training through both

mainstream program and gender-specific projects:

The IMO Women in Development (WID) Program was launched in 1989 with the

following development objectives:

To integrate women into mainstream maritime activities;

To improve women's access to maritime training and technology;

To increase the percentage of women at the senior management level within

the maritime sector; and

12

To promote women's economic self-reliance, including access to

employment.

2.6 Promotion of the participation of women in the maritime industry

Pursuant to the request of Parties to the International Convention on

Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers, 1978,

(hereafter referred to as the 1978 STCW Convention) at the eighty-fourth session of

the Maritime Safety Committee of the International Maritime Organization and

subsequent decisions by the Council of the Organization at its one hundredth session

and the Assembly of the Organization at its twenty-sixth session, the Conference was

held at the Philippine International Convention Centre in Manila, the Philippines,

from 21 to 25 June 2010. (Swarlow, 2010)

Under the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification

and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (STCW) 1978, the Conference has adopted the

resolutions from Resolution 3 until Resolution 19, which includes Resolution 14: the

promotion of the participation of women in the maritime industry.

2.6.1 The 2010 Manila Conference

In 2010 Manila Conference, the objective of the resolution 14 is to note the

Long- and Medium-Term Plans for the Integration of Women in the Maritime Sector

developed by the International Maritime Organization, the Conference also noting

the resolution concerning the promotion of opportunities for women seafarers

13

adopted by the International Labor Conference of the International Labor

Organization on 22 February 2006. (Swarlow, 2010)

The STCW 1978 expressing their support for the latter’s aims to promote the

training of women in the maritime sector. They also considering highly desirable that

both men and women have equal access opportunities to maritime training and to

employment on board ship.

The STCW 1978 has invited all the governments under the Conference to

give special consideration to securing equal access by men and women in all sectors

of the maritime industry; and to highlight the role of women in the seafaring

profession and to promote their greater participation in maritime training and at all

levels in the maritime industry.

This involving the governments and the maritime industry to endeavor

considering ways to identify and overcome, at international level, the existing

constraints, such as the lack of facilities for women on board training vessels, so that

women can participate fully and without hindrance in seafaring activities in order to

facilitate effectively the achievement of Millennium Development Goals (MDG) 3,

which is to promote gender equality and empower women.

The interference between governments and maritime industry is important to

support the provision of on-the-job-training opportunities so that women may acquire

the appropriate level of practical experience required to enhance professional

maritime skills.

14

2.6.2 Millennium Development Goals (MDG) Goal 3: To Promote Gender

Equality and Empower Women

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are eight international

development goals that were officially established following the Millennium Summit

of the United Nations in 2000, following the adoption of the United Nations

Millennium Declaration. All 193 United Nations member states and at least 23

international organizations have agreed to achieve these goals by the year 2015.

(United Nation, 2010)

Relating to the issues of women in gender equality and empower of women,

the targets under Goal 3 are:

i. Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, preferably by

2005, and in all levels of education no later than 2015

ii. The world has achieved parity in primary education between girls and boys,

but for girls in some regions, education remains elusive.

iii. The ratio between the enrolment rate of girls and that of boys grew from 91 in

1999 to 97 in 2010 for all developing regions. The gender parity index value

of 97 falls within the plus-or-minus 3-point margin of 100 per cent, the

accepted measure for parity.

iv. Gender inequality persists and women continue to face discrimination in

access to education, work and economic assets, and participation in

government.

v. Globally, women’s share in paid jobs outside of the agricultural sector

increased only slightly from 35 per cent in 1990 to 40 per cent in 2010.

vi. Violence against women continues to undermine efforts to reach all goals.

vii. Poverty is a major barrier to secondary education, especially among older

girls.

viii. Women are largely relegated to more vulnerable forms of employment.

ix. Globally, women occupy only 25 per cent of senior management positions

and, in 2008/2009, were on average paid 23 per cent less than men.

15

x. Business ownership is concentrated in men’s hands throughout the

developing world.

2.7 Women's Participation in Economic Development

2.7.1 Economic Development of Female Employment Patterns by Sector

A number of factors have contributed to the rapid absorption of women into

the labor market. The rapid economic growth was due largely to important growth in

the manufacturing and services sectors, where substantial and proportionally larger

increase of female workers has been registered. In Malaysia, among all sectors of the

economy, the manufacturing sector has recorded the highest growth rate during the

last decade. The manufacturing sector has created about 0.6 million new jobs

between 1990 and 1994 and in 1994 alone provided employment to 1.9 million

people. (Ministry of International Trade and Industry: Malaysia International Trade

and Industry Report, Kuala Lumpur, 1995)

The growth of this sector has led to the mobilization of female labor and

increase in employment, with about 46.4 percent (1990) and 43.4 percent (1995) of

the workers being women. The financial services and the government are major

employers of women and women account for about 60 percent of the total labor force

in these sectors. Agriculture is no longer the major employer of women and the

proportion of female labor in agriculture has declined as well – from 40 percent in

1970 to 30 percent in 1995. Malaysian women have been able to move into relatively

better paying opportunities in other sectors. The proportion of females in the total

labor in manufacturing peaked at nearly 50 percent in 1990, and showed a decline in

the female percentage of the total labor force in 1995. This seems to result from a

trend towards increasing technology-intensive new investments to the concomitant

16

demand for skilled labor, and provides early warning of the need to train female

workers in sunset industries to prepare them for redeployment.

Women have come a long way since those days when they were forced to

disguise as men and assume fictitious names, to be on board a ship. Before 1900, the

only way perhaps for a woman to take part in running a merchant vessel was through

marriage or being the daughter of the captain. It was the world wars (I&II) that

brought in a significant difference in the lives of women seeking a career in shipping

and allied industries.

Women do not dominate any particular segment in maritime, they are present

in all segments related to shipping and allied services. There are several challenges

before women in this industry. The first one is that in some countries half of the

graduates are females, but in the end less than 10 per cent in Europe, 14 per cent in

the US and less than 6 per cent in Asia will be found in a management or board

position. There is lack of awareness among women that this is a viable career path. It

can be noted that the perceptions also barriers to women to enter this field.

The importance of women in the industrial labor force in a developing

country like Malaysia can be analyzed in relation to the new development in the

world economies linked with export-oriented industrialization. Since the 1970s the

influx of multinational companies into Malaysia, especially in the export-oriented

zones is on the increase. This process has systematically linked the national to

international markets, thus expanding the demand for labor force in the industrial

sector, especially the manufacturing sector. Malaysian women have benefited more

than men from such industrialization. The establishment of export-oriented zones in

the 1970s had provided more employment opportunities in the manufacturing sector.

For example, the electronics industry was not only the largest exporter of

manufactured products but also the largest employer in the manufacturing sector, and

more than 75 percent of its workforce consisted of women. Likewise, over 90 percent

17

and about 85 percent of the workers respectively employed by the clothing and

textile industries were mainly females.

2.8 Women Contribution in Economic Productivity

This rise in productivity is quite large by historic standards and brings with it

very significant positive implications for the economy. In particular, increases in

productivity mean larger potential increases in GDP without the same risk of

inflation in an economy where productivity is lower. One calculation suggests that

current output per person is about 10 percent higher than it would have been without

the productivity acceleration. And, in the long run, increases in productivity raise real

wages and allow our children to enjoy a higher standard of living, accumulate greater

wealth, and pay for programs such as Social Security. (Shaw, 2005)

The opportunity that risen for women in every field and more so when we

have come a long way in terms of gender equality. The maritime industry with its

allied areas is no different. Women by nature are more profit conscious, meticulous

and good at multi-tasking. They are also more flexible and are organized. This

augurs well with the ever increasing demands that occur in the maritime industry

more as one has to deal with lot of external factors like customs, shippers, regulators,

unpredictability in weather etc on a day-today basis. (Shaw, 2005)

18

2.9 Women’s contribution at the Workplace

The direct contribution has come about from their role as workers in the paid

economy. First, women are increasingly better educated than men; 68 percent of

women who had recently completed high school were enrolled in an undergraduate

degree granting institution in fall 2002, compared to 62 percent of men. And 9

million women were enrolled in undergraduate and graduate programs in 2001,

compared to 6.9 million men. Second, women have a history of success as team

players and problem-solvers. In surveys, female managers receive lower ratings on

masculine attributes and styles of leadership (task-oriented, directive) but higher

ratings for non-masculine styles (interpersonally oriented, participative). (Eagly &

Carli, 2003)

In the past, when the masculine approach was most valued, this meant that

women faced a substantial uphill battle in being (and being perceived as) effective

leaders, although lab experiments showed women to be more effective when the

roles were defined as less masculine. (Shaw, 2005)

More recently, however, there are signs of a change in the ideal managerial

style, from one in which leaders sit atop a hierarchy and operate by setting objectives

and rewarding those who are successful to one where leaders aim to encourage

commitment and creativity and take on the role of a coach or teacher. Driven by an

economic environment characterized by an accelerated pace of technological change

and intense global competition, this apparent redefinition of the ideal suggests that

women may now have a comparative advantage in key managerial skills that are

associated with firm productivity. Social networks inside the firm have also been

shown to be important, both to women’s advancement and to firm productivity, and

women have always been good at building and maintaining these networks (Shaw,

2005)

19

Women have also contributed indirectly to increases in productivity and long-

run economic growth through unpaid work, both at home raising children and in their

communities. Women are still disproportionately responsible for the valuable activity

of caring for children, and the economic changes associated with the increase in

trend productivity suggest that it has become more valuable than ever to raise

children who are problem-solvers and who can think for themselves. There is a

substantial body of research suggesting that investing in children has a high rate of

return. (Shaw, 2005)

2.10 Violence Against Women

Violence against women is a crime against humanity. It is first and foremost a

violation of human rights. Physical, sexual and psychological abuses are an affront to

the dignity and intrinsic worth of every individual. Rape, trafficking of women and

girls, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation are human rights

abuses that occur too frequently, in too many communities. And no society, not even

in “enlightened” Western Europe, is exempt from the scourge of domestic violence,

robbing a woman of the sanctity and security of her home. (Brandt, 2003)

Violence against women is also a barrier to development. World Vision and

other development agencies have long recognized that only with the active

participation of women can development be sustainable. Development programs that

ignore repression and subjugation of women are doomed to failure. Women are the

primary care givers of children. Meeting the basic needs of children extends to

economic production, whether growing crops, working as petty traders or serving as

corporate executives. (Brandt, 2003)

20

Police

Reports

20

00

20

01

20

02

20

03

20

04

20

05

20

06

20

07 2008 2009 2010

Domestic

Violence

34

68

31

07

27

55

25

55

31

01

30

93

32

64

37

56 3769 3643 3173

Rape 12

17

13

86

14

31

14

79

17

60

19

31

24

54

30

98 3409 3626 3595

Incest 21

3

24

6

30

6

25

4

33

4

29

5

33

2

36

0 334 385

unavail

able

Abuse of

Domestic

Workers

56 66 39 40 66 37 45 39 unavail

able

unavail

able

unavail

able

Child

Abuse

14

6

15

0

12

3

11

9

14

8

18

9

14

1

19

6

unavail

able 203 257

Outrage of

Modesty

(Molestatio

n)

12

34

13

93

15

22

13

99

16

61

17

46

13

49

22

43 2131 2110 2054

Sexual

Harassmen

t in the

Workplace

11

2 86 84 82

11

9

10

2

10

1

19

5

unavail

able

unavail

able

unavail

able

Source: Royal Malaysia Police and Ministry of Women, Family and Community

Development

Table 1: Statistics on Violence against Women in Malaysia (2000 - 2010)

21

2.11 Women and Land-Based Industries

The growth of land-based industries during the first half of the 20th century

helped alter the traditional role of some women in Newfoundland and Labrador

society. Unlike the salt-cod fishery, where women helped cure fish and contributed

much to the household income, there was virtually no place for the female worker in

the new forestry and mining industries. Paper mills, logging operations, and mines

hired almost exclusively male workers, leaving women with few employment

options outside the domestic and retail spheres. (Higgins, 2007)

By excluding female labor, land-based industries made it difficult for some

women to contribute to their household’s income. Men became the major and often

sole provider for the rest of the family. Although some women found work in

industrial centers, it was almost exclusively in the lower paying domestic and retail

spheres. The growth of wage labor and accompanying shift away from the family-

based salt fishery also devalued some subsistence work women traditionally

performed, such as tending the garden.

The number of women involved in decision making in top management

positions in the public sector has increased from 18.8 percent in 2004 to 22.8 percent

in 2008. This positive increase is an achievement in line with the policy introduced

by the government in 2004 to have at least 30% women in decision making at all

levels. This was an effort to reduce the gender imbalance at the decision making-

level, which served as a starting point in recognizing the significant contribution of

women in the public sector. This showed the government’s commitment to promote

women’s advancement at the decision-making level and the participation of women

at the decision-making level was still under represented with the percentage of

women as members of the board of directors declining from 9.9 per cent in 2004 to

6.1 per cent in 2008. (Mohamad, 2009)

22

2.12 Women as seafarers

The number of women going to sea is insignificant, with women representing

just one to two percent of the world's 1.25 million seafarers. Most women at sea are

from developed countries. Women on board ship tend to be found in catering and

administrative services: the proportion of women crew on passenger ships and ferries

is relatively high. Radio-communications is another area employing women.

(Tansey, 2000)

She also said, in European Union fleets, women represent four to five percent

of total workforce of seafarers while in Southeast Asia, the proportion of women is

less than 0.5 percent. In the Philippines - a major supplier of seafarers to the world's

merchant fleets - only 225 women out of 230,000 seafarers appear on the national

seaman's register for 1983-1990. All these women are hired as waitresses or utility

personnel for luxury line operators.

Socio-cultural factors are thought to be behind the extremely low proportion

of women seafarers in some countries. Industry studies suggest that the technological

revolution within the maritime sector is calling for a highly trained workforce,

leaving the sector with an estimated shortfall of some 50,000 officers in the year

2000. Female seafarers are an under-utilized and underdeveloped resource that could

provide part of the solution to the problem of crewing the world merchant fleet.

However, it is clear that to achieve this there is a need for changes in attitude

towards employing women as seafarers, recruitment of women in the shipping sector

generally and increased training opportunities for women.

23

2.13 Shore-based occupations

Women are involved across the spectrum of shore-based employment and

account for 40 to 60 percent of staff in administration of national maritime affairs,

including secretarial support staff, but the number of women in the higher managerial

levels is still low. (Tansey, 2000)

There is also scope for increased representation of women in port services,

maritime radio and electronics, marine pollution prevention control, naval

architecture and marine biology.

2.14 Maritime Administration

Women have an important role to play in maritime administrations and

already work at all levels of national ministries responsible for shipping and ports as

well as other maritime authorities. However, some developing countries rely on

expatriates to fill professional and senior positions in their maritime infrastructure

and extending training to qualified women can help to reduce this dependency.

(Tansey, 2000)

To promote women at the professional level of maritime administration, their

access to appropriate education at the post-graduate level has to be improved. Special

measures such as gender specific fellowships can be a useful tool for encouraging

women candidates. In the sectors of ports and harbor administration, short training

courses would be adequate for all levels of administration personnel. Practical steps

need to be taken in a systematic manner to secure the participation of women in all

branches of maritime administration and port activity.

24

2.15 Technical management of shipping companies

Women make up a significant proportion of shipping companies' staff but

generally remain under-represented at managerial/decision-making levels.

Managerial posts which are occupied by women tend to be in financial, marketing

and training rather than technical or operational divisions.

There are opportunities for women to serve in managerial capacity, for

example as fleet managers, marine or engineering superintendents. Women should be

encouraged to participate in technical training on every level including specialized

short courses, correspondence courses and seminars.

2.16 Maritime training and education

There are over 90 maritime training institutions in more than 60 countries.

Many admit only men or just a small number of women. Female lecturers are in a

minority and tend to provide expertise in courses aimed at shore personnel, in

maritime law and in general subjects such as English language, computer science,

maritime and business studies and shipping management.

Studies suggest an implied need for an additional 170 maritime lecturers

worldwide over the period 1990-2005 to service the needs of the merchant fleets

registered under flags of developing countries. Most gaps will be in nautical studies

and engineering, but lecturers are also needed in maritime law, economics and

shipping insurance.

25

The availability of more opportunities for women could increase the self-

sufficiency of developing countries in their supply of qualified maritime teachers

while providing increased visibility of women as role models in a variety of key

maritime professions.

Women should be encouraged to apply to the national institutions and to

apply for training in technical subjects. At the same time, national and regional

maritime training centers should be encouraged to admit women students with the

requisite educational background.

2.17 Levels of Decision making

Strategic decision-making determines the objectives, resources and policies

of the organization. A major problem at this level of decision making is predicting

the future of the organization and its environment and matching the characteristics of

the organization to the environment. This process generally involves a small group of

high level managers who deal with complex, non-routine problems.

Decision making for management control is principally concerned with how

efficiently and effectively resources are utilized and how well operational units are

performing. Management control requires close interaction with those that are

carrying out the tasks of the organization. It takes place within the context of broad

policies and objectives set out by strategic decision making and the behaviorists have

described, it requires an intimate knowledge of operational decision making and task

completion. Knowledge based decision making deals with evaluating new ideas for

products and services, ways to communicate new knowledge and ways to distribute

information throughout the organization.

26

Decision making for operational control determines how to carry out the

specific tasks set forth by strategic and middle management decision makers.

Determining which units in the organization will carry out the task, establishing

criteria for completion and resource utilization and evaluating outputs all require

decisions about operational control.

2.18 Operational Level in Management

Managers at the operational level in a company occupy the lowest rung in the

management hierarchy. These managers directly supervise employees and may be

known as first-line or front-line managers, supervisors, team leaders or team

facilitators. To operational managers falls the responsibility of the day-to-day

operations that directly affect a company's external customers. This makes the

operational management level crucial to the success of the strategic and competitive

goals of an organization.

Managers at all levels of an organization must carry out certain functions,

including leading, organizing, controlling and planning. The amount of time devoted

to one of these functions varies according to management level. For front-line

managers, the emphasis is on leadership. Operational managers must gain employees'

commitments to goals and plans, the work and to company-wide values. Of all the

management levels, front-line supervisors spend the most time on the leadership

function. Supervisors also organize employees to cover work activities, train and

evaluate staff, and ensure that work meets quality standards.

27

Operational managers account to middle management, which creates tactical

goals and plans that must be realized in a year or less. Operational management

must, in turn, translate the medium-term goals of middle management to short-term

goals and plans that, when carried out, lead to the realization of middle

management’s objectives. The plans of operational management cover short time

periods such as a day, a week or a month. Plans involve the work of individual

employees, the work of teams and departmental activities.

2.19 Women as Decision-Maker

Women play a great role in over all development and progress of the nation.

But their participation in different fields either directly or indirectly is still behind in

many aspects. In most cases, women are considered inferior to men, and their life is

restricted within the four walls of the house. For taking any decision, less power is

given to women, as they have the right to take decisions regarding various items, as

that of the men. So, in order to make women aware about their influence on society,

nation and for attaining their respectable status within the family, the present study

was undertaken. Rights should be given to women, to make decisions regarding

various aspects in the family and society. Thus, the present study is under taken to

highlight the areas where women lag behind in their decision making power. (Jan &

Akhtar, 2008)

According to (Haregwein, 2005), women’s participation and representation in

decision-making bodies involves their enhanced presence as well as their

empowerment through such participation. They emphasized that women’s political

leadership and accountability are key cross-cutting issues. On the one hand, women’s

political leadership allows them to set agendas and, on the other hand, it is in such

roles that they are made responsive to constituencies and publics. This accountability

becomes the cornerstone for not only numerical enhancement of women’s presence

28

but also their ability to transform outcomes, the content and the ways in which policy

actors make public policy.

She also suggested that the existing constitutional, political, legislative, and

regulatory frameworks, particularly in countries in transition and post-conflict states

need to be reviewed, for provisions that may hinder women’s equal participation,

such as rules requiring high numbers of signatures to register as a candidate or high

monetary deposits that can be discriminatory against women candidates. Women also

need to achieve gender parity in all decision-making bodies, by establishing

incremental time-bound targets for increasing women’s representation. In order to

increase the number of women in decision making, women need to be included in

discussions on electoral system reform, such as the impact of proposed electoral

systems, proportional representation, district magnitude and expected party

magnitude, electoral thresholds, boundary delimitation, and closed versus open lists,

and analyze the impact of the proposed changes on gender equality.

2.20 Women as Leader

Women in managerial position appear to enjoy the leadership role, and there

is no evidence to support the contention that women are less efficient managerial

leaders than men. Even so, problems can evolve from proportion of male and female

subordinates who feel uneasy working for a female superior. Apparently, women can

be labeled as ‘bossy’ whereas men are labeled as ‘leaders’. A recent study

investigating responses of male and female managers in American state public

human service organizations found a direct relationship between having been

supervised by a woman and attitudes toward the motivation of women to manager.

(Wee, Ibrahim, & Poerwowidadgo, 2012)

29

The authors suggested that being in direct contact with a woman as superior

may dispel traditional female role stereotypes such as women not being as career

oriented as men. Certainly, dissatisfaction come from subordinates can be a source of

stress for superiors and vice versa. A women who remained in discriminating

organizations, could develop feelings of resentment and became dysfunctional in

terms of leadership and the service they provided for their subordinates and clients.

The frustration or success of a superior is felt acutely by those below her; if a female

manager is able to relay her success and confidence to her subordinates, any doubts

they have about working for her disappear. (Wee, Ibrahim, & Poerwowidadgo, 2012)

2.21 Important Roles of Women

Women as managers of any level are expected to fill interpersonal,

informational and decisional roles in an organization. For the operational manager,

leadership primarily fulfills the interpersonal role. A supervisor fills an informational

role by gathering and disseminating information and knowledge to subordinates and

bosses. Additionally, this role requires the women to represent subordinates to

middle management and other departments. The decisional role involves making

decisions and influencing the choices of others. Women must be especially prepared

to influence others as a disturbance handler. Other decisions include how to allocate

resources, including scheduling employees

There are several complex issues at play in this domain: invisible barriers for

women to move up the corporate ladder, lack of mentoring and training opportunities

for women, lack of an eco-system that respects women in workplace as equals, lack

of a global mind-set that understands the rewards of diversity and inclusivity, and an

aspiration-deficit among some women for leadership roles. In order to overcome

these matters, it need to provided the collective thinking from women executives to

corporate and CEOs on how they need to build best practices for women in the

30

workplace, recognize the differential style of leadership that women can bring to

business, and transition from the best practices to the next practice in leadership. It

also need to mentor women in mid-career and senior levels, for raising their

aspiration levels, providing self-awareness of their roles and responsibilities

navigating the corporate dynamics and male-networks, balancing their home-office

lives, becoming front-line managers and seeking high visibility and rewards.

(Shikari, 2009)

2.22 Time Management of Women

Over the past few years women have been able to make a number of inroads

in achieving management positions yet they continue to be underrepresented in

organizations across the world. The slight improvements at middle management is

still poor and even the recently touted business case of reducing birth-rates and skills

shortage, together with at least twenty six years of equal opportunities and latterly

diversity issues, has failed to achieve equity in achieving at higher levels. Even

where women do achieve they tend to wait longer than male counterparts do. This is

in the face of organizational policies, which purport to actively identify women for

top management roles. (Yearnshire, 2002)

A woman can always create her own mentor by identifying an efficient leader

and begin asking their opinion on particular matters, watching how they manage, at

the same time delivering professional and effective work or assignments of interest.

A woman can in an appropriate way, professionally liaise even taking into account

rank differences. Do not be frightened to give praise upwards without gushing or

being sycophantic. What you are doing is letting the person know an intelligent

operator is being developed, without the adopted mentor doing too much.

31

The socio-economic position of women in societies negatively affects their

participation. Typically, women earn less than men, and the sexual division of labor

in society also imposes burdens on women that are not normally faced by men.

Women often face a triple burden when participating in politics. They have a

responsibility to their work or profession, to their family, and if they become

involved in politics they are effectively taking on a third full-time job. Most societies

fail to organize in a manner that enables both men and women with families to share

these responsibilities, particularly considering that child-rearing responsibilities tend

to fall disproportionately on women. (Haregwein, 2005)

2.23 Method of research

The method of research will be used in this research is Statistical Package for

The Social Science also known as SPSS Software. SPSS is a computer program used

for survey authoring and deployment, data mining, text analytics, statistical analysis,

and collaboration and deployment. SPSS is among the most widely used programs

for statistical analysis in social science. It is used by market researchers, health

researchers, survey companies, government, education researchers, marketing

organizations and others (Bluman A. G., 2012). The methods that been chosen for

conducting this research are multiple regressions line, contingency test, one-way

analysis of variance, and z-test for proportions.

2.24 Conceptual of Framework

Conceptual framework is a structured from a set of broad ideas and theories

that help a researcher to properly identify the problem they are looking at, frame their

32

questions and find suitable literature. Most academic research uses a conceptual

framework at the outset because it helps the researcher to clarify his research

question and aims. (Smyth, 2004)

Figure 1: The Conceptual Framework

• Men monopoly in maritime industry

• The low number of women pursuing study related to maritime industry

Causes

• Number of women in maritime industry is low

• Participation of women in decision-making level and operational level.

Effect

• The number of women in maritime industry will increase in the future

• More higher participation of women in operational level and decision-making level

Expected Outcome

33

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

3.1 Introduction

In this chapter, will be discuss about the instruments or methods used to

conduct the investigation of women behavior and participation in maritime industry

of Northern Region of Malaysia. This chapter consist of three part which are

information about participant, data collection method and data analysis. Furthermore,

this research is directed to give a packed together answer to the research question.

3.2 Population and Sample

Population consists of all subjects (human or otherwise) that are being

studied. (Bluman A. G., 2004). It also refers to the entire group of people, events, or

things of interest that the researcher wishes to investigate. The reasons for using a

sample, rather than collecting data from the entire population, are self-evident. In

research investigations involving several hundreds and even thousands of elements, it

34

would be practically impossible to collect data from, or test, or examine every

element. (Sekaran & Bougie, 2009)

In this research, the population is the Northern Region of Malaysia that

including state of Kedah, Perlis, and Penang. The method that will be used is

randomly sampling. The companies will be selected randomly by their specific

involvement in maritime industry. For examples, shipbuilding, ship-repair, port

authority, port agent, manufacturing, transportation.

3.3 Data Collection Method

The data collection method that used in this report was aimed to investigating

the women contribution and participation in maritime industry. There is a data

collection instruments were used which are survey questionnaire.

3.4 Design of Questionnaire

To obtain the information, the instrument will be used is the survey

questionnaire. The respondent will need to answer the questionnaire and to collect by

the researcher once it is finished. The researcher will go direct to the company, or by

electronic mail as to send the questionnaire. The structured and unstructured

questions will be used. The reason why questionnaire is being used in this project

because, there is no need to spend much cost to make a survey.

On the other hand, this research involves large size of sampling as well as

large geographical area. Another advantages is surveys can be easily conducted and

35

analyze. Tabulation and data entry can be most effective using with computer

software packages. Software that will be used in this research is IBM SPSS Statistics

version 20.

3.5 Survey Questionnaire

The survey questions were used as a source of primary data to investigate the

women contribution and participation in Northern Region of maritime industry. The

survey questionnaires consist of eighteen questions. The questionnaire was divided

into three sections which based on the whole research objectives.

Firstly, the first section of questionnaire is to find the difference between

average number of women involved in decision-making level and operational level.

The question will be formed to find whether decision-making level consists of

women is more than operation level or vice versa. Secondly, this research intends to

analyze the ratio between men and women in maritime companies. It is significantly

to determine the ratio between both genders since the researcher needs to analyze

whether the ratio is becoming larger or vice versa.

Finally, the questionnaire will evaluate the factors that can increase the

influences and contributions in women participations in maritime industry of

Northern Region of Peninsular Malaysia. This is to analyze what and how many

factors and reasons that contributing women to work in maritime company.

Questionnaire will be sent to random companies by a mail and directed to the

company.

36

3.6 Respondents

The population in the Northern Region of Peninsular Malaysia consist any

company who provide, conduct and relate to any type of maritime field. For the

sample of the population, the study will be carried out FIVE (5) randomly selected

companies, chosen by the method of random companies from Northern Region of

Malaysia. Initially, TEN (10) companies have be chosen in order to gather

information about this research, in mutual circumstances, only FIVE (5) companies

were willing to cooperate and be able to answer and respond for those

questionnaires.

From this step, they were invited for completing a questionnaire related to

this research. Average among of them, answering questions in five minutes. A

detailed questionnaire was developed and organized to understand a women

contribution and participation in maritime industry, regarding into several section

that can be analyzed. The questionnaire will serve only kind of topics, issues and

questions regarding to the research objectives.

3.7 Data analysis

SPPS will be used to compute and analysis the data obtain from the random

respondents. SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Science) is a computer program

used for statistical analysis. This analysis instrument will helps researcher to gather

and compute the data for statistical analysis uses so the data can be analyzed and

studied.

37

3.7.1 Paired Sample t-Test

A paired t-test is used to compare two population means where you have two

samples in which observations in one sample can be paired with observations in the

other sample. This test might be occurred when a before-and-after observations on

the same subjects and comparison of two different methods of measurement or two

different treatments where the measurements/treatments are applied to the same

subjects

3.7.2 One-independent t-test

The independent samples t-test is used when two separate sets of independent

and identically distributed samples are obtained, one from each of the two

populations being compared. If there are two independent samples and would use the

unpaired form of the t-test, the randomization is not essential here.

3.7.3 Correlation Coefficient

Correlation Coefficient is a measure of the strength of association or

relationship between two variables. Pearson’s correlation coefficient is a

standardized measure of the strength of relationship between two variables. It can

take any value from −1 (as on variable changes, the other changes in the opposite

direction by the same amount), through 0 (as one variable changes the other doesn’t

change at all), to +1 (as one variable changes, the other changes in the same direction

by the same amount).

38

3.8 Flow chart

Start

Gathering

information and

proposal preparation

Prepare the

collective data

method

Prepared thequestionnaireSubmit Draft Report

Submission ofResearch Proposal

Presentation

Finish

Figure 2: The Flowchart of Final Year Project 1

39

3.9 Research Planning

Research is conducted in two phases, Final Year Project 1 (FYP 1) and

Final Year Project 2 (FYP 2). FYP 1 is conducted in semester 5 (July 2012) within

the duration is 14 weeks. FYP 1 is covered the proposal for the selected research.

FYP 2 is conducted in the next semester which is semester 6 (January 2012) also

within the duration 14 weeks. FYP 2 will contain all the research results which are

the data collected, data processing, the result from analyses and the expected

outcome from this research. The schedule for FYP 1 and FYP 2 as follow:

40

3.3.1 Final Year Project 1 Research Planning

SEMESTER 5 (JULY 2012) (WEEK)

NO ACTIVITIES 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

1 Briefing the Final Year Project title

2 Gather information

3 Proposal preparation

4 Prepared the collective data method

5 Prepared the questionnaire

6 Submitted draft

7 Submission of research proposal

8 Presentation

Table 4: Final Year Project 1 Research Planning

41

3.3.2 Final Year Project 2 Research Planning

SEMESTER 5(JANUARI 2011) (WEEK)

No Activity 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

1 Prepare instrument

2 Collecting data

3 Process data

4 Running method

5 Result analysis

6 Proposed result

7 Report writing

8 Final presentation

9 Report submission

Table 5: Final Year Project 2 Research Planning

42

3.10 Budgeting

Budget For Final Year Project

No Items RM

1 Documentation 50.00

2 Posting 90.00

3 Printing 60.00

4 Transportation Cost 50.00

Total RM 250.00

Table 6: Budgeting for Final Year Project

The table shows that the estimated budgeting for this Final Year Project. The

estimated budget for this project is RM 250.00 where it has been provided by the

university. For the estimation cost, the research for the documentation cost is about

RM50 for the purpose such as A4 papers and filing the proposal. Besides that, it is used

for the stationary that are using while conduct this research making the report and log

book.

To accomplish this research, the researcher need to send out the questionnaire

and set up the interview as the data collected method on this research. Therefore, there

will be a transportation cost such as fuel and the toll cost when researcher is going to the

respondents companies that are related with the marine industry where the estimated

total amount is about RM50.

43

CHAPTER 4: RESULT AND DISCUSSION

4.1 Introduction

The objective of this chapter is to discuss the results that have been obtained

from the research on women participation and contribution to the maritime industry in

Northern Region of Peninsular Malaysia. The research started by collecting data of

respondents from various sources, such as Lumut Maritime Terminal, Boustead Naval

Shipyard, Boustead Langkawi Sdn. Bhd, Asian Slipway Kuala Kedah, Ipoh Cargo

Terminal, and Penang Port Commissioner.

Based on the collected data, it is significant to determine and analyze the output

of the data to meet the research questions and objectives. To achieve this, it is need to be

used Statistical Student Package Software (SPSS) as a medium to solve these questions.

There are three (3) objectives needs to be achieved and those questions needs to be

answered and proven to show the significant of this research.

As long as the questions concerned, the first objective was to determine the range

of women workers in maritime company. This objective is to determine whether the

interval number of women in maritime company of Northern Region of Malaysia. The

second objective is to analyze the ratio between men and women in the maritime

company. It is significant to analyze the ratio between these genders because to

determine which as gender has played more significant contributions to their companies

in terms of number of services, estimation working hours per week, salary per year and

number of leave taking in recent year.

44

The third objective to meet is to specify the influences and contribution towards

their participation in maritime company. By determining this objective, it can be

determined some specific factors and predictors of women efforts and contributions

which needed to increase their work performance and quality in the maritime company.

4.2 Findings and Analysis

4.2.1 Number of Respondent

As been mentioned early in this chapter, there SIX (6) companies that

participated in this research and the total number of respondents is 55 and can be

classified into gender as figure below:

Figure 333:

45

The figure shows the number of total respondents which are 55 people, that

represent 22 male and 32 female and 1 missing value due to only one respondent did not

thick type of gender’s box.

4.2.2 Research Question 1

Does the average number of women involved in the decision-making level differ

from the average number of women involved in operational level in maritime company

of Northern Region of Peninsular Malaysia? α = 0.05

H0: µ1 = µ2

H1: µ1 >µ2 (claim)

Where;

µ1 = average number of women in decision making

µ2 = average number of women in operational level

46

P=0.135>0.05, reject the null hypothesis. Therefore, the decision-making level

significantly difference from the average number of women involved in operational level

in maritime company of Northern Region of Malaysia. It can be concluded that the

number of women involved in decision-making level is higher because women are more

interested in making their career in decision-making level of management rather than

operational level of management.

4.2.3 Research Question 2:

What is the ratio between men and women in maritime companies of the

Northern Region of Peninsular Malaysia?

To find the ratio of two independent samples of men and women, and their

working hours in week, it needs to use the Independent Sample T-Test to determine the

sum of ranks between these two genders.

Ratio between men and women in terms of estimation working hours per week

The ratio between male and female (mean)

47

= 55.82:49.81 ≈ 56:50

The mean in the table above shown that the number of female has more

estimation working hours per week compare to men, and the ratio is 55.82:49.81, and

can be simplified to about 56:50 for men compare to women. It means that men have

more estimation working hours per week than women. It is proven that men have put

more time and willing to do more extra hours compare to women.

H0: μMen = μWomen (The means are equal)

H1: μMen ≠ μWomen (The means are not equal)

P=0.182>0.05, reject the null hypothesis. Therefore, the estimation hours for women

significantly difference from the estimation hours for men

Ratio between men and women in terms of number of years of service in the maritime

company

The ratio between male and female (mean)

= 3.78:6.25 ≈ 4:6

48

The mean in the table above shown that the number of female has more number

of years of service in the company compare to men, and the ratio is 3.78:6.25, and can

be simplified to about 5:11 for men compare to women. It means that women have work

and also can stay longer in the maritime company compare to men. Significantly, men

does not stay longer in the company and more willing to change the atmosphere to earn

more salary and promotion while women has proven to have more loyalty in working

with the company.

H0: μM = μW (The means are equal)

H1: μM ≠ μW (The means are not equal

P=0.006<0.05, do not reject the null hypothesis. Therefore, the number of years of

service of women is not significantly difference from the number of years of service of

men.

Ratio between men and women in terms of the number of days taking for leaving in

recent year

The ratio between male and female (mean)

49

= 16.94:15.38 ≈ 17:15

The mean in the table above shown that the number of men has more number of

leaving in recent year compare to women, and the ratio is 16.94:15:38, and can be

simplified to about 17:15 for men compare to women. It means that men have more

number of taking leave compare to women. Women are more acceptable to take more

leave than men because commonly women have some internal issues according to their

health and body conditions but in this case proven that men are taking more leave during

working days.

H0: μM = μW (The means are equal)

H1: μM ≠ μW (The means are not equal)

P=0.010<0.05, do not reject the null hypothesis. Therefore, the day for leave in recent

year for women is not significantly difference from the days for leave in recent year for

men.

50

Testing the Significance of Pearson’s Correlation Coefficients for Non Parametric

From the correlations matrix table, we can see there are three diagonal variances

correlate between each other. The correlation of estimation working hours per week and

salary per year has strongly positive relationship, +0.645 and significant at the 0.01

level. We can say that as the number of working hours per increase, alongside the salary.

The correlation between years of service in the company and salary per year, and years

of service in the company and estimation working hours per week has shown weak

negative and positive relationship between each others, -0.175 and +0.005, this is

because there are complex interrelationships between variables.

4.2.4 Research Question 3

What are the factors that increase women influences and contributions in their

participations in maritime industry of Northern Region of Peninsular Malaysia?

Correlation test are used to analyze data for “The influences and contribution of

women in the Organization of maritime industry

51

Dependent variables = Decision making, Performance

These variables obtained by selecting the highest two mean between the predictors then

the correlations between the predictors were testing against each other.

The correlation of decision making and performance has weakly positive relationship,

+0.154 and significant at the 0.01 level. It means these two dependent variables have

small effect to each other.

52

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION

4.2 Conclusion

Malaysia is expected to have 55 percent of women in its labor force by 2015,

according to Women, Family and Community Development Ministry's secretary-general

Datuk Dr Noorul Ainur Mohd Nur. According to the World Bank Report, as at 2011, the

female labor force participation rate in Malaysia was 47.9 percent, which was below

average of other East Asia and Pacific countries.

The World Development Report 2012 on Gender Equality and Development says

improving women's access to jobs and economic opportunities could significantly boost

productivity in the region.

Women participation in Northern Region of Malaysia is still considerably low

compare to other industries. As the result, this could lead to lack of confidence and

gender inequality by participating in maritime industries. Most of women have been

found are more interesting to make money by joining decision-making level rather

operational level. Some maritime companies circulated there are no women involving in

their operational level in companies.

53

On the other hand, women has more accurate number of estimation working

hours per week and more number of years of services compare to their gender

counterparts. Which proven that women are taking their jobs more seriously than women

compare to men. It can be said that men are more vulnerable of changing their jobs or

moving to another company. But women also have high number of taking number of

leave according to the outcome. This logically means women are more exposed of

acceptable number of excuses such as maternity issue, their monthly period, children

care, and some related family issues.

Women considerably importance values in diversifying the results to help

improve the quality of the maritime company in Malaysia. Contribution of women in

this sector is very helpful in terms of the internal decision-making where it became an

area of interest to women to venture into it.

In addition, the values to increase the contribution and influence of women in

the maritime sector are influence of various factors. As mentioned, women are

influenced by internal and external criteria of making decision-making, leadership, role,

extra hours work and ability. These criteria will improve the women contribution and

influence toward their participation in maritime company.

The role of women in the development of the maritime industry is very important in

many aspects. Therefore, women should be more involved in to remove factors that

cause lack of involvement of women in this field. The contribution of women is billed in

the realization of Malaysia's economic development in the future. Women today are

pillars of development various fields, including the field of maritime employment. It is

hoped that this study will be used as stepping stone for women to be more open in

54

choosing a job in the maritime field and more competitive with men, so that we as

Malaysians can contribute to the economic development of our country in the future.

5.2 Recommendation

As been expanded in Malaysian 2013 Budget, about RM50 million allocations

for women will be used to train women as company board members to help achieve the

government’s target of having at least 30 percent women at the decision-making level.

The budget would also be used for the Single Mothers Skills Incubator

Programme (I-KIT) in entrepreneurship, and will include all programs that feature the

participation of women in all decision-making level.

In maritime industry, women participation is still being recognized, by

stimulating a several academic and non-academic programs to increase their interest to

participate in maritime in the industry. This is because the number of women in

maritime industry still low compares to other industries and for years this industry been

monopoly by men generally.

Malaysian government also need to set several ground rules when women

working onboard ship. As the ship lies far from the land, the ship is no longer bonding

with the Government rules and will create a certain atmosphere that can lead a number

of disadvantages to the women onboard. By implementing the rules, women will feel

more safe and comfortable to work onboard ship.

55

As far as we concern, the implementation of the rules will create a numerous

change of perceptions on working in maritime industry. This will benefit the maritime

sector itself as it has been supported by gender equality and development. Women now

should and be always treated equal to the men, and should implement a various

programs to achieve the target, which included flexible working hours, working from

home and providing childcare centers at workplaces.

For the recommendation for this research, maritime companies should be opened

to involve in more respective manner in students research about their companies. Some

companies would choose to neglect and reluctant to involve in the research. Generally,

most maritime companies in Northern Region, not willing at all to co-operate in the

student research and not benefit the research overall. This perspective should be changed

in the future to allow more accurate data can be collected and measured should the

companies enabling themselves to participate in future research.

56

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Anderson. (1988). Thinking About Women, 2nd Edition. New York: McMillan.

Aslam, M., & Hassan, A. A. (2003). Development Planning and Regional Imbalances in

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APPENDIX A: RESEARCH QUESTIONNAIRE

This questionnaire is regarding the research on the Statistical Analysis on Women

Contribution and Participation in Maritime Industry at Northern Region of Malaysia

where by the evaluation of analysis can increase the performance of women in Marine

Industry

FINAL YEAR PROJECT

UNIVERSITI KUALA LUMPUR

MALAYSIAN INSTITUTE OF MARINE ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY

(UniKL MIMET)

JALAN PANTAI REMIS, 32200 LUMUT

PERAK DARUL RIDZUAN

TITLE: STATISTICAL ANALYSIS ON WOMEN CONTRIBUTION AND

PARTICIPATION IN MARITIME INDUSTRY AT NORTHERN REGION OF

MALAYSIA

Dear respected Sir/Madam,

This questionnaire is designed to be applied for the Final Year Project (FYP) research

concerning the women contribution and participation in your company. There are FOUR (4)

sections on this questionnaire based on this research:

Section A: General information of respondent

Section B: The range of woman’s workers in the management hierarchy

Section C: The ratio between men & women in maritime companies

Section D: The influences and contribution of women towards in the organization of

maritime industry

The purpose of this research is to apply statistical method and acknowledge the women

contribution and participation in maritime organization based on male and female

respondents.

Your cooperation is fully appreciated. Thank you.

…………………………………………

Mohd Muhaimin bin Abdul Halim

Student Final Year Project (UniKL MIMET)

Handphone : 019 – 553 4507

Email: maxsevenhead@gmail.com

…………………………………………

Mdm. Fauziah Bt. Ab Rahman

Supervisor / Lecturer of UniKL MIMET)

Phone : 05-6909054

Email: fauziahabra@mimet.unikl.edu.my

Section A: General information of respondent

Question 1:

What is your type of gender?

Male

Female

Question 2:

What is your age in this year?

Below 20

21 – 30

31 – 40

Above 40

Question 3:

What is your type of race?

Malay

Chinese

India

Others (please state)

……………………………………………………………………………...

Question 4:

What is your type of religion?

Islam

Buddhist

Hindu

Christian

Others (please state)

……………………………………………………………………………...

Question 5:

What is the highest qualification of education that you hold?

SPM

STPM/Diploma

Bachelor

Master/PhD

Other (please specify)

………………………………………………………………………………

Question 6:

Is it your highest qualification related to marine industry?

Yes

No

Question 7:

What is your expertise and specialty in this organization?

Engineering

Construction

Management

Others (please specify

……………………………………………………………………………...

Question 8:

What is your fixed working hour?

Less than 8 hours + OT

8 hours + 4 hours OT

8 hours without OT

More than 8 hours + OT

Question 9:

Which department you currently working?

Accounting/Financial

Human Resource

Operation

Technical/Engineering

Others (please specify)

……………………………………………………………………………...

Question 10:

What is company’s services offer for the maritime industry?

Construction/Engineering

Logistics

Port Authority

Ship repair/Shipbuilding

Others (please specify)

……………………………………………………………………………...

Section B: The range of woman’s workers in the management hierarchy

Question 1:

Which of the following occupation groups that best describe the most of women

group job at present?

Top manager & senior administrator

(e.g. President, managing director, chief executive officer)

Middle managers (e.g. division manager, project leader)

Other occupations (e.g. clerk, accountant, operator, secretary, assistant)

Question 2:

What is the range number of female worker in your department/management level?

0 – 5

6 – 10

11 – 15

16 – 20

More than 20

Question 3:

What is the range number of women workers in terms of age in your

department/management level?

21-30

31-40

More than 40

Question 4:

What is the average number of women workers which involved in the operational

level?

0-10

11-20

More than 20

Question 5:

What is the average number of women workers which are involved in the decision

making level?

0-10

11-20

More than 20

Question 6:

What is the average number of women workers in terms of age which involved in the

operational level?

21-30

31-40

More than 40

Question 7:

What is the average number of women workers in terms of age which are involved in

the decision making level?

21-30

31-40

More than 40

Question 8:

At what age do you think women are suitable to enter the decision making level in a

company?

21-30

31-40

More than 40

Question 9:

Describe the level of importance of women workers in the company?

High

Low

Not Sure

Question 10:

Which level in the management level do you think will suits women workers best in

the company?

Operational level

Decision making level

Not Sure

Section C: The ratio between men & women in maritime companies

Question 1:

What is your estimation for working hours per week? (Including overtime)

____________________________________________________________________

Question 2:

Basically, how long (in years) you have been work in this company?

____________________________________________________________________

Question 3:

Basically, how much salary you get per year?

____________________________________________________________________

Question 4:

How many days do you take for leave in recent year? (Including MC’s)

____________________________________________________________________

Question 5:

Thinking about the type of work you personally do, is it done at this workplace

Only by men

Mainly by men

Equally by men and women

Mainly by women

Only by women

Question 6:

Based on your opinion, are the female workers are being treated equally and fairly

like men?

Yes

No

Not sure

Question 7:

How much percentage for men and women employee in this company?

70% men and 30% women

50% men and 50% women

70% women and 30% men

Question 8:

How do you rank your overall work performance compare to your gender

counterparts?

Top 15%

Above average

Average

Below average

Bottom 15%

Question 9:

What do you think about the performances about women and men?

Men > Women (Men better woman)

Women > Men (Women better men)

Question 10:

How do you rate the gender counterpart’s performance in your company, in scale

between 1 to 10? (1 = Poor, 10 = Excellence)

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Section D: The influences and contributions of women towards in the

organization of maritime industry

Instruction: Please circle once for each of the following questions below

1 2 3 4 5

Very disagree Disagree Not sure Agree Very Agree

1. Women make judgment and decision based on their knowledge and skills

1 2 3 4 5

2. Women can be a leader in maritime industry and can be a role model for the

public.

1 2 3 4 5

3. Women play a vital role in development of maritime industry.

1 2 3 4 5

4. Women found themselves available and interest to make extra hours work.

1 2 3 4 5

5. Women manage to give their utmost abilities to perform their jobs.

1 2 3 4 5

6. Women are generally stereotype toward in making decision.

1 2 3 4 5

7. Women need men to be their leader in the organization of maritime industry.

1 2 3 4 5

8. Women play a minor role in the development of maritime industry.

1 2 3 4 5

9. Women like to take leave during working days.

1 2 3 4 5

10. Women share little values of their work in the organization of maritime industry.

1 2 3 4 5