MONDAY, MARCH 15, 2021 .
NewStraitsTimes
INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY
Women are what they are on the basis of biology, not identity
L
AST week in the United
Kingdom, a case was
brought before the High
Court by a female inmate
who was allegedly sexually as-
saulted by a trans woman inside
the facility. It is yet another in-
cident that spotlights the British
government’s reckless policy of
placing men who identify as
women in female-only detention
centres.
On the eve of International
Women’s Day (IWD), Swiss voters
approved a law banning Muslim
women from wearing face veils in
public. Two days later, Torrey Pe-
ters became the first trans wom-
an nominated for the Women’s
Prize for Fiction, supposedly
BREAKING GLASS CEILING
Time to embrace female leadership
LAST week, the world celebrated
International Women’s Day. This
year ’s theme was “#Cho os e-
ToChallenge”, the choice to em-
power, and support women (or
men) to challenge discrimination
based on gender and to achieve
equality.
In the past year, in the face of a
global health crisis, it has been
suggested that nations with
women leaders have shown bet-
ter leadership, which led to better
management of the pandemic.
Women le ader s, like New
Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda
Arden, have become the standard
of exemplary leadership during
times of crises as seen by how she
handled the Christchurch terror-
ist attack in 2019 and the Covid-19
pandemic last year.
awarded annually for “outstand-
ing, ambitious, original fiction”
written in English by women.
These represent the increasing
demeaning of biologically born
women in the West, as well as
raise a symbolic and sardonic set
of quotation marks around the
annual day dedicated to women.
Dedicated feminists, including
renowned author J.K Rowling,
continue to be attacked and can-
celled over voicing their concern
over this ludicrous trend taking
root within Western society in
general.
Women are what they are on
the basis of their biology, not
identity, despite what these trans
activists proclaim. This raises the
question of what does it mean to
recognise and celebrate women,
when the category is losing its
meaning.
The above incidents illustrate
the clear denial of Western wom-
en’s rights, women’s safety, wom-
en’s opportunities, and the value
placed on the role of women
within the public sphere. Yet,
during the week of IWD, they re-
ceive little attention, thanks to
To understand how we can pro-
pel women forward and encour-
age women’s leadership in var-
ious sectors, there are many steps
to take.
However, the most basic one is
to ensure a deep understanding
of the value of women’s leader-
ship. This can be done in two
ways:
FIRSTLY, the understanding of
leadership must first be broken
down — it has long been defined
and associated with characteris-
tics associated with masculinity.
“Good” leadership does not nec-
essarily translate to a “strong”
one, which can be said to be a
masculine characteristic.
Margaret Thatcher, the first fe-
male British prime minister, has
proven to be a controversial fig-
ure as her leadership style was
seen as masculine, which made
many question the extent of the
glass ceiling she broke.
SECONDLY, push-and-pull fac-
tors must be recognised and act-
ed upon. To encourage women’s
leadership in various sectors,
governments, institutions and
society need to realise that var-
ious factors lead to gradual
changes and the responsibility is
the trans lobby-supporting main-
stream media.
UK trans activists have voiced
concerns over the government’s
move to revert to the previous
policy of placing only biological
women in female prisons — de-
spite the clear danger biologically
born men pose even if they self-
identify as women.
Yet, prohibiting face veils in
Switzerland; the so-called “burqa
ban”, depriving women of their
religious freedom and the liberty
to choose their attire, was her-
alded as liberatory. The nomina-
tion of a biologically male author
for the Women’s Prize for Fiction
— yet another invasion of female-
only spaces by men who think
they are women, and the denial of
an opportunity to another female
author — was trumpeted as a
great progressive advance.
All this marks a decline within
the West for the respect of women
generally. A little over a month
before IWD, United States Pres-
ident Joe Biden issued an exec-
utive order that prohibited fe-
male-only spaces across various
sectors of society. Thus, promot-
on everyone, no matter how
young or old, to take action.
Push factors include providing
words and mechanisms of en-
couragement and support for
girls and young women to have
ambitions.
These ambitions are beyond
the norm that the community has
imposed on them, to allow them
to break glass ceilings so that
women can take on leadership
roles despite there never having
been a female leader in a certain
country or organisation, or that
their voices should be heard even
though the room is full of men.
Pull factors come in the form of
how institutions encourage and
provide space for female leader-
ship. Such campaigns are exem-
plified by the “30 per cent club”, a
global campaign with a presence
in Malaysia, that pushes and
pulls women to ensure calls for
diversity are heard for women to
be more involved in senior-level
management.
Admittedly, these come with
risks as they can lead to cases of
tokenism. Bearing that in mind,
we cannot ignore the main aim
which is the basic need to provide
space for women instead of just
Opinion / NEWS
ing what women’s rights cam-
paigners describe as “the erasure
of women”.
Alliance Defending Freedom
legal counsel Christiana Hol-
comb said about the order: “We’re
going to see an impact in the
sports context but far beyond
that as well. Especially in health-
care and women’s shelters and
restrooms and locker rooms. It’s a
scary prospect for the future...”
I would agree with the last
statement, with one amendment:
“in the West”. America and Eu-
rope are in the grips of a strange
ideological fog, and women are
the worst impacted. In Malaysia,
the region generally, and in most
of the non-Western world, we do
not suffer the same confusion.
Women in Malaysia do not
need to worry about men invad-
ing their spaces, denying them
their religious freedom, or appro-
priating resources and services
dedicated exclusively to women’s
empowerment and success.
Malaysian women will be ready
to protest such gross invasion of
their privacy and violation of the
right to their private spaces. The
There is a need to instil a deep understanding of why women are
needed in discussions and how diversity in institutions can provide
valuable input. FILE PIC
men in giving input, and diver-
sifying conversations.
While the recommendations
set out in this article are straight-
forward, they are important.
There is a need to instil a deep
understanding of why women are
needed in discussions and why
diversity in institutions is re-
quired so they can provide valu-
able input.
While there is a need to impose
and showcase efforts of diversity,
| 11
theme of this year’s IWD was
“#Choo seToChallenge”, but it
seems in the West that the main
challenges are how to define
what a woman is and the chal-
lenge by men who identify as fe-
male to gain access to every ac-
commodation afforded to biolog-
ical women.
These represent the undoing of
decades of progress for women in
the Western world, and it is pass-
ing almost entirely without com-
ment. In a time where liberty has
no clear guide where to draw the
lines, we need to fall back on the
basic nature of our very creation.
In biology, there is no confu-
sion on the definition of gender,
so why should we? IWD organ-
isers would do well to use the
event to highlight this systematic
oppression of women being pur-
sued at an accelerated pace in the
West under the guise of “inclu-
sion” and “tolerance”, and look to
the wider world on how to
achieve real progress.
The writer is founder, Centre for Hu-
man Rights Research & Advocacy
(CENTHRA)
there is a greater need to ensure
that those who make these
changes understand why they are
needed.
The push for more women’s
leadership, after all, will require
not just women’s efforts, but ev-
eryone’s too.
The writer is a senior researcher at
ISIS Malaysia’s Social Policy Depart-
ment with emphasis on women’s is-
sues