SHAH ALAM, Sept 4 — When Syarinie welcomed her first child at 31, she was forced to make a difficult decision. Her long commutes to work, coupled with growing family commitments, left her struggling to balance the demands of career and motherhood.
“By the time I got home from work, I barely had the energy to spend quality time with my baby. It felt like I was missing out on the most important moments of my child’s life,” she told Media Selangor.
On top of the exhaustion, she found that her salary no longer justified the sacrifices she was making. After deducting childcare and transport costs from her paycheque, she felt that what remained wasn’t worth it.
“I wanted to continue my career, but there was simply no room to breathe. At the end of the day, I chose my family, but it wasn’t easy.”
Syarinie’s story is far from unique; she is just one of many Malaysian women who have been forced to make the same difficult choice between career and family. For many, the decision is compounded by workplace policies that remain far from supportive of working mothers.
According to a recent World Bank survey on inclusive employment practices, although 60 per cent of firms in Malaysia acknowledge that hiring women boosts productivity and talent attraction, 40 per cent still view it as costly due to requirements such as childcare support, nursing rooms, and maternity-related compliance.
This perception often translates into fewer opportunities for women, who continue to be underrepresented in Malaysia’s workforce, especially in construction, agriculture, and manufacturing sectors, as well as in mid- and high-level positions within large firms.
The World Bank report also found that while most women are hired in their early career years between 21 and 30, many leave the workforce in their 30s and do not return, creating a talent drain at the peak of their productivity.
‘Extra cost’ a myth
Women’s Aid Organisation (WAO) said hiring women should never be viewed as a burden but as a strategic investment that drives business growth, stressing that cost-based narratives such as expenses for maternity leave or childcare only hamper real progress toward gender equality.
“This view reinforces outdated gender roles and shifts the responsibility of care disproportionately onto women, further entrenching structural inequalities,” WAO executive director Nazreen Nizam told Media Selangor.
“When firms fixate on the perceived ‘extra cost’ of hiring women, they ignore the broader systemic value women bring to the workforce. It also legitimises discriminatory hiring practices under the guise of financial pragmatism.
“True gender equality requires recognising that enabling women to participate in the workforce is not a burden, but a necessary step for a sustainable, inclusive economy.”
Nazreen said many employers wrongly assume hiring women, especially mothers, reduces productivity and adds costs, despite evidence showing that inclusive policies like flexible work and childcare support improve retention, cut turnover, and boost employee satisfaction.
To challenge these biases, she said discussions need to be reframed — from asking what it costs to support women, to what it costs not to.
“Firms suffer higher attrition, loss of skilled talent, and repetitional damage when they fail to support gender-diverse teams. Public discourse should amplify success stories where inclusive policies boost performance and show that gender equity is a competitive advantage, not a compromise.”
Stronger support system needed
Like Syarinie, Banting-born Sally, 48, faced similar struggles and left her job after her daughter was born premature in 2016.
For seven months, Sally lived in the hospital caring for her baby, and with no nearby family able to help, she felt uneasy leaving her fragile child with strangers.
For her, the lack of workplace flexibility and affordable childcare left little room to balance both roles, forcing her to give up employment altogether.
“I chose to focus on my daughter and family and become a full-time mother, putting my career on hold.”
While she does not measure her sacrifice in lost salary or career prospects, Sally believes stronger support systems could help mothers like her remain connected to the workforce.
“If it had been known at birth that my child was premature, agencies like the Social Welfare Department (JKM) could have provided home visits and support, not just financial aid but also opportunities for part-time jobs to ease the burden,” she said.
World Bank country manager for Malaysia Judith Green said in July that the country’s ageing population and dwindling workforce show there is an urgent need to strengthen women’s participation in the labour market.
Despite Malaysian women being better educated than men on average, their labour force participation rate remained low at 56.2 per cent in 2023, below the government’s 60 per cent target, and behind other Southeast Asia countries such as Thailand (68 per cent), Vietnam (70 per cent), and Singapore (76 per cent).
Strategic investment to retain women
Talent Corporation Malaysia Bhd (TalentCorp), an agency under the Human Resources Ministry mandated to drive Malaysia's talent strategy, said retaining women in the workforce should be seen as a strategic investment rather than a cost.
In an email reply to Media Selangor, TalentCorp group chief executive officer Thomas Mathew said that although women outnumber men in higher education, their disproportionately low labour force participation reflects not only an underutilisation of talent but also a missed opportunity for Malaysia’s economic productivity.
He added that replacing employees is far costlier than supporting women through childcare or flexible work.
“Studies show replacing an employee can cost up to twice their annual salary, while childcare benefits or lactation rooms require modest investment yet deliver significant returns.”
To address the issue, Mathew said TalentCorp has rolled out programmes such as the Career Comeback Programme, Wanita MyWira, and the Women-Industry Network (WIN), along with federally backed incentives like tax deductions for hiring returning women, flexible work arrangements, and caregiving leave.
“Our message to employers is simple: women are not a liability, they are among the strongest sources of capability, creativity, and innovation.”
Nazreen echoed this sentiment, saying that framing women as a financial burden is short-sighted and counterproductive, and that supporting working mothers with flexible work, parental leave, and childcare “makes business sense”.
She argued that women’s workplace needs must be recognised as fundamental rights in a modern economy, and urged the government to play a stronger role by expanding tax incentives for childcare and introducing per-child subsidies for flexible care, among others.
“These measures can reduce risks for companies and prove that gender-supportive policies are not charity, but scalable strategies for workforce growth. Linking incentives to ESG (environmental, social, and governance) or procurement benefits could further embed inclusion as a core business strategy,” Nazreen said.
