Abstract
The meaning of femininity not only varies in different societies but also in different segments of a society. This chapter explores the meaning and understanding of femininity in everyday life. The data for this chapter were collected using an in-depth interview technique with 15 Malay women and 15 Malaysian Indian women in Malaysia aged 18–30 years old. They were selected using a purposive sampling technique. All participants were highly educated and lived in an urban area in Malaysia. After the interviews were transcribed, the data were analysed to identify common themes in the meaning of femininity among these women. Three main themes were identified: an essentialist view of femininity; traditional gender roles and spaces, and masking empowerment. Many participants understood gender from an essentialist perspective. Women are naturally made to have characteristics which are considered feminine. In addition to this, they also highlighted the constraints experienced by them in everyday life due to the expected norms of femininity. Women also talked about masked empowerment, a strategy they used either to fit into the notion of emphasized femininity or to pursue empowered femininity by not overtly challenging the cultural norms of femininity. Women use this strategy to be able to exercise their agency and to play the role of a cultural carrier in their society.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Budgeon, S. (2013). The dynamics of gender hegemony: Femininities, masculinities and social change. Sociology, 48(2), 317–334. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038513490358.
Connell, R. W. (1987). Gender and power. Oxford: Polity Press.
Department of Statistics. (2017). Current Population Estimates, Malaysia, 2016–2017. Retrieved from https://www.dosm.gov.my/v1/index.php?r=column/cthemeByCat&cat=155&bul_id=a1d1UTFZazd5ajJiRWFHNDduOXFFQT09&menu_id=L0pheU43NWJwRWVSZklWdzQ4TlhUUT09.
Department of Statistics. (2018). Principal Statistics of Labour Force, Malaysia, 2017. Retrieved from https://www.dosm.gov.my/v1/index.php?r=column/pdfPrev&id=aEdIelhlVTBtOHhjOUxqcXhyc2pCUT09.
Devasahayam, T. W. (2005). Power and pleasure around the stove: The construction of gendered identity in middle-class south Indian Hindu households in urban Malaysia. Women’s Studies International Forum, 28(1), 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2005.02.001.
Elhadary, Y., & Samat, N. (2015). Malaysia towards Zero Poverty by 2020. Paper presented at the Proceedings of International Conference on Development and Socio Spatial Inequalities 2015.
Floyd, J. (2004). Coming out of the kitchen: Texts, contexts and debates. Cultural Geographies, 10, 61–73.
Golkowska, K. (2017). Qatari women navigating gendered space. Social Sciences, 6(4), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci6040123.
Healey, L. (1999). Gender, power and the ambiguities of resistance in a Malay community of Peninsular Malaysia. Paper presented at the Women’s Studies International Forum.
Ibrahim, R., & Hassan, Z. (2009). Understanding singlehood from the experiences of never-married Malay Muslim women in Malaysia: Some preliminary findings. European Journal of Social Sciences, 8(3), 395–405.
Karupiah, P. (2016a). Hegemonic femininity in Tamil movies: Exploring the voices of youths in Chennai, India. Continuum 30(1), 114–125. https://doi.org/10.1080/10304312.2015.1117574.
Karupiah, P. (2016b). Marital Status and the Influence of Emphasized Femininity on the Romantic Relationships of Tamil Single Mothers in Malaysia. In S. L. Blair (Ed.), Contemporary perspectives in family research (Vol. 10, pp. 375–393). Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
Karupiah, P., & Gopal, P. S. (2018). Intimate partner violence and poverty: Malaysian Indian women in Penang, Malaysia. In Global currents in gender and feminisms: Canadian and international perspectives (pp. 225–236). Emerald Publishing Limited.
Lau, K. (2016). Problematizing femininity in slimming advertisements. Pertanika Journal of Social Sciences & Humanities, 24(4).
Mason, R., & Omar, A. S. (2003). The “Bumiputera Policy”: Dynamics and dilemmas. Kajian Malaysia, 21(1&2), 1–12.
Ministry of Higher Education. (2017). Higher Education Statistics 2017. Retrieved from https://www.mohe.gov.my/muat-turun/awam/statistik/2017-3/469-statistik-pendidikan-tinggi-2017-bab-1-makro-institusi-pendidikan-tinggi.
Ministry of Women Family and Community Development. (2016). Quick Facts Wanita. Retrieved from https://www.kpwkm.gov.my/kpwkm/uploads/files/Penerbitan/Buku%20Penerbitan/QuickFactsWanita.pdf.
Ng, C., & Jung, P. Y. (2016). Eradicating extreme poverty: Malaysian indicators and issues. Paper presented at the UN ESCAP Expert Consultation Workshop SDD for the SDG Indicators: What Now?, Bangkok. http://www.unescap.org/sites/default/files/Session_2Aa_Women_in_poverty_Cecilia_Ng.pdf.
Ng, C., & Tan, B. H. (2014). Converging rights: Women, gender, and development in multiethnic Malaysia. In C. Ng, N. Endut, & R. Shuib (Eds.), Our lived realities: Reading gender in Malaysia (pp. 26–42). Penang: Penerbit USM.
Othman, N. (1998). Islamization and modernization in Malaysia: Competing cultural reassertions and women’s identity in a changing society. In R. Wilford & R. L. Miller (Eds.), Women, ethnicity and nationalism: The politics of transition (pp. 147–166). London: Routledge.
Paechter, C. (2018). Rethinking the possibilities for hegemonic femininity: Exploring a Gramscian framework. Women’s Studies International Forum, 68, 121–128.
Riddell, P. G. (2005). Islamization, civil society and religious minorities in Malaysia. In K. S. Nathan & M. H. Kamali (Eds.), Islam in Southeast Asia: Political, social and strategic challenges for the 21st century (pp. 162–190). Singapore: ISEAS.
Sahoo, S. (2015). Femininity and the feminine mystique. Journal of East-West Thought, 5(4), 67–76.
Schippers, M. (2007). Recovering the feminine other: Masculinity, femininity, and gender hegemony. Theory and Society, 36(1), 85–102. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11186-007-9022-4.
Scraton, S., & Watson, B. (1998). Gendered cities: Women and public leisure space in the ‘postmodern city’. Leisure Studies, 17(2), 123–137. https://doi.org/10.1080/026143698375196.
Shuib, R., Endut, N., Ali, S. H., Osman, I., Abdullah, S., Oon, S. W., et al. (2013). Domestic violence and women’s well-being in Malaysia: Issues and challenges conducting a national study using the WHO multi-country questionnaire on women’s health and domestic violence against women. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 91, 475–488. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.08.445.
Stivens, M. (1998). Sex, gender and the making of the new Malay middle classes. In K. Sen & M. Steven (Eds.), Gender and power in affluent Asia (pp. 101–140). London: Routledge.
Stivens, M. (2006). ‘Family values’ and Islamic revival: Gender, rights and state moral projects in Malaysia. Women’s Studies International Forum, 29(4), 354–367. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2006.05.007.
Syed, M. A. M., & Hamzah, A. (2011). Malay women as discerning viewers: Negotiating images of transnational modernity in Asian soap operas. Paper presented at the 2011 International Conference on Social Science and Humanity, Singapore.
Tong, J. K.-C., & Turner, B. S. (2008). Women, piety and practice: A study of women and religious practice in Malaysia. Contemporary Islam, 2(1), 41–59. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11562-007-0038-3.
Acknowledgements
The original version of this paper was commissioned by the Asian Association of Women’s Studies (AAWS) as part of the Korea-ASEAN Collaborative Research Project supported by the ASEAN-ROK Cooperation Fund.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Karupiah, P. (2019). Femininity in Everyday Life: Experiences of Malay and Indian Women in Malaysia. In: Cuervo, H., Miranda, A. (eds) Youth, Inequality and Social Change in the Global South. Perspectives on Children and Young People, vol 6. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-3750-5_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-3750-5_8
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-13-3749-9
Online ISBN: 978-981-13-3750-5
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)