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Malaysia: Middle-Equality Trap

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The Palgrave Handbook of Women’s Political Rights

Part of the book series: Gender and Politics ((GAP))

Abstract

Welsh’s chapter delves into the political achievements and obstacles that Malaysian women have made over the last six decades. Led primarily by the elitist Malay chauvinist United Malays National Organization or UMNO, working in a coalition known as the Barisan Nasional (BN or National Front) with other ethnic or region-based parties in a highly ethnicized polity, the chapter outlines the struggles women faced have both been facilitated and hampered by the political system’s structural conditions. Malaysia’s economy is caught in the “middle-income trap”—stuck in between low and high per capita incomes. The same can be said for women’s empowerment, as the accomplishments of the past have become overshadowed by the stagnation of the present.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Political Science and International Affairs, John Cabot University, Rome, Italy

    Bridget Welsh

Authors
  1. Bridget Welsh
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada

    Susan Franceschet

  2. Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA

    Mona Lena Krook

  3. McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada

    Netina Tan

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© 2019 The Author(s)

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Cite this chapter

Welsh, B. (2019). Malaysia: Middle-Equality Trap. In: Franceschet, S., Krook, M.L., Tan, N. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Women’s Political Rights. Gender and Politics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59074-9_23

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