Page 148 - RESEARCHER PROFILE BOOK

YEAR
2024

Gender Studies Programme

About The department

The Gender Studies Program (GSP) was officially established
in the academic session 1994/1995 under the Dean’s Office of
the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. It is the first in
Malaysia to offer a systematic undergraduate program in
gender studies to meet the needs of the nation to
mainstream gender and is in line with the United Nations
Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5 to achieve gender
equality. The multidisciplinary program offers various courses
including on family, work, development, religion, politics,
media, law, masculinity, sexuality and science and
technology with gender as the main analytical tool. These
courses address gender issues in contemporary Malaysian
society and globally from gender stereotypes, gender-based
violence, gendered impact of COVID-19, discrimination at
work to generally unequal gender power relations in various
institutions as it intersects with other dimensions, for
example, class, ethnicity and citizenship. Significantly, policy
responses for redressal are also explored.

The academic staff with multi-disciplinary background have
been appointed or consulted for their expertise, for example,
by the Ministry of Women, Family and Community
Development in committees to enact a standalone Sexual
Harassment Act, and an Anti-Discrimination Against Women
Act, by Team Selangor, a program under the Selangor
government for their youth advocacy program on gender
and gender-based violence, by universities academic staff
associations to design and run workshop to address sexual
harassment in campuses, and by the Universiti Malaya for the
Asia-Pacific Women in Leadership Program.

144 | fass researcher profile book 2024