How Women Matter: Gender Representation in Malaysia's 14th General Election.

While Malaysia's 14th general election (GE14) saw unprecedented numbers of women standing as candidates, they ended up only as a tiny 11% of elected representatives. The political space for women is restricted due to socio-cultural barriers and patriarchy within political institutions. However, the data in GE14 shows that women hold a higher winning percentage, effectively creating a reverse gender gap in terms of winning percentages. Additionally, women were also able to compete with men in mixed gender constituencies, and their winnability was comparable to the men. The low percentage of women as elected representatives stems from the fact that there were not enough female candidates to emerge as a viable force in the contestation for seats. The inadequate presence of female candidates resulted in the inability to fulfil the promise of minimum 30% women in the legislature and the executive, which, in turn, is arguably impeded by coalition politics in Malaysia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]