Thai, Malaysian women progress in education, business: Survey

Thai, Malaysian women progress in education, business: Survey

Associated Press, Singapore

Women in Malaysia and Thailand enjoy higher socio-economic levels
than in other Asia-Pacific nations, according to a survey
released on Monday.

The survey of 300-350 women each in a total of 13 countries
rated labor force participation, level of education, managerial
positions and higher incomes.

It was conducted by MasterCard International ahead of
International Women's Day on Tuesday. There was no margin of
error.

Thailand topped the study with the highest overall index of
92.3, partly due to the large number of educated women there.

A score above 100 shows gender inequality in favor of women
and a score below 100 shows inequality in favor of men, according
to the survey.

Malaysia was second with an overall index of 86.2. Malaysia
had a high number of women in managerial positions, the study
showed.

"Thai and Malaysian women are more confident than women in
other societies," said Yuwa Hedrick-Wong, economic adviser to
MasterCard International in the Asia-Pacific. "Thai society, in
some interesting way, gives a lot of opportunities to women to
participate in business life."

Hedrick-Wong said 66 percent of people in the Thai medical
sector are women, and that he believed the high labor force
participation rate in Malaysia and Thailand will make them "the
high-growth income societies in years to come."

Japan, Indonesia and South Korea were last on the list.
Singapore was in eighth place, with an index of 61.3.

The survey was conducted in Australia, China, Hong Kong,
Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, the
Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.