E-commerce : the opportunities and challenges for women at home / Noor Aishah Mohd Salleh

Unless you are living in a high mountain without any electricity supply and cannot be reached by any printed media, you must have heard about the term e-commerce. The word e-commerce has been used again and again from various media whether it is from radio, television or printed materials. When the computer was first introduced in 1946, nobody can ever imagine that this machine will extensively change the way human beings lead their lives. A few decades later the Internet was introduced by the US Department of Defense's Advanced Research Projects Agency network. It has changed the way people work, study and even the way they live. With the growth of the Internet, e-commerce has become an important part of today's businesses. E-commerce is a growing aspect of the business community. This formally is the use of digital transactions between and among businesses and individuals. The year 1994 saw the starts of the Internet connection in Malaysia. In just less than ten years after that, the Internet has experienced a rapid growth in terms of the network infrastructure, the number of the Internet users, etc. There have been reports on some successes, particularly in technology, business-to-business and niche markets. The potential for businesses to prosper in the world of e-commerce will certainly continue to grow. The questions now: How does this new phenomenon affect women at home in Malaysia? Can e-commerce create opportunities for this group? What are the challenges they need to face? As we know in Malaysia, women have the same social, political and economic status as men. They can even participate in the decision and economy development. This paper is trying to provide answers to the above questions by looking at the applications of e-commerce in Malaysia and consequently identifying possible opportunities and challenges for those women who especially at home.