The public perception towards women's representation in the Sabah state legislative assembly : a study in Luyang constituency (N16) / Sharifah Nursyahidah Syed Annuar and Vanessa Pius

Despite the strong encouragement from the international organizations and the government, little is known about the perspective of the public towards women in politics. Hence, this study provides a review of the political atmosphere which explores the state of the public's perception towards women's representation in the Sabah State Legislative Assembly. The findings indicated that the public had a positive perception towards the women representatives and their role in the Sabah State Legislative Assembly yet only 30.5 percent of them had more confidence in women representatives. Most of them also agreed that their culture and religious belief have no problem if the women involve in politics. Moreover, only 48.8 percent of the respondents agreed that they were aware of the 30 percent quotas for women in government affairs even though 63 percent of them were aware of the needs for more women to be representatives. The findings also showed that the male respondents did not prefer women representatives compared to the female respondents. The most likely explanation is men has single out women in politics.