Abstract
This paper attempted to critically analyse the social/cultural issues faced by women in SME’s located in Penang Island in the heart of Malaysia. Further, it aimed to evaluate the motives and the impact of changing jobs among the Female Factory Workers (FFW) at the SME factories located in Penang Island. SME’s are mainly based on 5 to 250 employees. However, the technical definition varied from country to country in the Asia-Pacific region but was usually based on employment, assets, or a combination of the two. Some countries had different definitions for SME’s in the manufacturing and services sector and may exempt firms from specialized industries or firms that had shareholdings by parent companies. The trends in many SME’s’ factories were to employ a large number of young girls from rural areas or other neighbouring states. The findings of the study depicted that the young women were often underpaid, housed in over-crowed hostels and some often-experienced sexual harassment and salaries withheld.
Keywords
- Workforce Search this journal for Workforce (opens in a new tab)
- Female Worker Search this journal for Female Worker (opens in a new tab)
- Factory Search this journal for Factory (opens in a new tab)
- Experiences Search this journal for Experiences (opens in a new tab)
- Career Search this journal for Career (opens in a new tab)
- Gender Inequality Search this journal for Gender Inequality (opens in a new tab)
- Exploitation Search this journal for Exploitation (opens in a new tab)
References
- Anil, S. (2003). Experience of SME’s in South and South-east Asia, Dhaka
- Caroline, O. N. M. (1993). Gender Planning and Development: Theory, Practice and Training, Routledg, London
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- George, W. P. (1972). Penang. Singapore, Asia Pacific Press.
- Hancock, P. (2000). The Lived experience of female factory workers in rural West Java. Labour and Management in Development Journal, 1(1).
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- Sadie, Y. & Ao, L. (2009). Legal protection against gender discrimination in the workplace in China. Gender & Development, 17(2).
- UNDP (2010). Asia-Pacific Human Development Report: Power, Voice, and Rights- A Turning Point for Gender Equality in Asia and the Pacific, India Macmillan, Publishers
- Vadim, K. (2007). Small and Medium Enterprises and ICT. Bangko: UNDP Regional Centre.
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Copyright (c) 2012 Nwanesi Peter Karubi, Muhammad Khalique (Author)

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Keywords
- Workforce Search this journal for Workforce (opens in a new tab)
- Female Worker Search this journal for Female Worker (opens in a new tab)
- Factory Search this journal for Factory (opens in a new tab)
- Experiences Search this journal for Experiences (opens in a new tab)
- Career Search this journal for Career (opens in a new tab)
- Gender Inequality Search this journal for Gender Inequality (opens in a new tab)
- Exploitation Search this journal for Exploitation (opens in a new tab)
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