The moment there was an inkling that Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud would be DAP’s candidate for the Teluk Intan Parliamentary seat, a picture purportedly of her (it wasn’t) in a bikini was circulated on the Internet. She has since been subjected to wolf whistles by her own supposed supporters, and called cheap candy by extremist group Ikatan Muslimin Malaysia (Isma).

These attacks and hurdles that Dyana is faced with, stem from the same sexism and misogyny that the women politicians who walked before her faced and continue to face.

Leading up to GE13 last year, pamphlets depicting a constituent saying “You’re going back to suckle. If we have a problem, whom should we look for?” were distributed in Kulai, directed at the woman candidate, Teo Nie Ching.

Surely, many women have been discouraged from pursuing careers in politics because of this rampant sexism. Worse, many women have been actively denied the opportunity to run.

Last year, Pahang PAS committed to field at least 40 percent new faces at GE13. However, none of these candidates were women, with the party claiming that women were not ready “due to work and other commitments”.

It’s no surprise then that there are so few women elected representatives in Malaysia, both at the state and federal level. Only 10 percent of Members of Parliament and 11 percent of state assemblypersons are women, according to an analysis by the NGO Empower.

Sexism in politics is not unique in this country. Nevertheless, we have reason to believe that it is particularly bad in Malaysia. The 2013 Global Gender Gap Report published by the World Economic Forum ranks Malaysia the 110th lowest, in percentage of women parliamentarians, among the 132 countries it studied.

Elect more women into office

How can we end sexism faced by women politicians? Well, stopping sexist attacks is a good place to start. Political parties, politicians, and supporters must stop making sexist attacks against their opponents, directly or through proxies. Political leaders must also swiftly condemn sexist behaviour by their peers and supporters to send a message that such behaviour is not acceptable.

But perhaps the most effective thing we can do to kick sexism out of politics is to elect more women into office.

In 1993, India amended its constitution to require that one third of India’s village councils be randomly chosen to be reserved for female chief councillors - only women candidates could run for chief councillor during an election in these chosen villages. A 2009 study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Poverty Action Lab used this situation to examine how exposure to female leaders affected villagers’ perceptions of women leaders.

The study found that “repeated exposure to female leaders changed villagers’ belief on female leader effectiveness and reduced their association of women with domestic activities,” and that “the presence of a female leader in their village significantly increased parents’ aspirations for their daughters and female adolescents’ aspirations for themselves”.

The more women hold leadership roles in politics, the more people will be exposed to women leaders, and the more people will start to accept and treat women as political leaders.

And to elect more women into office, political parties simply need to field more women as candidates. Evidence suggests that political parties will not be taking risks by fielding a woman candidate, rather they may even be increasing their chances of winning.

An analysis conducted by Bridget Welsh, Associate Professor in Political Science at Singapore Management University, found that women candidates in GE13 won more and in bigger majorities compared to men (even if we do not include Teresa Kok’s gargantuan win margin).

The low number of women in elected offices is not because women lose, it is because not enough women are given the chance to run.

We must end sexism and misogyny in politics, so that future Dyana Sofyas will not have to face discrimination due to their gender, but simply be judged for the calibre of their candidacy.

WOMEN’S AID ORGANISATION (WAO) provides provides social work and counseling services for domestic violence survivors and advocates for women’s human rights. Call our counselling line at 03 7956 3488 or SMS TINA at 018 988 8058 if you or someone you know is experiencing abuse. Together, we change lives.