The country's first comprehensive research on feminist movements to address the vacuum in academia on such issues has been completed.

The Women's Development Centre (WDC) spearheaded the project and this resulted in the comprehensive book entitled Feminism and the Women's Movement in Malaysia: An Unsung (R)evolution which took authors Tan Beng Hui, Maznah Mohamad and Cecilia Ng six years to complete.

Speaking to reporters at a press conference to launch the book in Petaling Jaya yesterday, Tan said the book was about "... the discovery of the forms of feminism in the country that is something that nobody else has done before."

"The book serves to share what we already knew and we went beyond what we thought we had to do. It is for everybody. It is meant for internal reflection and also for people who don't know about the women's movement, the old and the new," she said.

When asked as to what they hope to achieve from writing this book, Tan ( pix ) said they wanted to dispel any misunderstandings on the idea of feminism.

"We want to show people that feminism isn't a bad word. We want to put a face to the word. We're not what they expect us to be," said Tan.

Public policy

Maznah, who is an associate professor in University Sains Malaysia, said that, ".... no one can claim that any movement is truly feminist."

"In our study, there are too many women movements [...] even a national movement has some aspects of feminism," she said.

Ng said the book would also act "... a self and collective critique [...] we write about them, our ourselves even, and not be embarrassed about it."

The authors hope the book can affect public policy and see Women, Family and Community Development Minister Shahrizat Abdul Jalil's recent proposition for a Gender Equality Act as 'opportune'.

Tan elaborated that they wanted to move beyond rhetoric. "The government is good at saying things and using the right jargon but they don't really know what's going on".

The book launch was held alongside a seminar on feminism which saw active participation from the crowd of 100 people made up of mostly women.

Following the research book project, WDC hopes to hold a women's conference next year.

"We hope to move on to a national women's conference to discuss the issues raised in this book as well as other issues feminists in the country want to share," Tan said.