Gender equality towards work family balance, political matters and gender-based violence: an empirical investigation in the Malaysian higher education institutions

The goal of this research is to investigate the perception of gender equality toward several key terms related to measuring gender equality in Malaysian higher education. This research aims to reveal the perceptions of communities in the Malaysia's Northern Region higher education regarding a variety of issues such as work family balance, political matters and gender-based violence. This study employs a quantitative approach with the distribution of self-directed Google Form questionnaires. In this research, convenient sampling is used. The sample size was made up of 370 employees from those institutions who volunteered to take part in the study. In terms of work family balance, the results showed that most participants can manage their housework while also committing to their office work, with the exception of bringing up children, which made them feel difficult to balance. According to the descriptive analyses, the results showed a medium level of perception on women and political matters (μ=3.16), as well as gender-based violence (μ=2.10) among communities in the Malaysian higher education. In the current situation, higher education institutions should actively increase the level of perception toward work family balance and political issues, while decreasing or diminishing the level of perception towards other issues related to gender-based violence. This is to ensure that the nation's overall goals and objectives for gender equality are met.