The executive co-founder of the Malaysian chapter of the 30% Club (a global campaign to increase gender diversity at board and executive committee levels), Anne Abraham founded LeadWomen in 2011 to develop and advance women leaders in alignment with the Malaysian government’s aspirational target of 30 per cent women on boards.

Her Impact

Anne spearheads the organisation’s Women in Leadership programme, now in its ninth year of driving greater female participation in senior decision-making positions through a combination of workshops, knowledge-sharing, peer-learning, coaching on modern topics, and networking opportunities. To date, the Women in Leadership programme has trained 308 female leaders across 11 cohorts.

In 2022, LeadWomen launched its Emerging Women Leaders programme—an eight-month course designed to help first-time people managers and rising women leaders become self-equipped leaders through mentorship and coaching. It also started a board networking initiative to proactively connect women and boards.

An activist fighting for gender equality in Malaysia for over a decade, Suriani Kempe is the president of Family Frontiers, an NGO that empowers women and families while giving assistance to marginalised voices. Since 2015, Family Frontiers led the campaign that lobbied for policy reform to grant equal citizenship rights to children born abroad to Malaysian mothers with foreign spouses. At present, children born abroad to Malaysian women married to foreign spouses do not automatically get Malaysian citizenship as they would with a Malaysian father. Malaysian mothers in this situation often have to go through a lengthy application process for citizenship for their children with little guarantee of success.  

Her Impact

In 2022, Suriani and her team created a fundraiser supporting Malaysian mothers’ legal costs in obtaining equal citizenship rights. She also managed the #PindaPerkara14 initiative urging members of parliament to include a Federal Constitution amendment in support of Malaysian mothers in their general election 15 manifestos. In February 2023, the fruits of this inter-organisational effort paid off with the news of the Malaysian cabinet’s decision to move forward with an amendment to the Federal Constitution that will potentially grant Malaysian citizenship automatically to children born abroad to Malaysian mothers.   

See also: Suriani Kempe and Rekha Sen welcome Malaysian Cabinet's decision to push for change on citizenship 

Malaysian Sign Language and Deaf Studies Association co-founder Dr. Anthony Chong is responsible for conceptualising and spearheading the Empowering Deaf Women in Malaysia Through Sign Poetry project in 2021, training 13 deaf Malaysian women with poetry signing skills and encouraging them to create their own poetry based on themes of women's issues.

His Impact

This project involved a five-month training programme with both local and international poets and trainers, culminating in a collection of poetry utilising Bahasa Isyarat Malaysia or Malaysian Sign Language. February 2022 saw the latest edition of the Empowering Deaf Women in Malaysia Through Sign Poetry project as a virtual event. This unique initiative gives women in the Malaysian Deaf community a voice through sign poetry, a space to express themselves freely, and a platform for invaluable mentorship opportunities with trainers like Northern Ireland-based British Sign Language (BSL) poet Paula Clarke, BSL poet Zoë McWhinney, and others.

Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said, Pengerang member of parliament and Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Law and Institutional Reform), is outspoken about amending Malaysian laws for the betterment of women in Malaysia, from women's rights and child marriage to the fight for automatic citizenship to be granted to children born abroad to Malaysian mothers.

Her impact

As the chair of the parliamentary special select committee on women and children affairs and social development, she filed the motion for the tabling of a Private Member's bill in Parliament for a constitutional amendment affecting the citizenship of children born abroad to Malaysian mothers in 2022. A lawyer by training, she has openly called for amendments on Malaysian legislation that disproportionately punishes women and girls for unintended pregnancies such as those resulting from rape.   

Realising that many women lack the exposure and confidence to participate in the blockchain space, former lawyer Ida Mok co-founded Women in Blockchain Asia in May 2022, dedicated to increasing female participation in blockchain-based causes and empower women with the knowledge, skills, tools, and resources to succeed in the blockchain space—the first initiative of its kind in Malaysia.

Her Impact

In 2022, Ida and her co-founders partnered with the Algorand Foundation and blockchain development platform REACH to launch the first women-centric blockchain programmer course in seven participating Malaysian universities. A total of 163 students attended and completed this free training course, 50 per cent of whom are women. The course culminated in an inter-university hackathon, which also saw 50 per cent female participation.  

Izzana Salleh co-founded Girls4Girls (G4G) International, a global organisation dedicated to empowering young women with specific skillsets for leadership roles, whether in the corporate sector or public service. On top of her full-time job as CEO of Rise Human Capital, Izzana draws from her 20 years' corporate experience to mentor women even long after they complete G4G's six-week training programmes. Izzana also secures valuable partnerships with corporations like McDermott and TalentCorp Malaysia, linking them with mentees under the G4G network.  

Her Impact

Entirely volunteer-run, Girls4Girls International develops research-backed training courses delivered by industry mentors to various cohorts of young women aged 16 to 25 who have the desire to pursue their leadership potential. Girls4Girls International is now in 26 countries, having graduated 10,000 mentees and trained 1,500 mentors. In Malaysia, Girls4Girls partners with public universities, NGOs, and multinational corporations to achieve its mission. 

Don't miss: Izzana Salleh shares 4 ways to foster courageous female leadership

A professional race car driver with a career that spans 18 years, Leona Chin has achieved many wins and podium finishes in motorsports competitions across Southeast Asia. Recognising a growing interest among Malaysian women in motorsports but the lack of opportunities and guidance to succeed in this arena, Chin was determined to initiate a motorsports competition that would take female participation to the next level.  

Her impact

In 2022, Chin partnered with Morac Go Kart Track One Utama to launch the Pink Stuff Sodi Ladies Cup, an all-female karting competition that saw a total of 150 participants across three championship rounds. Her commitment to the event's success led her to take a hands-on approach in planning and executing it, from helping to subsidise competition registration fees for a mother who couldn’t afford it to offering guidance to female participants on how to sign up for pro-level motorsports competitions at Sepang and seek sponsorships for themselves.

Read more: Nor "Phoenix" Diana on pro wrestling as performance art and representation in the sport

After joining the All Women’s Action Society (AWAM) as programme officer in 2019, Lilian Kok was part of the special task force set up by the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development to amend the Anti-Sexual Harassment Bill, which provides for a right of redress for victims of sexual harassment. Despite not having a legal background, Kok is passionate about helping Malaysians to understand their legal rights.  

Her Impact

In 2022, she was also a part of the Anti-Sexual Harassment Advocacy Group to engage with the Minister of Women, Family and Community Development, the parliamentary special select committee on women and children affairs and social development, and the Attorney-General's Chambers on improvements to the Anti-Sexual Harassment Bill, prior to its passing in Parliament in July 2022. 

An engineer by training, Nadira Yusoff co-founded Kiddocare, an on-demand babysitting platform connecting parents to trusted and experienced Malaysian babysitters who have gone through rigorous training and security checks to qualify as ‘Kiddocarers’. She is passionate about changing conversations surrounding the 'care' economy and uplifting the economic power of female childcare workers, who are traditionally among the lowest paid in any working field.

Her impact 

In addition to easing the burden of full-time working mums (approximately 81 per cent of Kiddocare users are mothers), Kiddocare empowers female childcare workers, from retirees to single mums or unemployed graduates. Nadira believes that quality childcare depends on the quality of the workforce, ensuring career progression, proper training, and fair pay for the carers.

To date, Kiddocare has enabled 4,934 female babysitters to increase their income and improve their livelihoods. In 2022, Nadira launched the Kiddocare Community Hub, with the Kiddocare Marketplace, an e-shop platform that lets women-led businesses and family-oriented brands showcase their products and services on the Kiddocare website.

See also: Kiddocare CEO Nadira Yusoff on empowering parents through technology

As PwC Malaysia chief operating officer and PwC Asia Pacific human capital leader, Pauline Ho has aligned inclusion and diversity priorities for the firm across 10 territories in the Asia Pacific region. In 2022, she proposed leadership key performance indicators around gender diversity, including growing a healthy pipeline of female leaders for succession planning. From building a case for flexible work arrangements for mothers to mentoring working mums as part of PwC's Parents@Work initiative, Ho is passionate about empowering women for senior leadership on regional and local levels.

Her Impact   

Pauline is also one of the steering committee members of 30% Club Malaysia. Under her leadership, PwC Malaysia collaborated with 30% Club Malaysia to launch the board mentoring scheme, pairing board-ready women with experienced board members to be mentored for future board positions. In 2022, the seventh and eighth cohorts of the scheme collectively saw 38 mentees paired with 36 mentors. The programme has mentored 85 senior female leaders, with 40 per cent securing board roles.

A volunteer police constable in the Royal Malaysia Police Volunteer Reserve (Sukarelawan Polis Diraja Malaysia), Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman associate professor Dr. Phaik Kin Cheah’s service to the community includes policing work alongside regular police officers and fieldwork such as crime prevention patrols and surveillance.

Her Impact

Cheah's research efforts, publications, documentation, and non-academic writing on her personal experiences as a female officer in the volunteer reserve highlights awareness about the realities and nuances faced by women in Malaysian law enforcement. She is a highly sought-after speaker at international conferences like the Association of Special Constabulary Officers' National Women in the Special Constabulary Conference, highlighting gender issues in policing.

A consultant obstetrician-gynaecologist at Pantai Hospital Kuala Lumpur, Dr Premitha Damodaran is passionate about helping women better understand their bodies while championing women's health, from spearheading the movement to make Pantai Hospital the first breastfeeding-friendly private hospital in Malaysia to researching better management of menopause in the Malaysian context.

Her Impact

The Clinical Practice Guidelines for the Management of Menopause in Malaysia were launched in 2022, spearheaded by Premitha and her team at the Obstetrical and Gynaecology Society of Malaysia. Developed in collaboration with the Malaysian health ministry, these guidelines were a first of their kind in Southeast Asia to serve as a comprehensive resource to equip Malaysian healthcare workers with a greater understanding of the needs and health risks in women with menopause. 

Don't miss: Meet the pioneering ob-gyn challenging barriers to women’s menopausal health in Malaysia

Based in Washington D.C., Sarah Chen is the co-founder of Beyond the Billion (launched as The Billion Dollar Fund for Women), the world’s first and largest global consortium of over 100 venture funds pledged to invest and actively deploy over US$1 billion into women-founded companies. 

Her Impact 

Boasting a strong investment background with past venture capital roles in companies like Sime Darby in Malaysia, Chen is passionate about addressing the gender gaps in the fields of investment and finance, co-founding a non-profit organisation in Malaysia to empower women on top of her full-time corporate role. Sarah is also the co-founder of Lean In Malaysia, a platform dedicated to bringing more women back into the workforce and accelerating them into leadership, with a network of over 7,000 members. To date, Beyond the Billion has invested in over 800 female-founded companies across 45 countries, with US$638 million in funds deployed.

Sue Yee Lee co-founded Deliccia in 2015, empowering housewives and single mothers from underprivileged families by helping them generate income and become self-sustaining.

Her Impact

Aside from bridging the gap between these women and their customers, Deliccia helps mothers to earn an income through their cooking skills, giving them access to corporate and individual customers while also teaching them to manage their finances. Deliccia's impact is not only immediate but sustainable: by equipping women with the skills to manage their finances better, she helps them to play a bigger role in supporting their households while boosting their entrepreneurial capabilities. Partnering with the government through initiatives like the Selangor government's Pusat Wanita Berdaya has enabled them to work with more single mothers.

Ren-Chung Yu is deputy executive director and advocacy director at the Women's Aid Organisation (WAO) who has been at the forefront of women's rights activism in Malaysia for over 10 years.

His Impact

In an effort that spanned over five years of inter-organisational action spearheaded by WAO, Yu was a key activist in the lobby for the Anti-Stalking Bill, unanimously approved by the Malaysian Parliament on October 3, 2022; a historic development that criminalises stalking. He is also part of the team that launched WAO’s #MakeStalkingaCrime campaign. Yu also campaigned for seven days of mandatory paternity leave through WAO, increasing awareness on the need for balanced housework.

Dr. Yin Ling Woo is a consultant gynaecological oncologist at University Malaya Medical Centre. Working towards the prevention of cervical cancer in women in Malaysia, Woo leads the movement to make HPV PCR screening widely available to women, especially those in underprivileged communities. She conceptualised and executed Programme ROSE (Removing Obstacles to Cervical Screening), a novel cervical screening strategy utilising a self-sampling method. 

Her Impact

Woo is the founder of ROSE Foundation, an organisation providing centralised cervical screening services for Malaysian women using HPV testing, with the aim of making Malaysia one of the first nations in the region to be free of cervical cancer. The foundation has successfully screened over 21,000 women throughout Malaysia, partnering with Etiqa Insurance to kick off the third phase of its free cervical screening programme for underprivileged women in 2023.

The first Malaysian woman elected as a council member at the Institution of Engineering and Technology United Kingdom, INTI International University pro-vice chancellor Prof. Dr. Wai Yie Leong is an award-winning academic championing women-in-engineering on a regional scale. In her role as the lead of the World Federation of Engineering Organisations' committee on engineering capacity building, Leong fosters future generations of women while working with professional engineering institutions to identify the necessary measures to promote greater female representation in engineering.    

Her impact

Leong has established a women-in-engineering mentorship programme for more than 1,000 women across Southeast Asia. She actively conducts surveys related to women-in-engineering to provide performance indicators, compiled into reports that have been uploaded for open access to create awareness worldwide on the challenges faced by female engineers and technicians. Leong has conducted more than 500 talks, seminars and conferences to mentor and uplift women in this male-dominated sector. 

Xin Yu Lim co-founded The Asli Co. in 2019 after a stint volunteering with Epic Homes building houses for orang asli communities. The Asli Co. was created to help indigenous mothers earn a sustainable living in order to be able to afford their children’s education, thereby tackling school drop-out rates among orang asli children and youths.

Her Impact

The Asli Co. is an accredited social enterprise that gives orang asli mothers the tools, resources, and training to produce high quality handmade artisanal gifts, allowing them to earn up to RM3,000 a month on peak months. Lim, her co-founder Jason Wee, and their small team travel to remote villages to help train and empower mothers in the orang asli communities, enabling them to support their families, improve their quality of living, and put their children through school. Flexible working hours allow these mothers to produce their wares at home, reducing the burden of travelling away from their village to work. To date, the social enterprise has channeled RM1.5million towards providing equipment, materials, training, and wages, upskilling and empowering more than 60 mothers across eight orang asli villages in Selangor, Perak, Negeri Sembilan, and Pahang.

A leader with over 30 years of investment and finance experience, Datuk Zunaidah Idris started the Women Leadership Foundation with two co-founders to create 2,500 future-ready female leaders in support of the national women’s agenda.

Her impact

Zunaidah mentors women leaders, equipping them with the right skills, knowledge and competency to thrive in senior positions, from entrepreneurs, middle management and C-suite levels to board roles on government-linked companies and public listed companies. Her accomplishments include crafting the Women Leadership Foundation’s mentorship programme, which includes roundtable sessions, industry visits, leadership talks and individual mentoring sessions designed to equip women with the skill sets and tools needed to increase their impact on leadership in their professional careers.

Zunaidah has secured successful partnerships with the Asia School of Business/MIT Sloan, University Kebangsaan Malaysia, and more—launching the first Sarawak Women of Tomorrow Bootcamp in 2022 to empower 29 female leaders from Sarawak’s public and private sectors with digital and technology skills necessary for successful leadership. Zunaidah also sits on the advisory panel of Malaysia Women in Energy, an advocacy group for women in the energy sector in Malaysia. 

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