By Yasmin Ramlan
SHAH ALAM, April 28 — For Wanita Berdaya Selangor (WBS) chief executive officer Siti Faridah Abdul Samad, leading Selangor’s main agency for women empowerment is both a professional mission and a deeply personal journey.
Her drive, she said, is rooted in her own experiences and the inequalities she witnessed growing up.
“The journey of becoming WBS CEO was both personal and professional — it was through gaining opportunities that my awareness of gender equality truly took shape,” she said during Media Selangor’s Major Suits talk show.
The awareness came early. She saw how women in her community struggled, including her own mother, who had to drop out of school in Year 5 due to financial hardship.
“That experience sparked a desire in me to create a positive policy change,” she said.
Faridah, who began her career in academia, where her work with data and statistics revealed a huge disparity between men and women in the labour force.
And when former state executive councillor for public health, unity, women empowerment and family Siti Mariah Mahmud invited her to join her team, Faridah saw it as a platform to advocate for data-informed policies that address persistent gender gaps.
[caption id="attachment_391905" align="aligncenter" width="1200"]
Wanita Berdaya Selangor chief executive officer Siti Faridah Abdul Samad during an interview with Media Selangor in Shah Alam, on February 20, 2025. — Picture by AHMAD ZAKKI JILAN/MEDIA SELANGOR[/caption]
Despite progress in education access — where girls now tend to outperform boys — Faridah pointed out that inequality in the workforce has lingered.
“In Selangor, we have over 80 per cent of men in the workforce, compared with only 69.9 per cent of women, and we still face wage gap issues,” she said.
Under her leadership, WBS has become a key implementing agency of the Selangor Women’s Policy and Action Plan 2024-2026.
The organisation produces research-based policy recommendations, engages government stakeholders, and designs empowerment initiatives such as the Women Leadership Academy.
This year, she said, WBS’ focus is on women in public service, to cultivate future female leaders in administration.
WBS is also working to break barriers in political leadership — a space still seen by many as “a man’s world”.
According to Faridah, through programmes like the Selangor Women’s Assembly and Selangor Women Leadership Academy, WBS is equipping women with the knowledge and tools to step into political spaces with confidence.
She also believes that the care economy, another area under WBS’ purview, could put Selangor at the forefront of regional policy innovation.
“Ten years from now, with WBS as the implementing body for the Selangor Care Economy Policy, I see us emerging a leader at the Asean level, because no other (nations) in the region have such a policy.”
