Facebook and female member of parliaments in Malaysia: where are we going now?

Femaleparticipationinpoliticsatthedecision-makinglevelislessthan25percent. One of the barriers faced by female MPs is the lack of access to equal coverage in traditional news media. As an alternative, social media such as Facebook is likely to break this barrier down as it can offer opportunities for them to engage with the citizens and connect with their constituencies. This is because social media has transformed the way politicians interact with citizens. It functions as a political equaliser to female decision makers by giving them the opportunities to communicate directly with their supporters and explain their positions, unfiltered. Hence, social media is expected to assist women achieve greater political parity. The objective of this paper is to understand how women in politics use Facebook sustain successful political careers as members of Parliament in Malaysia. Hence, this paper relies on a qualitative content analysis of the female members of the Parliament to find out the distribution pattern of Facebook usage by the MPs and the extent it is used to facilitate communication to address gender related issues. This study also seeks to find out the barriers to inactive use of Facebook in advocating the aforementioned issues. To answer these questions, the researcher relies on interview method. This study found that female MPs focus more on the interactive function of social media rather than its informative function. This means that female MPs, who are frequently at a disadvantage when competing for resources, have not been using Facebook to empower their status and position. This study also found that although Facebook is used by many female MPs, Facebook does not guarantee an equalising platform for women to advocate for gender-related issues. The results show that a few MPs were reluctant to post and discuss said matters on their Facebook pages