Women only coaches on trains

[MrDee12345]

I made this thread to point out the pointlessness of having women's only coaches on trains.

The pictures below were taken on one of the MRT lines in Kuala Lumpur. It seems like the city's newest train lines, as well as commuter rail, have women's only coaches, but the older LRT lines do not.

I honestly don't see the point. On the day I took these pictures (it was a public holiday so ridership was low), I rode three different trains. On only one of the trains did they have security enforcing the rules on the women's coach, while on the other two I saw a couple of guys sitting in the women's zone.

If they're not going to enforce their own rules, what's the point of the coaches? And if they do enforce the rules, why segregate when they can just have security on the trains making sure there are no problems on the mixed cars?

 

[Stlin]

So in China it's phrased as "priority carriages for women" - it is rarely enforced, but it's kinda like a quiet car - it depends on the traveling public to self police basically.

Interestingly enough, At least in Shenzhen though, the women's carriages are primarily segregated by temperature; they're warmer / less AC'ed than the standard cars.

 

[TheRatmeister]

So in China it's phrased as "priority carriages for women" - it is rarely enforced, but it's kinda like a quiet car - it depends on the traveling public to self police basically.

Interestingly enough, At least in Shenzhen though, the women's carriages are primarily segregated by temperature; they're warmer / less AC'ed than the standard cars.

View attachment 49608

Separating parts of a train by temperature is an interesting idea. It's definitely a better justification than attempting to brute-force societal issues IMO.

 

[Justbuildit]

This whole thread is kind of weird…mapping American social norms onto Malaysia is why you “don’t see the point”. They’re a very conservative society with a Muslim majority and see issues of race and gender completely differently than we do. Even the political theater of having these cars could be important for public perception. Whether the poorly segregated cars come from one side (men are dangerous and need to be kept away from women!) or the other (men and women can’t be modest if they’re alone together!) the answer to your question is “cuz Malaysia”

To be clear, I vastly prefer the way things are done in the west and see the above as paternalistic, but the more time spent in e.g., Asia, the Middle East and African sub continent, the more one recognizes deep deep differences from what we’re used to in “small L” liberal societies.

 

[MrDee12345]

This whole thread is kind of weird…mapping American social norms onto Malaysia is why you “don’t see the point”. They’re a very conservative society with a Muslim majority and see issues of race and gender completely differently than we do. Even the political theater of having these cars could be important for public perception. Whether the poorly segregated cars come from one side (men are dangerous and need to be kept away from women!) or the other (men and women can’t be modest if they’re alone together!) the answer to your question is “cuz Malaysia”

To be clear, I vastly prefer the way things are done in the west and see the above as paternalistic, but the more time spent in e.g., Asia, the Middle East and African sub continent, the more one recognizes deep deep differences from what we’re used to in “small L” liberal societies.

I've lived here in Malaysia for 14 years, so I'm well aware of the cultural differences. Malaysia is certainly conservative by American standards, but it's somewhat moderate by Muslim standards.

There are some parts of the country where Islam is so dominant that they segregate movie theaters, but not in Kuala Lumpur. I think reason they even have these separate carriages is not because of religious sensibilities, but for the safety of women.

There even some shopping malls that have women's parking areas.

I think they all sound nice in theory, but I don't see that having these segregated places offers any added safety for women travelers. They could add security guards to the trains and stations (which they sometimes do) and would accomplish exactly what these zones are trying to do.