KUALA LUMPUR, March 7 -- A national initiative for gender equality and women's empowerment is increasingly necessary to help overcome economic and social barriers that still hinder women from participating and contributing fully to Malaysia's development, advocacy groups said ahead of International Women's Day.

They said women in Malaysia continue to grapple with income inequality and opportunities at work as well as greater risks of physical violence and vulnerability to poverty in their daily lives, despite the country's apparent growth and progress.

"These entrenched barriers cannot be easily overcome, they must nevertheless be explicitly acknowledged. Continuously educate society through media, daily interaction," senior fellow at t...