“For God’s sake ban the word ‘feminism’ from the vocabulary. Men never talk about masculine-ism.

“It is about self-improvement and self-empowerment first. Forget about womanhood,” the former minister of International Trade and Industry said during a Q&A session at the “Staying Ahead in the 21st Century” talk at a private university here today.

She also said a 30 per cent quota for women in corporate boardrooms was less important than a woman’s actual work performance.

“I hate this 30 per cent quota. Women are not quota fillers. Don’t degrade us (as a means) to fill quotas. Women should be evaluated by their competence and abilities. Don’t talk about numbers. Numbers don’t matter. Quality matters.

In 2011, Prime Minister Najib Razak had announced that the government would implement a 30 per cent quota for women in corporate boardrooms. The policy however, has yet to be implemented.

She also advised women to focus more on their individual capabilities to handle work rather than view it from the perspective of women empowerment.

Men, she said, left gender out of the equation and evaluated themselves as individuals, not men.

“Do not count how many MPs and CEOs are women. This is irrelevant. Its about how many good performers there are at any level.”