The roles of women in Indonesia today are being affected by many factors, including increased modernisation, globalisation, improved education and advances in technology. Many Indonesian women choose to reside in cities instead of staying in townships to perform agricultural work because of personal, professional, and family-related necessities, and economic requirements. These women are moving away from the traditional dictates of Indonesian culture, wherein women act simply and solely as wives and mothers. At present, the women of Indonesia are also venturing actively into the realm of national development, and working as active members of organisations that focus and act on women's issues and concerns.
Video Women in Indonesia
History
In Indonesian society, women performed vital roles both within or outside the family. In rural native society, certain positions, such as dukun beranak (traditional midwife), traditional healer, to ritualist and shaman are often held by women. Despite their roles seems to being reduced, if not rather confined, after the adoption of somewhat patriarchal cultures of Hinduism, Buddhism, to Islam and Christianity, women still hold important position, especially within family.
In Balinese society, women traditionally plays important roles, especially concerning family economic life. Despite traditional values that held Balinese women is responsible for fostering balance and harmony within families and producing good quality offsprings, in a fast changing society the economic role has grown. It is common for Balinese women to pursue economic activities outside of their household, thus Balinese traditional marketplaces are filled with women running businesses.
The Minangkabaus are known as one of the few traditional society that applied matriarchal and matrilineal culture, where property and family names is inherited from mother to daughter, and husband is considered as "guest" in their wives' household. The Minangkabau culture also recognize a prominent historic female figure Bundo Kanduang, the matriarch of Minangkabau society. Today, Bundo Kanduang refer to the traditional institution consists of female elders revered in adat (tradition) of Minangkabau society.
In Indonesian history, there are records of some prominent women that held and exercised considerable power and influences within their society, despite usually reserved only for elite ruling class. Among others are Queen Shima of Kalingga Kingdom (c. 7th century), Pramodhawardhani of Medang Kingdom (c. 9th century), Isyana Tunggawijaya of Medang Isyana dynasty (c. 10th century), Mahendradatta of Bali (c. 10th century), Ken Dedes of Singhasari (c. 13th century), also queens of Majapahit (c. 13th-15th century); Gayatri Rajapatni, Tribhuwana Wijayatunggadewi and Suhita. Later after the coming of Islam in Java, Ratu Kalinyamat of Jepara also a notable female leader. Sultanate of Aceh also recorded several sultanahs ever ruled the Aceh sultanate. Indonesian Republic recognized several historic national heroines that fought against Dutch colonialism; among others are Nyi Ageng Serang, Martha Christina Tiahahu, Cut Nyak Dhien and Cut Nyak Meutia.
The women's emancipation movement was started in late 19th century colonial Dutch East Indies, when a handful of upperclass native woman advocated for women's rights and education for women. These women's right pioneers are Kartini of Jepara and Dewi Sartika of Bandung, both of them established school for girls, and has been recognized as the national heroine of Indonesia.
Women's suffrage was never an issue in Indonesia, since its first election in 1955 Indonesia held that women has equal rights with men in politics, although in practice politics is still a male-dominated realm. In 2001, Megawati Sukarnoputri--then serving as Vice President--became the first female president of Indonesia after the removal of President Abdurrahman Wahid.
Maps Women in Indonesia
Women's rights
Indonesia signed the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women in 1980 and ratified it in 1984.
National law and sharia
The Indonesian National Commission on Violence Against Women noted that more regulations that discriminate against women are being adopted throughout the country than are being repealed. In 2012, the Commission noted 282 bylaws in various jurisdictions across Indonesia that it deemed discriminatory, compared with 154 such instruments in 2009. There are 96 that impose criminal sanctions on women through regulations on prostitution and pornography, 60 that contain dress codes and religious standards, and 38 that place restrictions on women's mobility. Although such bylaws can be found in 28 Indonesian provinces, the six provinces in which they are largely concentrated are East Java, South Kalimantan, South Sulawesi, West Java, West Nusa Tenggara, and West Sumatra.
In many parts of Indonesia, local laws compelling women and girls to wear the hijab are increasingly in place in schools, government offices and public spaces. Aceh province has implemented Sharia law in full. In Aceh, all Muslim women must wear the traditional head covering known as hijab; fraternising with the opposite sex outside marriage is banned.
Sexual crime and harassment
More than 90 percent of rape cases in Indonesia go unreported, victims fear being blamed.
Women-only transport
An Indonesian railway company, PT Kereta Api, introduced women-only carriages on some KRL Jabotabek commuter trains in the Jakarta metropolitan area from August 2010 in response to many reports of sexual harassment in public places, including commuter trains and buses.
The women-only carriages on commuter trains are usually denoted by large pink or purple stickers, which read "Kereta Khusus Wanita", and are located at each end of the train. This kind of carriage was previously only able to be found on air-conditioned EMUs, but a number of recently repaired non-air conditioned EMUs have also been equipped with the women-only carriage stickers.
Recently, PT Kereta Api launched a special women-only train (the train itself uses an ex-Tokyo Metro 6000 series EMU, set number 6107F), which intended as further protection for female passengers from sexual harassment. To give difference from standard EMUs (which only provides women-only carriages on each end of the train), the women-only train had all of its cars decorated with large "Kereta Khusus Wanita" stickers coloured purple or pink. Since 1 October 2012, PT Kereta Api Indonesia (Persero) Commuter Jabodetabek launch the women-only trains. This practice ended in May 2013 after reports found that mixed-use cars were overcrowded during rush hour while women's only cars were underutilized.
Marriage and family life
Dowry is seldom to never practiced in Indonesian culture, yet bride price is practiced by certain ethnic groups. For example, the uang panai bride price in Bugis culture. The more prominent the education, career, beauty, social and economic strata, or noble background of the bride, the more expensive the uang panai should be paid. In Minangkabau matrilineal culture, the payment of the bride price--or more correctly addressed as the "groom price", is given to the groom's parents, as the husband is entering his newly wed wife's household. The more prominent the education and career of the groom, the more expensive the groom price should be paid. The custom is called bajapuik or uang japuik, although historically a widespread practice in Minangkabau land, today only people of Pariaman that persistently practice this custom. The more commonly prevailing national culture is the mas kawin (lit. "marriage gold") or mahar which refer to a gift provided by the groom to be given to the bride. It may contain a sum of money or gold, sometimes because of the adoption of Islamic culture, also include or replaced by symbolic religious items such as seperangkat alat sholat (Islamic praying equipment).
As many other developing countries, a high fertility rate is a major problem facing the country. Traditionally, Indonesian society has viewed children as the source of fortune. A local saying that more children equated to more fortune and it was widely believed that the use of contraceptives contravened religious and moral values. This contributed to a very high fertility rate. Recognising that high fertility was a major factor in creating widespread poverty. Child marriage is also sustained by traditional norms.
Child marriage is common. It is among the triggering factors of diseases in women such as cervical cancer. Child marriage is sustained by traditional norms.
Health and welfare
Many pregnant women in Indonesia do not have the financial capability to pay for hospital deliveries and birthing by Caesarean section, because of disproportionate salaries and medical expenses. Thus, these women require the support and assistance of "birth sanctuaries" that provide "free prenatal care, birthing services and medical aid", such as the Yayasan Bumi Sehat (Healthy Mother Earth Foundation) health clinics established by Robin Lim, an American midwife, in 2003. Such 24-hour nativity havens, mostly located in Bali and Aceh, help Indonesian women to escape the common practice of private hospitals in Indonesia that entails detaining newborn infants until medical bills are fully remunerated by the birth mothers.
Nonetheless, the economy now seems to be improving (high GDP growth in 2012 as high as 6.2%) and some programs had been done by the government to help promote the health and welfare of women and child. A ministry that especially concerns in the field had been established for a long time since the regime of the late President Suharto during the New Order.
Employment
In Indonesian culture, it is a social norm for husbands to economically provides for his wife and the whole family. Which means husband's earnings is expected to be given to the wife monthly and to be managed by her for family spending and savings. However, it is normal for women to pursue economic activity. For example, warung, a small scale family-owned store, is often run equally by men or women. In most parts of the country, Indonesian women traditionally enjoyed a degree of social and economic freedom. To support their family's economy, Indonesian women are involved in economic activities outside of their households, although mostly informal small-scale business. It is common to find women run businesses in traditional Indonesian marketplaces.
After a surge of foreign multinational investors began investing in Indonesia during the 1970s, many Indonesian women became the "prime workforce" and a source of cheap labourers in manufacturing businesses. In the 1990s, some women in Indonesia, including adolescents and the homeless, resorted to engage in employment as sex workers and housemaids due to financial hardship. Some of the women who were forced into such work opted to go abroad, into countries such as Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Some have since become victims of torture, sexual abuse, murder, illegal detention, rape, sodomy, and other forms of sexual assault. Health-wise, as a consequence of becoming prostituted by human traffickers, some have contracted HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.
Indonesia is among the countries which have had a female president; Megawati Sukarnoputri served as president of Indonesia from 2001 to 2004. In 2012, 18% of national parliament representatives were held by women. Tri Rismaharini is one example of the rising numbers of female leaders throughout Indonesia. More and more women are becoming scholars. The ratio of girls to boys in primary and secondary schools is also even as of 2013.
More scholarships awarded by the Indonesian government (and some other institutions other than the government) were given to women, and resulted in higher achievement in their later life. In most major cities like Jakarta and Surabaya, the educated female workforce tends to postpone the marital age and girls who finish secondary school are six times less likely to marry early.
Indonesian women could be making considerable shifts to national employment - women currently hold 33% of non-agricultural employment as they also work in the prestigious and traditionally male-dominated field such as architecture, medicine, and engineering. Indonesian women has pursued various line of works and some has excel in their career. Prominent women figure including economists such as Sri Mulyani Indrawati and Mari Elka Pangestu, Olympic gold medalist sportswomen such as Susi Susanti and Liliyana Natsir, to activists such as Butet Manurung and Yenny Wahid.
During the administration of President Joko Widodo, Indonesia had 26 percent female representation among state ministers, the highest among the 10 most populous countries. Indonesia has increasingly put women in senior roles in the government, business and finance. Prominence officials include Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi, and Maritime and Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti, are female ministers in Joko Widodo administration. Also Rosmaya Hadi as Bank Indonesia's deputy governor.
See also
- Pertiwi Cup, Indonesian women's football Tournament
- Indonesia women's national football team
- Femina, a weekly women's magazine
- Wanita Indonesia
- Gerwani
- Kebaya
General:
- Women in Islam
- Human rights in Indonesia
References
Further reading
- Poverty Reduction and Social Development Division. Poverty and Social Development Paper No. 1. Sociolegal Status of Women in Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, and Thailand. Asian Development Bank.
- Robinson, Kathryn May and Bessell, Sharon. Women in Indonesia: Gender, Equity and Development. Indonesia Assessment Series. Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (2002). 284 pages.
- 2 men, 2 women caned in Indonesia for sex offenses. The Jakarta Post. 5 May 2011.
External links
- Indonesia Women's Studies Bibliography
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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