The Women's Movement in Postcolonial Indonesia

Gender and Nation in a New Democracy

Elizabeth Martyn

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2004
• Print ISBN: 9780415308380
• eBook ISBN: 9781134394692
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Asian History
• Index: History

This book examines women's activism in the early years of independent Indonesia when new attitudes to gender, nationalism, citizenship and democratization were forming. It questions the meaning of democratization for women and their relationship to national sovereignty within the new Indonesian state, and discusses women's organizations and their activities; women's social and economic roles; and the different cultural, regional and ethnic attitudes towards women, while showing the failure of political change to fully address women's gender interests and needs. The author argues that both the role of nationalism in defining gender identity and the role of gender in defining national identity need equal recognition.

Part I
Theoretical and historical background

1 Missing images
Approaching Indonesian women’s activism

National independence and democratization give women important new opportunities to act as citizens of a democratic polity. For Indonesian women, this opportunity came in 1950 when the newly independent republic began a process of post-colonial nation-building and democratic transition. Indonesian women had to define their roles, citizenship and participation in the new state, tasks largely met through their vigorous social-movement activism. One Indonesian woman proudly introduced her new nation to foreign audiences by claiming:

Indonesia can pride itself with a women’s movement, which is considered to be one of the most dynamic and advanced in the less developed countries and even more advanced than in some industrialized countries.

(Ismail 1959: 304)

Visiting journalist Ruth Woodsmall supported this praise, describing Indonesian women’s organizations as being among ‘the most vital forces in the life of Indonesia’ (Woodsmall 1960: 228). Yet there are few images of Indonesian women as political actors, especially for the first decade of independence, and the 1950s Indonesian women’s movement has received little attention in scholarship on Indonesian politics and history. This lacuna is surprising given the importance of the 1950s in Indonesian political history and the fundamental questions this period raises about gender, nationalism, democracy and women’s citizenship.

This book challenges notions of apolitical Asian womanhood and the dominance of Western experiences in the literature on women’s movements by recovering Indonesian women’s activism and their self-proclaimed concerns. Since the UN Decade for Women there has been increasing recognition of the problematic way in which Third World women have been excluded from theorizing around women’s interests and movements or have been constructed symbolically as victims. Mohanty (1988) argues that Third World women have been homogenized as poor, uneducated, tradition-bound, domesticated, family-orientated and victimized, in contrast to Western feminists’ self-presentation as modern, in control of their bodies and sexuality, and free to make their own decisions. Basu (1995: 2) notes that comparative literature on women’s movements mainly ignores post-colonial societies. Studies of the Third World fail to consider women as agents and activists in their own right. There are ongoing calls to ‘make visible and intelligible (to the West) the organizational practices and writings of Third World women’ (Alexander and Mohanty 1997: xix), thereby broadening understandings of ‘other’ women and the diversity of experiences and lives often generalized under the monolithic label ‘Third World women’.

Yet simply recovering women’s history and ‘adding in’ their stories is no longer enough. Feminists contend that ‘such a process of recovery must take place alongside further theoretical developments and co-exist with them’, while noting that ‘the very process of recovery can yield important theoretical insights’ (Offen et al. 1991: xxx). Women are not outside history and politics. Recovering images of women as political actors must also incorporate theoretical analysis of the political and historical processes women act within. This makes the 1950s an interesting period within which to study Indonesian women. It was the first period of national independence, and women participated both in the development of a new state and in a democratic political system. Their participation raises important theoretical questions about women’s engagement with these gendered political processes.

Democratization and national independence are rarely analysed for their impact on women or for the extent to which such political transitions meet women’s interests, even though these political processes are critical to women’s activism. This book analyses the roles these processes have in defining womanhood and political participation in a new nation–state, and the extent to which democracy and national sovereignty address women’s interests. This book is a response to both the need to make visible other women’s movements and to examine women’s movements within the political systems they operate.

Part I examines the theoretical and historical background to the 1950s Indonesian women’s movement. This first chapter discusses the dominant images of Indonesian women, showing the need to examine the women’s movement, the reasons for focusing on women’s organizations and the political processes that impact on women’s activism. Women’s movements are a principal agency for women’s participation and representation in political processes. Indonesian women’s organizations in the 1950s defined women’s issues, set the movement’s agenda, and developed strategies and actions to advance the position of women. This activism was circumscribed by the dominant political processes of nationalism and democratization; this chapter begins to consider what these meant for Indonesian women, especially the role of nationalism in defining gender identity and interests and the role of gender in defining national identity. Chapter 2 explores the emergence and development of the Indonesian women’s movement from the early twentieth century to the end of the nationalist struggle in 1949, looking at the early influences of nationalism and colonialism, and pointing to the new opportunities national independence and democracy offered.

Part II explores the membership and activities of the national-level movement. The national movement is the focus because of the importance of national forms of organizing during the 1950s, the dominance of these organizations within the Indonesian women’s movement, and the available sources. The national organizations can be categorised by the identities they represented (wives, Islam, Christianity, socialism, nationalism, professions and broad-based membership groups) and these formed three significant streams: a secular, non-aligned women’s rights stream, a socialist stream and an Islamic stream. Focusing on women’s organizations in general rather than a single organizational case study highlights the influence of religious, political and other identity interests on understandings and concepts of Indonesian womanhood and women’s activism. The diversity of Indonesian women is evident when we consider each major stream’s approach to the agenda of the women’s movement and its other political activities.

Chapter 3 introduces the women’s organizations of the 1950s and identifies the agenda women organized around, the implications of national independence and democracy, and the complexities of women’s organization. Chapters 4 to 6 are thematic, addressing priority areas of women’s activism. In 1953 these were summarized by Maria Ulfah Santoso, the chair of Kongres Wanita Indonesia, the umbrella organization for Indonesian women’s groups, as:

stimulating the organizations to take part in the forthcoming general elections; urging the Government to pass a new marriage-bill giving protection to women and children; founding consultation bureaus for marriage and inheritance cases; concentrating on adult education among women labourers; organising health weeks; founding day nurseries and child welfare and health centres.

(Santoso 1953: 12)

Based on congress resolutions and depth of coverage in women’s magazines of the era, the main areas of women’s activism were education, health, welfare, national elections and marriage law.

Chapter 4 addresses socio-economic activities. It discusses the conceptualization of women’s educational, health, welfare and economic needs in an independent Indonesia and shows how these were grounded in gendered concepts of citizenship. In these areas the women’s movement did not challenge the roles of women but sought to empower women within those roles while contributing to the continuing nationalist agenda. Motherhood, duty to the nation–state and commitment to the new nationalist goal of development were promoted by all streams of the women’s movement. There was close cooperation with the state and among women’s organizations in the provision of services, although sovereignty did not fulfil women’s basic needs. The Indonesian women’s movement was at its most unified over these activities, constructing Indonesian women in an independent nation–state as equal citizens who had a responsibility to meet the needs of the state as mothers of the nation.

Chapter 5 explores how women’s organizations engaged with national politics, focusing on the 1955 elections and constitutional debate. Concepts of motherhood and citizenship duty are again dominant themes within the discourse of the period. Women’s organizations prioritized the need to encourage women’s participation in the political processes of the new state. Greater differences among women emerged as women’s organizations pursued ideological, religious and party interests as well as gender concerns. These differences were to become increasingly significant as the movement fought to reform marriage law.

Chapter 6 analyses the 1950s campaign for marriage law, the most important issue to most women’s movement activists. It shows the divisions within the movement, based on political and religious interests, which hampered efforts to represent women as a united political force. This case study documents the struggle for women to get a ‘women’s issue’ onto the political agenda and the and the failure of the national independence movement to deliver to women the societal and legal change they fought for.

Part III challenges the national-level approach by examining how women’s organizations operated at the international and regional levels. Chapter 7 asks whether Indonesian women had gender interests that transcended national boundaries. It examines the activities of representatives of the women’s movement at the international level to see if ideas of universal feminism or transnational gender interests inspired these contacts. It shows instead the importance of these activities to the construction of national identity and the legitimization of the nation–state, indicating that national and nationalist interests dominated.

Chapter 8 discusses regional differences in women’s interests and agendas as the different cultures, religions and ethnicities of Indonesia were moulded into a single nation–state that proclaimed unity in diversity. This chapter questions the extent to which women in the regions were incorporated into the national-level movement and contrasts the concerns of women’s organizations in three regional areas with the trends and interests identified at the national level. The regions discussed are Bali, South Sulawesi and the Minahasa region of North Sulawesi. Bali and Minahasa are considered as examples of minority-religion communities (Christian and Hindu) and both North and South Sulawesi were areas involved in the regional rebellions of the 1950s. This shows that regional diversity was downplayed within the national movement and highlights the need for further research on the outer islands. The experience and perspectives of regional Indonesian women have been lost within the national movement in the same way as the national Indonesian women’s movement has been overlooked in women’s studies and Indonesian political history.

Representations of Indonesian women

There are few images of Indonesian women in women’s studies and history. One of the only comparative studies on women’s movements to include Indonesia is Chafetz and Dworkin (1986). Their brief account summarises the main issues of Indonesian women’s organizing from the first decades of the twentieth century to the Japanese occupation in 1942. It then asserts that ‘the Japanese invasion ended the women’s movement’ (Chafetz and Dworkin 1986: 147), thus illustrating the dangers not only of ignoring the experiences of Third World women but also of misrepresenting their movements. There was a vibrant and active Indonesian women’s movement in the 1950s, but this is not recognized or acknowledged in most analyses of women’s movements.

The invisibility of Indonesian women can be attributed to three factors. The first is the dominance of Western women’s organizational experience in the literature on women’s movements. There is an assumption of ‘sameness in the forms of women’s oppression and women’s movements nationally’ (Basu 1995: 1) derived from Western realities. The Western women’s movement has been classified into two distinct periods of activism: the first-wave (suffrage and ameliorative) movement and the second-wave (feminist) movement. As a result, women’s movements have traditionally been analysed within this first-wave/second-wave schema (Bystydzienski 1992: 6) and the 1950s are viewed as a period spent in the doldrums (Rupp and Taylor 1987). Such a periodization does not fit the experience of the Indonesian women’s movement, which was expanding within the newfound political freedoms of the 1950s. A second factor is the isolation of non-English-speaking women’s movements within academic and activist networks. The absence of English-language studies has created difficulties in seeking to include the voices of a wider range of women. A further reason for excluding images of Indonesian women is linked to both these points. Because of their isolation and the assumption of sameness in women’s oppression, the differences between Third World and Western women have not always been explored or respected. Third World women have been viewed as somewhat ‘less feminist’ because they do not always organize around the same issues as Western women, thus invalidating their organizational history.

The charge of being ‘less feminist’ derives from the close link between nationalism and Third World women’s movements. To many Western feminists, Third World women’s movements seem to be ‘co-opted’ by the nationalist movements. There has been a failure to recognize the varied interests of Third World women’s movements and the traditional Western feminist emphasis on gender as the sole source of women’s oppression ignores the roles played by Third World women in class, religious and nationalist struggles. Feminism has had to confront the notion of difference and is beginning to challenge the implicit assumptions within past activism and research that suggest the experiences of Third World women have little relevance or make little contribution to women’s studies and broader political discourses. National case studies such as this one are needed to broaden understandings of women’s interests and mobilization.

Images of Indonesian women as political actors are also missing from much of the political and historical literature on Indonesia, another important reason for this book. It is not new to claim women are excluded or marginalized within political science, a point increasingly well-documented and challenged since the 1970s. However, it remains a recurring theme. Blackburn (1991, 1994), Locher-Scholten and Niehof (1992), and Taylor (1997) are just some of the writers who have shown that women remain largely absent from the texts and literature on Indonesian politics and the history of nationalism. They are rendered invisible in the photographic records, in male memoirs of the nationalist struggle and in official Indonesian histories, and continue to be marginalized within Southeast Asian political studies. The activities of Indonesian women, like women everywhere, have traditionally fallen outside conventional definitions of ‘politics’ and are therefore rarely included in mainstream analysis.

The years between 1950 and 1959 are critical in Indonesia’s political development. They mark the attainment of national independence (with international recognition of Indonesian sovereignty) and the transition from an electoral democracy to Sukarno’s dictatorship, which he labelled ‘Guided Democracy’. Indonesians had their first opportunity to engage with their own nation–state and participate freely in a democratic political system. It was a period of asserting national identity, building the nation and constructing the state, and in each of these processes gender played an important role.

Despite their political importance, the 1950s themselves have fallen outside Indonesian historical and political consideration, making women doubly invisible. McVey (1994) refers to the 1950s as the ‘disappearing decade’, a period that has been avoided in historical and political studies. The relatively brief period of parliamentary democracy and political freedom had until recently seemed of little relevance to Indonesian political culture, especially during the entrenched authoritarian regime of Suharto’s New Order, which was instituted in 1965. The New Order itself imposed limits on exploration of 1950s politics, especially in regard to the role and influence of communism. Histories were rewritten in line with New Order ideologies and while any telling of history is tainted by distorted memories and constructions of the past in terms of the present, many Indonesians have had to be wary of openly discussing certain aspects of their past.

The period needs revision, especially as the meanings of democracy, citizenship and national identity in the Indonesian context are increasingly debated as Indonesia enters a new period of transition and democratization. The impact this will have on women is now being questioned (Robinson 2000) and the 1950s make a poignant comparison. Not only was it Indonesia’s first democratic experiment, but the growing political and regional instability and the challenges to the concept of Indonesian identity by the reassertion of regional and ethnic identities in areas such as Aceh, Kalimantan, Irian Jaya and Maluku reflect similar trends in the 1950s. This too was a time of post-transition instability, revolt and questioning of how diverse religious and ethnic communities could be integrated into a democratic nation.

There has, however, been very little investigation of women and democratization during this era (Blackburn 1994). The seminal accounts of Indonesian politics of the 1950s (Feith 1962) have no gender analysis and few references to women’s activities. Women’s organizations fall outside their conventional definition of politics. There are, however, two important studies of the 1950s Indonesian women’s movements: Vreede-de Stuers (1960) and Wieringa (1995). Both of these were presented as sociology theses by Dutch women who had close relationships with Indonesian women activists and both are invaluable sources on the activities of women’s organizations.

Cora Vreede-de Stuers’ thesis was published in 1960 as The Indonesian Woman. It is a pioneering study and the focus on women’s activism is unusual for the era. Vreede-de Stuers remains a unique source and for many years it has been viewed as the definitive account of the history of the women’s movement (Locher-Scholten 2000: 14). It is used by most historians of the women’s movement to describe the colonial and immediate postindependence movement, and is an invaluable account of the issues of the era and the main activities of women’s organizations. However, like many of the initial feminist texts recovering women’s history, its focus is predominantly descriptive and, while examining the workings of the women’s movement and identifying the close relationship between women’s emancipation and the nationalist struggle, it leaves many of the questions about nationalism, citizenship, democracy and diversity unasked.

The second major study of women’s organizations in this period is Saskia Wieri...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• The Women’s Movement in Post-colonial Indonesia
• Asian Studies Association of Australia: Women in Asia Series
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Series editor’s foreword
• Acknowledgements
• Part I: Theoretical and historical background
• Part II: Women’s mobilization in the 1950s: The national level
• Part III: Challenging the national-level perspective
• Appendix: Women’s organizations of the 1950s
• Glossary
• Notes
• Bibliography