Do women provide a different leadership?<\/p>\n
Carla Bianpoen, Contributor, The Jakarta Post, Canberra<\/p>\n
As the Indonesia Update opened at the Australian National
\nUniversity (ANU) in Canberra recently, it was clear they had
\nmoved away from their 12 year annual review of recent economic
\ndevelopments that had traditionally kept women out of focus.<\/p>\n
At last, it's now about human beings and human dignity, sighs
\nSaparinah Sadli, a professor in psychology who chairs the
\nnational human rights body for women.<\/p>\n
Or are women ultimately the last resort? Probably so, nodded
\nJean-Luc Maurer, another professor and director of the Graduate
\nInstitute of Development Studies in Geneva.<\/p>\n
\"Gender, equity and development in Indonesia's reform period\"
\nwas the title of this year's Indonesia Update that attracted
\nabout 200 participants, much less than it used to when the focus
\nwas on the male-dominated economy. Even so, the presence of
\neconomic experts such as H.W. Arndt, Graeme Hugo, Gavin Jones and
\nMohammad Sadli signify the increasing significance of gender
\nissues.<\/p>\n
Speaking at the beginning of the conference, Krishna Sen's
\noutstanding presentation on Megawati's ascension to the top makes
\nit clear that other ways of doing are becoming important.<\/p>\n
Sen, a feminist media scholar, analyses the many comments
\ndiscrediting Megawati Soekarnoputri in her bid for the
\npresidency. With the emphasis on the different kind of politics,
\nand different ways of developing democratic ideals, her
\npresentation titled \"A new president, or a new kind of
\npresidency\" elaborates on the national media and the political
\nelite that had dismissed Megawati as an impossible candidate for
\nthe presidency.<\/p>\n
Democratic ideals were developed and nurtured under the
\nSoeharto regime, not as a mass movement, but rather as an
\nintellectual project nurtured in universities, small magazines
\nand later in Internet news groups and web pages, she said.<\/p>\n
But Megawati was an outsider to such intellectual circles, not
\njust because of her being a woman, but rather because of the kind
\nof woman she was.<\/p>\n
In the general view, she could not hold a conversation, she
\nwas silent most of the time, uneducated, and could never be part
\nof the seminar circuit that was the domain of her critics. She
\ncould not be part of the idealized, elitist, \"deliberative
\ndemocracy\", where the best ideas win. Nevertheless, she did
\nbecome the president.<\/p>\n
Her victory, says Sen, citing another scholar, is a signal
\nthat indeed the intellectual politicians have had their \"salad
\ndays in the late Soeharto and early post-Soeharto period\".
\nMegawati came to power not through the hierarchal, inherently
\nelitist academic system and seminar circuits, but in spite of
\nthese.<\/p>\n
Looking at the different facets of Megawati is like looking at
\nthe phenomenon of \"gender\". Repudiated, set aside and, at best,
\nlaughed at, the gender issue was and still is the underdog in the
\nmale-dominated world with male-formulated concepts. But, if the
\ncase of Megawati is an example, we may well be at a turning
\npoint.<\/p>\n
Without emphasizing Megawati's gender, it must not be
\ndownplayed either. For she is a woman, a former underdog, the
\noutsider of the normally respected circuit. But she did things
\ndifferently.<\/p>\n
Putting the emphasis on \"different\" is what the gender
\nperspective is about. In development it means looking at things
\nthrough women's eyes, the eyes of more than half of the
\npopulation.<\/p>\n
One small example of how the perspectives of women are
\ndifferent, and do make a difference, is management of household
\nwater supplies. As everyone knows, this is a task for women, but
\nwhen a development project was formed for the supply of clean
\nwater in Garut, West Java, the project neglected to include women
\nin their consultations.<\/p>\n
The project failed. Why? The project provided water pumps at
\nthe request of the male community leaders without taking the
\nneeds of women into account. In this case, women also had jobs as
\nplantation workers and could not afford the long wait of the new
\npumps to produce the water.<\/p>\n
One push on the button only filled a small bowl of water. The
\npumps were, therefore, just a waste of time and money, and indeed
\nwere simply left to rust.<\/p>\n
One can imagine the implications when concerns which used to
\nbe neglected emerge; just by including women in determining
\nprocesses in decision-making processes and alternative problem
\nsolving makes for the difference.<\/p>\n
In this sense, the prestigious Indonesia Update this year has
\ntaken an important step by moving away from its usual pattern.
\nSuch became evident in the presentations of internationally
\nrespected scholars from Indonesia and Australia, with the titles
\nalone telling of a different perspectives on development.<\/p>\n
These included studies and observations on women in the labor
\nforce, and \"the changing Indonesian household\". Presentations
\nalso included those on family planning, women in the arts, as
\nwell as women and regional autonomy.<\/p>\n
Let us hope that the momentum is maintained.<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/do-women-provide-a-different-leadership-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }