JP\/20\/RTMINI<\/p>\n
A role model for women in the modern age<\/p>\n
Carla Bianpoen
\nContributor\/Jakarta<\/p>\n
When Ratmini Soedjatmoko celebrates her 80th birthday on Friday,
\nshe can look back on a life well-balanced between work and
\nfamily.<\/p>\n
Ratmini, like other professional women has often wrestled with
\nthis hot gender issue, the difficult choice between career and
\nhome. However, she has stood out as someone who has been
\neverything to her loved ones without losing her own sense of
\nidentity.<\/p>\n
As the wife of Soedjatmoko -- one-time ambassador to the
\nUnited States, a rector in the United Nations University, a
\nscholar of international development and politics, who has played
\na role in the first print media in the Indonesian Republic and
\nhas taken part in hundreds of other activities, Ratmini's name is
\nrarely found alongside his.<\/p>\n
Soedjatmoko's biography only mentions his marriage to an
\n\"artist\", the former Ratmini Gandasubrata. Neither does one find
\nher name linked to those of her daughters, Kamala Chandrakirana,
\nhead of the National Commission on Violence Against Women, whose
\nname is inscribed in the annals of women's activism, or Isna, who
\nis engaged in sustaining the environment, or Galuh Wandita, a
\nsocial activist who has worked for various NGOs.<\/p>\n
However, her three daughters credit Ratmini for laying down
\nthe fertile ground that nurtured their own fruitful careers.<\/p>\n
As Kamala puts it: \"When we were growing up, Mama was the one
\nwho was always there for us, sewing the clothes we wore, helping
\nus finish our frustrating homework, driving us to our after-
\nschool lessons and mending almost everything in the house that
\nneeded repair.\"<\/p>\n
Isna, her second daughter, sees her not just as a wife, but as
\na friend to her father: \"She was a team player in the family who
\nalso had a personal identity.\" Meanwhile, Galuh mentions her as
\na source of love, strength and inspiration.<\/p>\n
Amid the flurry of social responsibilities as the wife of her
\nhusband whose engagement with books and development issues took
\nup most of his time, and her being a mother who went all-out to
\nsee to the needs of her children, Ratmini was never outspoken
\nabout gender equality or shared responsibilities.<\/p>\n
However, with poise and quiet intent, she managed to find a
\nniche where she could further her own desires and talents.<\/p>\n
Before she married Soedjatmoko at the age of 32, she was a
\nteacher, Ratmini revealed, seated in her studio in her spacious
\nhouse in the center of the city.<\/p>\n
Of noble birth<\/p>\n
Born into the Javanese aristocracy, her father, Sudirman
\nGandasubrata, who was a judge and member of the Landraad (Country
\nCouncil), and her mother, Satinah, sent her to the Home Economics
\nTeacher Training school after she had finished basic and high-
\nschool education at the school for Dutch children.<\/p>\n
That was a privilege for indigenous children whose fathers
\nworked in the Dutch colonial administration at the time. \"But I
\nstill needed a written recommendation\", said Ratmini, who has
\nkept the document as a memento of those times.<\/p>\n
While gender differences were not often spoken about in her
\nfamily, there were times she felt the sting of being treated
\ndifferently because of her sex. When the Japanese invaded the
\ncountry, she was called back home by her parents in Ponorogo from
\nher teacher training course in Surabaya.<\/p>\n
\"My brothers, on the other hand, were allowed to continue
\ntheir studies elsewhere.\"<\/p>\n
Yet it was not in her nature simply to sit idly at home. \"I
\ntook sewing and cooking classes,\" she said, something that served
\nher well when playing host to her husband's and children's
\nfriends in later life.<\/p>\n
After the Japanese occupation, Ratmini returned to school,
\nthis time to the teacher training college where she graduated
\nwith honors. She taught at her alma mater for a while, but
\nobtained a scholarship to study art at the Kunstnijverheid
\n(applied art) school in the Netherlands.<\/p>\n
Art teachers were very much needed, and Ratmini already had a
\nreputation for being good at drawing. The year in Amsterdam
\nspurred on her artistic talents.<\/p>\n
Drawing figures, fashion design, the history of costumes,
\ntextiles and familiarization with perspectives -- all fell well
\ninto line with her artistic inclinations, and art later proved to
\nbe her \"niche\" -- a place where she could retreat into herself in
\nbetween the hustle and bustle of her being a wife, a mother and a
\nhostess.<\/p>\n
She became an art teacher and an artist in her own right.
\nWhile we may not find her name in many art commentaries, her
\nhusband's biographies do mention her art.<\/p>\n
She followed her husband everywhere and traveled to many
\ncountries, but she never stopped improving her technical skills.
\nIn Washington, she took classes at the Corcoran Art School and
\nexpanded into jewelry and quilt-making. In Tokyo she undertook
\nJapanese brush-painting.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, not much time was left to pursue art, and while
\nher former works were strong and boldly expressive, her later
\nworks became more subdued, revealing her adjustment to her role
\nas a wife and a mother, a phenomenon that often occurs with women
\nartists.<\/p>\n
However, these added responsibilities did not mean she had
\nlost her passion for art and she founded Group Sembilan (the
\nGroup of Nine) together with friends that were also artists with
\nother obligations. Although the group did not join in the hype of
\nother contemporary art movements, its existence to the present
\nday testifies to its significance, especially since it has become
\nenriched by the participation of professional artists.<\/p>\n
Today, when many people of common descent aspire to obtain an
\naristocratic title, Ratmini did the opposite, doing away with the
\ntitle Raden Adjeng, with which a woman from the Javanese
\naristocracy is born.<\/p>\n
Her strength of character, however, shows a nobility that
\ncomes from within -- ethical, fair, compassionate and honoring
\nhumankind irrespective of class, background or ethnicity;
\nstanding tall in every situation.<\/p>\n
As Kamala puts it: \"I see her as an amazingly independent
\nwoman, with awesome discipline, with a humbling capacity to
\naccept unexpected turns in life and showing a courageous ability
\nto put absolute trust in each of her children.\"<\/p>\n
Retaining her own identity while being a team player in the
\nfamily, Ratmini has made herself a role model for modern women.<\/p>",
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