Activist Yanti fights against all odds

Tantri Yuliandini, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

"Small businesses would never stand a chance against larger corporations unless there were incentives in place to help them, in the same way that women need some sort of incentive to boost their chances in competing against men in the workplace."

Activist Darmiyanti Muchtar said that sometimes putting things in perspective this way helped people understand the need for affirmative action to eliminate discrimination against women.

Like small companies with a limited budget pitting themselves against multinational giants, the women of Indonesia were knocking themselves flat against firmly established patriarchal traditions.

"It takes a long time for tradition to change; the quota system is just one example of a mechanism to help women, just as incentives are mechanisms to help small businesses," the 41-year- old woman said, adding that nevertheless the quota system, which allocates 30 percent of the seats in legislative and executive bodies to women, was only a means toward gender equality and not the end.

The UN has estimated that a critical mass can be reached if women secure at least 30 percent of positions.

Darmiyanti, or Yanti to her friends, was familiar with the plight of women.

Her research with the Institute for Social and Economic Research, Education and Information (LP3ES) in 1988 led her to study the lives of women working as the head of the family.

"The head of the family is generally conceived as male, but the research disproved this. I followed the day-to-day life of a woman trader and the hardship she faced," Yanti said, explaining that she felt the grievances of all the women involved in the research as her own, because she, too, was a woman.

Born in Surabaya, East Java, Yanti was fortunate enough to have varied cultural experiences during her childhood, thanks to her father who worked in shipping.

Moving between Surabaya, Jakarta, Bogor and Palembang, Yanti was also fortunate to have been taught in different schools: public, Muslim and even Catholic-based private schools. "All this taught me about pluralism," said Yanti, who has a 12-year-old son.

Following her stint at LP3ES, Yanti joined the Women's Solidarity non-governmental organization in 1991, where her perspective on gender equality grew.

At the time, gender issues were gaining ground in the country, and Yanti found her niche in fighting for the rights of women in society.

"I felt that women's issues crossed borders: (social) class, region, race and creed, and I didn't need to pretend to be something I'm not. I could be myself, because when I fight for women, I fight for myself," she said.

"This is probably why I tended to become militant (in my views). Because for me (the issues) are real".

The time spent at Women's Solidarity made her realize that one of the most important aspects with regard to the empowerment of women was to encourage them to be critical.

"When women's voices address inequality, discuss it, and work toward change: That means they are thinking critically," Yanti stated.

The fall of Soeharto in 1998 and the resulting strengthening of civil society moved Yanti and friends to establish The Circle of Alternative Education for Women (KAPAL Perempuan).

"In our aim to create an equal society for both men and women, we give alternative education that encourages critical thinking," she said, explaining that this method was combined with teaching women to read so they can reap both benefits.

In Jakarta, KAPAL Perempuan's 10 staff work with women in low- income neighborhoods in Klender, East Jakarta, and along the Ciliwung River.

"These are the women with the least access to education. They are the ones that need it most, and who have the potential to be agents of change," Yanti said.

Outside of Jakarta, the non-governmental organization worked with local NGO Children and the Women's Advocacy Foundation (YASVA) in Sumatra and with Swara Parangpuan in North Sulawesi.

Yanti hoped that by encouraging women to think critically they would be able to "think outside the box", beyond what traditional society taught them.

"People realize that women, as well as men, can be the head of the family. The burden of providing a living for the family can be shared equally. The pressure on men, especially during the economic crisis, would not have been so overwhelming as to force many to commit suicide," she explained.

Far from the notion that gender equality was the aim of women who wanted to overturn society's norms, Yanti said that it, too, would benefit men.

The pressure on them will be off, Yanti said. The prescribed notion that men should work for the family, that they do not need much family time because of it, was all wrong, she explained. She is prepared to prove this by giving her male workers a three- month paid leave of absence when their wives give birth.

"Who said men don't need as much family time? Bonding between a baby and both parents is crucial during the first three months of the baby's life. They are also the busiest time for a mother, who needs the support of her husband."

On the other hand, Yanti's female workers get six months maternity leave instead of three, because "six months of exclusive breast feeding can do much for the intelligence of a child".

"We practice what we campaign."