Activist Yanti fights against all odds

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."