Gender inequities await polytechnic graduates

Gender inequities await polytechnic graduates

JAKARTA (JP): Many women graduating from Polytechnic Indonesia
have risen up the career ladder in accordance with their academic
qualifications. That's the good news. The bad news is that most
will not reach the top rung.

Saparinah Sadli, the noted psychology professor and staff
lecturer of Women's Studies at the University of Indonesia,
attributes this to gender discrimination.

Sadli said at a university seminar on Saturday that a study of
50 women that graduated from the polytechnic since 1985 shows
that 45.16 percent of them work as assistant managers -- the
highest position available for such graduates.

In terms of career development, women with the same degrees as
men have not been treated too much differently in the early
stages.

But discrimination occurs when it comes to "access" and
"placement," she said. Most female polytechnic graduates end up
doing desk work while their male counterparts are in the field
doing work more appropriate to their educational backgrounds.

The research was conducted by the female teaching staff at
Polytechnic Indonesia, an institution under the University of
Indonesia, with sponsorship from the Australian Agency for
International Aid.

Sadli said that gender discrimination exists because
employers, most of whom are men, still perceive women as
having a "communal" character better suited to serving others.

Such stereotyping influences the way employers assign jobs to
their women employees, Sadli said.

Yulfita Raharjo, head of the Research Center of Population and
Employment of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), said
the women themselves are often trapped in unfair "gender
ideology".

Only a few women do field jobs because they feel they are not
suitable for work often deemed as "harsh".

The study also shows that more than 83 percent of the
respondents work for personal fulfillment. Only four percent work
for money.

Many women do not consider money a top priority because
society considers men to be the breadwinners, Yulfita said.

"People believe that it is not appropriate for women to earn
bigger salaries than their husbands. The women themselves feel
uneasy if they earn more because they are afraid that the
husbands will feel bad," she said.

"As a matter of fact, many women are afraid of being
successful," she pointed out.

Few women are involved in the fields of science and technology
because the two are still widely considered to be the domain of
men, Yulfita said.

According to certain gender ideologies, men are rational and
women are emotional. "Of course, we know that many men are
irrational and many women are rational. Ironically people believe
in the gender ideology," she said.

Women have little opportunity to develop their careers also
because of society's belief that it is a woman's destiny to take
care of the children and the household.

"This has nothing to do with destiny. This is social
engineering," she said.

This also explains why only a few women have had the chance to
take part in advanced training programs abroad, she added.(sim)