JP/20/RTMINI

A role model for women in the modern age

Carla Bianpoen Contributor/Jakarta

When Ratmini Soedjatmoko celebrates her 80th birthday on Friday, she can look back on a life well-balanced between work and family.

Ratmini, like other professional women has often wrestled with this hot gender issue, the difficult choice between career and home. However, she has stood out as someone who has been everything to her loved ones without losing her own sense of identity.

As the wife of Soedjatmoko -- one-time ambassador to the United States, a rector in the United Nations University, a scholar of international development and politics, who has played a role in the first print media in the Indonesian Republic and has taken part in hundreds of other activities, Ratmini's name is rarely found alongside his.

Soedjatmoko's biography only mentions his marriage to an "artist", the former Ratmini Gandasubrata. Neither does one find her name linked to those of her daughters, Kamala Chandrakirana, head of the National Commission on Violence Against Women, whose name is inscribed in the annals of women's activism, or Isna, who is engaged in sustaining the environment, or Galuh Wandita, a social activist who has worked for various NGOs.

However, her three daughters credit Ratmini for laying down the fertile ground that nurtured their own fruitful careers.

As Kamala puts it: "When we were growing up, Mama was the one who was always there for us, sewing the clothes we wore, helping us finish our frustrating homework, driving us to our after- school lessons and mending almost everything in the house that needed repair."

Isna, her second daughter, sees her not just as a wife, but as a friend to her father: "She was a team player in the family who also had a personal identity." Meanwhile, Galuh mentions her as a source of love, strength and inspiration.

Amid the flurry of social responsibilities as the wife of her husband whose engagement with books and development issues took up most of his time, and her being a mother who went all-out to see to the needs of her children, Ratmini was never outspoken about gender equality or shared responsibilities.

However, with poise and quiet intent, she managed to find a niche where she could further her own desires and talents.

Before she married Soedjatmoko at the age of 32, she was a teacher, Ratmini revealed, seated in her studio in her spacious house in the center of the city.

Of noble birth

Born into the Javanese aristocracy, her father, Sudirman Gandasubrata, who was a judge and member of the Landraad (Country Council), and her mother, Satinah, sent her to the Home Economics Teacher Training school after she had finished basic and high- school education at the school for Dutch children.

That was a privilege for indigenous children whose fathers worked in the Dutch colonial administration at the time. "But I still needed a written recommendation", said Ratmini, who has kept the document as a memento of those times.

While gender differences were not often spoken about in her family, there were times she felt the sting of being treated differently because of her sex. When the Japanese invaded the country, she was called back home by her parents in Ponorogo from her teacher training course in Surabaya.

"My brothers, on the other hand, were allowed to continue their studies elsewhere."

Yet it was not in her nature simply to sit idly at home. "I took sewing and cooking classes," she said, something that served her well when playing host to her husband's and children's friends in later life.

After the Japanese occupation, Ratmini returned to school, this time to the teacher training college where she graduated with honors. She taught at her alma mater for a while, but obtained a scholarship to study art at the Kunstnijverheid (applied art) school in the Netherlands.

Art teachers were very much needed, and Ratmini already had a reputation for being good at drawing. The year in Amsterdam spurred on her artistic talents.

Drawing figures, fashion design, the history of costumes, textiles and familiarization with perspectives -- all fell well into line with her artistic inclinations, and art later proved to be her "niche" -- a place where she could retreat into herself in between the hustle and bustle of her being a wife, a mother and a hostess.

She became an art teacher and an artist in her own right. While we may not find her name in many art commentaries, her husband's biographies do mention her art.

She followed her husband everywhere and traveled to many countries, but she never stopped improving her technical skills. In Washington, she took classes at the Corcoran Art School and expanded into jewelry and quilt-making. In Tokyo she undertook Japanese brush-painting.

Nevertheless, not much time was left to pursue art, and while her former works were strong and boldly expressive, her later works became more subdued, revealing her adjustment to her role as a wife and a mother, a phenomenon that often occurs with women artists.

However, these added responsibilities did not mean she had lost her passion for art and she founded Group Sembilan (the Group of Nine) together with friends that were also artists with other obligations. Although the group did not join in the hype of other contemporary art movements, its existence to the present day testifies to its significance, especially since it has become enriched by the participation of professional artists.

Today, when many people of common descent aspire to obtain an aristocratic title, Ratmini did the opposite, doing away with the title Raden Adjeng, with which a woman from the Javanese aristocracy is born.

Her strength of character, however, shows a nobility that comes from within -- ethical, fair, compassionate and honoring humankind irrespective of class, background or ethnicity; standing tall in every situation.

As Kamala puts it: "I see her as an amazingly independent woman, with awesome discipline, with a humbling capacity to accept unexpected turns in life and showing a courageous ability to put absolute trust in each of her children."

Retaining her own identity while being a team player in the family, Ratmini has made herself a role model for modern women.