Mayling breaks the gender ceiling

Hera Diani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Once in a while, you interview people who say so little that you have to dig deeper and deeper to make them open up. Other times, you've got to put up with babblers who just can't stop talking nonsense.

In between, you're lucky to meet people like Mayling Oey- Gardiner. She answers each question thoroughly and in structured sentences, which is no wonder as she is a researcher with expertise in the area of economic demography. She was not lecturing, although she teaches at the University of Indonesia's (UI) School of Economics.

Most importantly, she is a warm woman who laughs a lot, even when talking serious stuff, and is an inspiration to her much younger peers.

Still stylish at 61, wearing ethnic earrings and her gray hair cropped short, Mayling holds at least two "first" titles.

She was the first female senior lecturer in the School of Economics at UI and she became the first female professor in the school last October.

Her career has been built on an impressive educational background (she was among the first Indonesian women to obtain a master's degree from Harvard) and achievements.

But, it begs the question, why is she the exception of her sex in breaking through the gender ceiling?

"It is such a good question that nobody wants to answer," Mayling said.

"My colleagues said that I deserve it. But why I did I have to wait until I deserved it? Not all of my male colleagues deserved it. But why is it so difficult for a woman to reach higher position?"

Things are not transparent, she added, and there's always an excuse for keeping women back.

"I mean, some of my (male) colleagues don't have the results of research but they made it to be senior lecturers. That's because there are many more men, and they support each other."

The opportunity to get an education abroad for women is also limited.

"They always say it will be a loss because some women got married and didn't come back. Why generalize? Many also returned and taught again," she said.

"While many men did come back but never returned to the university, but worked in other institutions instead. The loss is bigger, I think, because the university still pays them."

Another excuse, Mayling asserted, is that women are needed by their family.

"It's their business, not the school. Men are also needed by their family. This kind of problem happens in other schools as well, but it's easier in one place than another."

Mayling is a women's right activist and gender sensitive economist, which she said is not popular among economists.

She has done much research, written articles and books, worked as a consultant for international and regional organizations, all for things related to gender issues. She is also the founder or member of several women's organization, like Suara Ibu Peduli (The Voice of Concerned Mother/SIP) and Perempuan PeKa (Women for Peace and Justice).

Her inauguration as professor was marked by a speech, appropriately titled "Breaking the glass ceiling: slow, but unavoidable", discussing discrimination against Indonesian women.

Mayling was born in Sukabumi, West Java, but grew up in Jakarta. After graduating from St. Ursula senior high school in 1959, she worked as a clerk in the university where she is now a professor.

"Funny thing is, I've never studied at UI all my life," said Mayling.

The Ford Foundation, which funded a project at the school, offered her a scholarship to study in the United States where she majored in sociology.

"I had no idea what sociology is. Somebody advised me to take it, and it turned out I like it," she said, laughing.

In 1971, Mayling returned to her homeland, and worked at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) and UI's Demography Institute. At the time, there was considerable research on demography and the country received the biggest grants and loans in the world for projects on population problems.

A year later, she received another scholarship from Harvard's School of Public Health on population. Upon her return home, she received another scholarship, this time to the Australian National University (ANU) where she met her husband, American Peter Gardiner.

"It was funny, because I didn't plan to get marry, let alone have children. I mean, what am I going do with children? When I finally got one, everybody laughed," said Mayling, who was married at 41 and gave birth to her only son, Conrad Trisna Gardiner, three years later.

Mayling said that it was not easy for her to find a partner, given her high educational background.

"Harvard was a very snobbish place. Socially, it was cold. When I got back home, it was too much for men to hear that I have a master's degree, and from Harvard," she said.

"Sad thing is, I scared away women, too. While it's important for me to have them (women friends) because there are things that we can't share with men. So, I was very lonely back then."

Mayling is grateful because the world has changed a lot now, even though discrimination against women still exists. That is why she is among the activists who demand a quota for women in the government, an idea that even many women oppose, saying that women should achieve their position by their own efforts.

"Successful women always think that if they can do it, anybody can do it. Hell, they forget that they have privilege, whatever that is. They say that women legislators never speak, but that's because media never quote them. Why for women do there have to be certain conditions? Whose conditions? What conditions? Men are as hopeless!" Mayling said.

"SIP consists of housewives and look at them now. Aren't they qualified to be legislators? Who are we to decide who has the right?"

Before I left after our two-hour interview, she showed me her humorous side again. She introduced me to her husband. They both then argued about who should go to Bank Indonesia, calling it a den of thieves, before bursting into shared laughter.