No new students for UI's women's studies

By T. Sima Gunawan

JAKARTA (JP): Anyone interested in learning about women's issues may want to study at the University of Indonesia (UI) in Depok, south of Jakarta, the only place in the country that offers courses in women's studies.

Sadly, the five-year-old Women's Studies Program will not accept new students for the 1995-1996 academic year because there aren't enough qualified students interested in the post-graduate program.

The university will not offer a program if less than 10 new students are interested.

Of the 40 people who applied for the program this year, only six passed the entrance exam. Most failed because of poor English and research skills. Others failed because they knew nothing about women's studies program.

"If they are ignorant (about the program) what's the point in joining it?" asked Saparinah Sadli, the psychology professor who heads the program.

When the program was started in 1990, it accepted 18 new students. Last year only 10 women and one man were accepted.

Ironically, the number of students is decreasing as demand for the emancipation of women rises all over the world.

The academic coordinator of the program, Agustine D. Sukarlan, said the number of applicants every year is more or less the same, but more students fail the new, more demanding entrance exam. The test was made more difficult because some students had problems following the program in the past. It also weeds out students who join the program just to get a post-graduate degree and don't care about women's issues .

New curriculum was introduced in 1993 to improve the quality of the studies. The Women's Studies of the Memorial University in Newfoundland, Canada helped develop the new curriculum.

Subjects offered in the first two semesters include women's studies, women's psychology, methodology of research from a woman's perspective, philosophy and paradigm of feminism, women's sociology, women and poverty, women's problems and the theory of development.

Students learn more about women's problems and scientific writing in the third semester, as well as some optional subjects like women and religion, women and health, women and literature, women and politics, women and law, women, modernism and technology, and women in management.

Students must write a thesis in the fourth semester and are expected to be able to examine women's problems from a woman's perspective using inter-disciplinary analysis with both theoretical and practical orientations.

"It isn't easy for the students, who are from various backgrounds like anthropology and psychology, to become women's studies persons in two years," Sadli explained.

The most serious problem is that not all the lecturers are gender sensitive, Sadli said.

Like other post-graduate programs, the Women's Studies Program doesn't have permanent lecture staff. The lecturers are from various departments inside and outside the university, such as Prof. T.O. Ihromi from UI's School of Law, Prof. Miriam Budihardjo from UI's School of Social and Politics Sciences, Prof. Melly G. Tan from UI's School of Sociology, Dr. Firman Lubis from UI's School of Medicine, and Nafsiah Mboy, a member of the House of Representatives.

Why is it called Women's Studies Program, instead of Feminist Studies Program?

"From my individual point of view, people in Indonesia don't like (the word) 'feminist'. So, what's the point of using a name which displeases people in the first place?" Sadli explained.

Many Indonesians find the words "feminist" and "feminism" negative. Even though Sadli disagrees with such perception, she does not want to argue or point her finger at their face and say: "You are wrong."

"I think you will not get far by being like that," she pointed out.

She said that in a discussion with members of the House of Representatives about the improvement of women's role in politics, a male House member asked: "If there are women everywhere, where is our place?"

Women should be able to talk with men to make them understand, but avoid confrontation, Sadli said.

"If the men ngotot (insist that they are right) and you are also ngotot, you will get nothing," she said.

She underlined that under her strategy, which is based on the psychology of communication, women are expected to be able to talk with men without giving in.

Does this mean that women shouldn't criticize men and get angry with them?

"Of course you can. Why not? I will not be like that but you can do that. It's your right. But if you are a feminist, you should also respect the view of other persons," Sadli stressed, adding that she doesn't like "angry women".

There are many feminists who insist on their own rights and don't care about the rights of others, she noted.

Sadli's concept on feminism is in accordance with the government's, which emphasizes a harmonious relationship between men and women.

Sara K. Loebis, a staff member at the program, said she is working on the possibility of conducting a project to map feminism in Indonesia, starting with the personnel at her office.

The Women's Studies Program's main focus is educating the students, but it also researches projects in cooperation with other institutes and non-governmental organizations. It just finished researching women's reproduction rights in cooperation with the U.S.-based Population Council.

In 1993, along with a number of local NGOs, the program established a working group on Convention Watch to study the implementation of the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Discrimination Against Women.

Sara said her program gets many offers to conduct joint projects with local NGOs and other institutions, but can't accept all of them due to limited human resources.

"We have to give priority to our students," she said, adding that there are only seven permanent staff members, excluding two librarians. The students don't seem to mind.

Ade Latifa, a 30-year old researcher at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences joined the program last year and said she is satisfied.

"I had no problem with the program. But I hope the program will be more active in exposing its activities to the public," said Latifa.

"When I joined the program, everybody, including my colleagues, were surprised and asked why. Some of them even asked if I would learn how to cook," she said.

Latifa learned about the program from her supervisor, Yulfita Rahardjo, who heads the research center for population and employment and is also a program lecturer.

"I would not have known about the program if she did not tell me about it," she said.

If the Women's Studies Program disseminated more information about its activities, it could climb down from the ivory tower of academia and educate people about women's issues and feminism.