Paternalistic culture hampers women

Rita A. Widiadana, The Jakarta Post, Kuta, Bali

A paternalistic culture and masculine political system have been hampering women from around the world from actively participating in politics and high-level government bureaucracy.

Women's activist Chusnul Mariyah said at a meeting here over the weekend that women's participation in political and governmental structures at the local, regional and international levels remained low.

"This situation worsens the condition of women because they don't have a clear and strong bargaining position to voice their real aspirations. Women must fight very strongly to obtain more positions in the political stages," said Chusnul, who is also director of the graduate program at the School of Politics at the University of Indonesia in Jakarta.

The increase of female participation in politics is one of the crucial goals women's groups want acknowledged at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg later this year.

"This is a very important step for women to improve their welfare in the coming years," Chusnul said.

Women, she said, were prone to the various problems in their relations with men, including sexual violence, gender discrimination, health and family. These problems should be addressed accordingly.

"In the present male-dominated political worlds, women's problems are hardly heard and solved. The more women in politics, the better conditions of women could be," declared Chusnul, a member of Indonesia's General Election Commission.

According to data from Indonesia's Center for Electoral Forum, the female population in Indonesia in 2000 reached more than 101 million people or 51 percent of the total population.

But women are still under represented in politics. Women account for less than 10 percent of the representation of legislative bodies, both at the People's Consultative Assembly and the House of Representatives.

Worse still, these women representatives often did not fight for women's causes.

Chusnul also added that although Indonesia had a female president, this did not mean that women were taken care of, she explained.

Female representation in politics in Indonesia, however, is a lot better than the situation in other countries in Asia.

According to Shalmali Guttal of the Bangkok-based Focus on the Global South, female participation in politics in most Asian countries was less than 2 percent of the total numbers.

"Look at India, we have female prime ministers, members of parliaments but they comprise only a very small number," Shalmali said.

As the result, the condition of women in India was as bad as ever.

Becky Losadha, a member of Jubille South in Manila, shared similar views. In the Philippines, she said, the status of women was no better that their counterparts anywhere else in Asia.

"The majority of women, young women in particular, are migrant workers. We are the biggest exporter of human assets," Becky said.

Shalmali said that major women's groups would demand governments and world institutions set measurable goals and timetables to achieve a critical mass of 30 percent of women in decision making bodies by 2003 and gender balance by 2005.

"But, we have to improve ourselves before we can achieve that goal," she said.

There are some obstacles faced by women in entering the political arena.

"In addition to political obstacles, women faced cultural and psychological handicaps," Shamali said.

Many women considered women's involvement in politics as a dirty and tricky job. Many of these women suffered from a lack of confidence and were incapable of expressing their own voices.

Chusnul, however, suggested that women set up a strategy, a women's alliance as a forceful pressure group for change.