RI women still facing discrimination: Scholars
RI women still facing discrimination: Scholars
JAKARTA (JP): Female scholars charged yesterday that
Indonesian law is still largely biased toward men and that 14
years after the country ratified the United Nations convention on
women, gender discrimination is still prevalent.
Speaking at a seminar at Atma Jaya Catholic University
on legal efforts to address discrimination against women, the
scholars said the problems were hampering the progress of women
in the country.
The scholars were psychologist Saparinah Sadli and sociologist
T.O. Ihromi of the University of Indonesia and women's issues
expert Achie Sudiarti Luhulima.
They branded the No. 1/1974 Marriage Law and the No. 25/1997
Manpower Law as being gender biased favoring men over women.
They said the laws were against the UN Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women ratified
by Indonesia in 1984.
Saparinah lamented the status given to women under the
manpower law.
"Statutes regulating the protection of women are based on the
social definition about the relationship between men and women,
that men are the head of the family and main earners.
"This means that if women work, they are only treated as
additional family earners," she said in her paper.
She argued that a 1994 National Social Economic Survey said in
one out of seven households the woman was the primary bread
winner was distorted as in three out of four of these households
the women are widows.
"I agree that reform of male-female relations is needed, and
that this must be echoed everywhere," she told around 60 seminar
participants.
"Gender blindness" was to blame for the many policies created
that were unfair to women, said Saparinah who is also a member of
the National Commission on Human Rights.
Yesterday's seminar was organized by the Atma Jaya Catholic
University and the University of Indonesia's center for women
studies chaired by Saparinah.
Saparinah admitted that the Convention Watch Working Group,
which she runs with her colleague T.O. Ihromi, had failed to get
their critical ideas into the manpower law when it was
deliberated last year.
Achie, however, said better protection could possibly be
ensured by insisting the government establish a law to protect
migrant workers.
She said matters pertaining to the protection of women could
be inserted through the drafting of such a law.
Ihromi agreed, saying that many things could still be
advocated with the UN convention used as a foundation to gauge
social conditions of women here.
"Many things can be done. Let's think of it not merely as
doing it for women, but for the nation, or for the sake of our
daughters' future," Ihromi said, closing the seminar. (aan)