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)