Women, power and politics nowadays

Women, power and politics nowadays

By Dewi Anggraeni

Today, Dec. 22, is the Indonesian Women's Day. To mark the
event our correspondent Dewi Anggraeni takes a look at the role
of women in modern society.

MELBOURNE (JP): Right from the word go, woman has had an equal
share of tasks and responsibilities to man. The world would not
have been populated without one or the other. Whether it should
have been populated the way it is, is a matter for debate.

The traditional role of woman as career, nurturer and
companion of man has been enforced and immortalized. It has been
the source of tear-jerking poetry and songs. However, while the
role of man is continuously redefined and multiplied with the
changing times, a woman seems to have an uphill battle redefining
and diversifying her role, beyond that of the object of man's
pleasure.

For centuries, those women who want to do more than what has
been defined by tradition, encounter a great number of obstacles.
They have to break with tradition, squeeze themselves out of the
hardened mold, and upset the entourage while doing it.

The key to this mythical door to the wider world, it seems, is
power.

The last few months have seen various conferences around the
world, where issues relating to women were discussed at length.
At least, two of these, The Population Control Conference in
Cairo in September, and the Women, Power and Politics Conference
in Adelaide in October, emphasize the empowerment of women as an
important solution to the world problems.

Knowing what to do, however, is many steps too far from
knowing how to do it. Men, who have disproportionate control of
power, do not easily see reasons to share it with their alleged
companions, the opposite sex.

How do women take part in major projects in life, when in
almost every level, decision making is in the hands of men? How
do women make sure they have their say in issues that not only
affect the whole nation, but also affect them mostly?

Only a minority of women throughout the world, are aware that
empowerment is possible. Many in fact, know it is merely a
distant concept. Australia, one of the most democratic nations in
the world, extended the voting right to women only a hundred
years ago -- ahead of Britain and the rest of the world. Power
and women are new friends. More often than not, those who have
access to power are not sufficiently informed as to how to
dispose of it. It is also unfortunate that some empowered women
even collude with powerful men to repress their less fortunate
sisters.

Two major solutions have been aired. First, community
education. This is the softly, softly approach, where men are
told that the world would be much nicer if they let women
participate in the decision making, while women are told that
they would only get anywhere if there were solidarity among them.
It needs a generation or two to permeate the community. The
second solution is more immediate, but more abrupt. Like anything
abrupt, it causes a great deal of resentment. The efficacy
therefore, is doubtful. Legislate against discrimination based on
sex, make women representation compulsory, and make any type of
violence against women a punishable crime.

Education is more viable in developed nations, where people
are more likely to resent legislation seen as too restrictive by
certain groups. The need is also comparatively less urgent. Here
women are fighting for more representation in Parliament, as well
as in management boards of the private sector. In developing
nations where millions are still being exploited and made victims
of systematic violence, education alone may have very little
short term effect. Legislation, it appears, is crucial. These
women urgently need protection, before they even dream of
empowerment.

Ironically, where legislative protection is most needed, the
enforcement of the law is the least reliable. Take the situation
in India. Subashini Ali, a former Indian member of Parliament and
currently a women movement activist, explained that personal
lives including marriages and divorces, and property and
inheritance rights, were governed by the laws of their religious
communities. And in all these laws, women have inferior status.
While theoretically the law enforcers, who are mostly men, should
observe state laws, they are also members of particular religious
communities, who have been conditioned to accept the lower status
of women as a fact of life. Education may eventually reverse the
community attitudes, but how many women will have to suffer in
the meantime?

Solidarity is a wonderful concept, if it can reach those who
are the most needy. It is not easy to convince a battered woman
she should resist her batterer, if she cannot see long term
protection.

It appears that the gap between the position of women in the
developed nations and that of their sisters in the developing
nations cannot be bridged in a hurry.