Women split over quantity or quality

Women split over quantity or quality

A'an Suryana, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

President Megawati Soekarnoputri's call for women to stop seeking
'pseudo-advancement' has received fiercely conflicting responses
from female activists.

One camp strongly supported Megawati's idea on the grounds
that women would be better off focusing on how to improve
themselves, while the other was fully against her, insisting that
better representation of women in senior positions was a must.

Megawati had said that it was better for women to focus on how
to improve their quality rather than to narrow-mindedly fight for
better representation, especially in the House of Representatives
(DPR).

Feminist Ratna Sarumpaet said she fully agreed with Megawati.

Basic changes, like cultural modification, were more helpful
in dealing with discrimination against women rather than merely
seeking structural changes at the top level, Ratna said.

"Even though several women have become legislators at the
House of Representatives (DPR), they can do nothing and even fail
to fight for better policies for women," Ratna told The Jakarta
Post.

Judging from the legislators' failure, the womens movement
needed to pursue a "more elegant" strategy to fight against
discrimination, she said.

Ratna said that women should encourage each other to improve
or change their culture which would eventually lead to better
representation.

"There are so many female university graduates in the country,
but only a few of them have good positions in companies, on local
legislative councils or elsewhere. It's our women's culture that
they prefer to stay at home and take care of children and
families rather than pursue a career," she said.

By increasing their quality and changing the adverse culture,
women could compete with males professionally and get better
positions in society, she added.

Separately, Chusnul Mar'iyah, a feminist who is also a
political observer, said that women must be willing to fight for
the sake of a better quota, especially in the House.

Should the women be well-represented in the House, they could
play active roles in helping their fellow women fight against
sexual discrimination in the country, Chusnul said.

"A bigger quota in parliament is very important for women to
enable them to have a significant influence on the decision
making process in the country," she told participants of a
discussion held by the Center for Electoral Reform (Cetro) here.

Eka Komariah Kuncoro, another speaker at the discussion,
entitled "Data and Facts: Female Representation in Formal
Politics in 1999-2001", said the number of women at the House
accounted for only 8.6 percent (or 43 out of the total of 500
legislators).

Ratna said that the quota was not necessary because if it was
forcibly imposed, it could damage the principle of meritocracy
where people were selected for positions on the basis of their
achievement.

"The quality of women must be improved first," she said.