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.