Lifting Up the Position of Women

KOMPAS/HARIS FIRDAUS

Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti (second right) and Gadjah Mada University (UGM) Rector Panut Mulyono (third right) dance with students in a ceremony to send off participants of the UGM Community Service-Empowerment Learning Project (KKN-PPM) on Friday (28/6/2019) at Pancasila Grha Sabha Pramana UGM Field, Sleman Regency, Yogyakarta. In the event, UGM sent off 5,360 students who will take part in KKN-PPM activities in 107 regencies/cities in 32 provinces.

Much progress has been made to advance the position of women in society. In the future, women must also become centers of development.In many ways, women are in a better position today. School enrollment rates, for example, do not differ much between men and women. Women have attained employment and are involved in politics, occupying ministerial positions in the Cabinet, defying the stereotype of traditional roles.

However, in a seminar on World Population Day last Thursday in Jakarta, it was revealed that women were still left behind in development. One thing that stands out is the high maternal mortality rate per 100,000 live births, which was 305 in 2015.

The maternal mortality rate (AKI) is one of our welfare indicators that has not met the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which is around 120. Indonesia must work hard to reduce the AKI if it is to achieve the SDGs target.

The high AKI illustrates that the ideals of the country’s independence have not been achieved, namely a just and prosperous society for all.

KOMPAS/WISNU WIDIANTORO

Social workers serve residents seeking health checks for their children at Posyandu Matius 25 integrated health services post in Pondok Karya, South Tangerang, Banten, Sunday (16/6/2019).

The high AKI is related to women\'s social position in the community. Efforts to meet nutritional adequacy from a young age and during pregnancy, health checkups during pregnancy, help during childbirth and nutrition for breast-feeding mothers and children under 5 years old are not entirely in the hands of women. There are power relations in the household that result in women\'s needs not being fulfilled because decisions are made by men.

The high AKI is also caused by a lack of contraception, which may have to do with unequal gender relations and government policies.

Government data, as revealed in the National Population Day seminar on Thursday, in Jakarta, shows that one-third of women aged 15-64 years have experienced violence. With regard to employment, only 51.88 percent of women are employed, while 82.96 percent of men have jobs. Most of the women work in the informal sector with lower wages than men. Some others do household work, which is not economically calculated.

Through a gender relations approach, the division of roles, positions, responsibilities and work between women and men based on norms in society must be resolved so that inequalities in access to economic, political and social sources stemming from unequal power relations between men men and women can be overcome.

Kompas/Wisnu Widiantoro

A medical officer with the Sawa Erma Community Health Center, Tuti Handayani, weighs a mother during the examination of children and pregnant women in Sawa Erma district, Asmat regency, Papua, Monday (1/15). The monthly activity aims to monitor the development of maternal health and children\'s nutritional conditions.

President Joko Widodo places human development as one of the priorities of his administration in the next five years. Women are half of the population and a source of economic power. Therefore, human development must place women as the center of development through policies that promote equal and fair gender relations.