Women’s Role Strengthens at Grass Roots

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JAKARTA, KOMPAS — Women’s empowerment continues to grow stronger amid the strong patriarchal culture as well as various threats and violence, especially at the grass roots.

In addition to their dedication to health and education at the lowest level of society, they have become active in voicing public aspirations and have succeeded in encouraging the development of pro-women regulations and policies that are more sensitive and responsive to gender.

Even though female public figures still number fewer than men, more and more grassroots women are emerging as pioneers and leaders at the village, regional to national levels.

“Women who are active at the grass roots are a product of the critical education the women’s movement conducted at the end of the New Order era and the beginning of the Reform Era,” Mia Siscawati, a gender lecturer at the University of Indonesia’s School of Strategic and Global Studies, said on Sunday (4/21/2019) in Bogor, West Java.

Women were actively encouraging changes in policy to support women and children. Grassroots women, accompanied by the Indonesian Women’s Coalition, were also the plaintiffs in the judicial review of the marriageable age limit for girls in the Marriage Law.

Immediate impact

The existence of public female figures has significantly impacted society. The Statistics of Early Childhood Education reported in 2016 that in basic education, 299,195 women teachers worked at 105,005 early childhood centers (PAUD) across the country. Data from the Indonesian Early Childhood Education Association (Himpaudi) showed that 306,897 non-formal female teachers worked at 240,000 PAUD.

Although the grassroots contribution of women was very important, their efforts did not receive much appreciation and was even considered normal. For example, communities tended to regard non-formal PAUD teachers as part of home-based education because they typically taught study groups or at day care centers, Sunday schools and other PAUD units.

“PAUD teachers have not been treated as equals of formal teachers,” said Netti Herawati, the chair of the Indonesian Early Childhood Education and Educators Association.

In the health sector, hundreds of thousands of women are at the forefront of providing basic health services, particularly maternal and child health, nutrition, immunization, family planning and diarrhea treatment at posyandu (integrated health service posts). The 2017 Indonesian Health Data Profile recorded 294,428 posyandu in the country.

In addition, many women in villages/subdistricts were active in agriculture, the environment, culture/law, agrarian/forestry, maritime affairs, mining, labor, migrant workers, disability services, indigenous peoples and peace missions.

Following the reform movement, the number of grassroots women leaders increased to 4,855 in 2018. This figure did not include women leaders at the lowest administrative levels, such as the heads of hamlets, RT/RW (community/neighborhood units) and customary villages.

Saraiyah, 47, and hundreds of women grouped in the Women’s School of Sukadana village in North Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB), broke through traditional barriers to defend empowerment issues in their villages. Saraiyah was also the first woman to become a member of the Sukadana Village Krama Assembly (MKD).

At the end of 2017 on Sabangko Island in Pangkajene Islands regency, South Sulawesi, fisherwoman Nurlina, 28, along with a local women’s school, encouraged the local administration to develop a solar power plant and a village health post.

“The rising political power of women at the grassroots level, such as women serving as an RT head, a village secretary or community leaders, may not be included in the statistics,” said Nursyahbani Katjasungkana, the national coordinator of the Indonesian Women\'s Association for Justice. (SON/ISW/DNE/HRS

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