Indonesia women - Ideas for Research
In 2004 I had a book published entitled Women and the State in Modern Indonesia. My book covered the history of Indonesian women's engagement with the state over the last 100 years, taking a thematic approach. The themes covered were education of girls, early marriage, citizenship, polygamy, motherhood, economic exploitation, and violence.
It took me years to write and I accumulated a great deal of material that I did not make full use of. I also came across lots of matters that I did not have room to pursue adequately. What I want to do here is to outline some research topics that arose from my book, in the hope that some other people will take them up. I do not propose going down these paths myself but would be interested in supervising some of them.
Here then are some fascinating areas I came across in my research that I was not able to put into my book for lack of space or lack of material: more digging is required.Women as Leaders
Everyone knows about Megawati, but apart from her I found many examples of women taking leadership roles in many areas of Indonesian life, and not enough written about them. I was particularly interested in what the impact of women as leaders has been. To give a few examples:
- Women judges in religious courts. Indonesian was the first country to have women appointed as judges in Islamic courts, in the 1950s. Research has yet to be done on what difference this has made to women appearing before the courts and how the courts handle matters relating to women.
- Women ministers of religion in Minahasa. Since the 1950s women have been recruited as ministers to the Protestant church in Minahasa, where the population is predominantly Protestant. Now most ministers are women. No research has been done on how this happened and what difference it has made to the congregations and the church there. In a world where women are pressuring all religions to let them take a leadership role, this should be a model. In the current situation of communal tension in Indonesia it would be good to know whether there is more intercommunal harmony in Minahasa as a result of having women religious leaders.
- Women preachers. Leading on from the previous topic, what influence have women preachers had in other religions in Indonesia?
- Women in parliament and government. No studies have been done of the Ministry for Women's Affairs and its ministers: what influence have they had? What about women bupatis? Do women in parliament form effective caucuses on women's issues? What links do they have with the women's movement outside? There are interesting longitudinal studies to be done on this, from the 1950s marriage law campaigns onwards.
Biographies
I came across a number of fascinating individuals about whom little has been written. They seem to offer excellent material for biographies. Examples:
- Siti Sundari (1910s - 1920s)
- Chairul Syamsu Datu Tumenggung (1920s-1950s)
- Suwarsih Joyopuspito-Pringgodigdo (1930s-1950s)
Look at my book to see why they are such interesting people.
Women's Organisations
Neglected aspects:
- Early period (1910s)
- Their publications
- Their members, especially at lower levels
- Religious-based organisations
Experiences of Marriage Changes
Although issues related to marriage have been high on agenda of women's organisations, remarkably little study has been made of women's changing experience of marriage over the years. Interesting aspects:
- Divorce and step-parenting
- Polygamy
- Impact/evasion of 1974 marriage law
- Cross-religious marriages
Possible sources: court records, organisational records.
Women's Health
Until the 1990s, there was a lack of attention to women's health problems. I was particularly struck by absence of studies of abortion - understandable in view of its illegal status. Maternal mortality also has been neglected until recently. More studies of female dukuns would be good too given their poor reputation with western-trained doctors.
Relations Between Women of Different Races
Although Indonesians have been unable to avoid recognising the importance of Kartini's relations with Dutch women, almost nothing has been written about relations between women of different races in Indonesia. This is a result of nationalism and aversion to feminism in Indonesia. We could learn here from Kumari Jayawardena's study, The White Women's Other Burden: Western Women and South Asia During British Rule. I have written a little about relations between European feminists and Indonesian women in the colonial period but much remains to be done. Other races have been neglected too: need to see more work on relations between Chinese-Indonesian and Arab-Indonesian women and indigenous Indonesian women, up to present.
An interesting source here is the Women's International Club, which had a useful publication in Jakarta (in English!)
Conclusion
A tremendous amount remains to be done in research on Indonesian women. I have given some examples of topics that I noted as I worked on my book: areas on which I could find little if anything written but which seem important in order to understand the changing situation of Indonesian women.
More information on Associate Professor Susan Blackburn or contact Sue.Blackburn@arts.monash.edu.au