In many areas of Indonesia, women are no longer culturally influenced to only be a stay-at-home mother. A 2010 national statistic showed that 70 percent of tertiary-educated (post high-school educated) women 25-29 years of age in Jakarta, the nation’s capital, are choosing a career over homemaker. (insideindonesia.org) Like many places that reach this transition, fertility rates decline and the average age of first marriages goes up. While Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, is experiencing this effect right now, not all areas of this country are following suit.
Indonesia is a difficult nation to generalize in any one subject because of the vastly different cultures that exist within the archipelago. So, while areas in the island of Java seems to be modernizing, the nation as a whole is still dealing with a gender equality gap. The gross national income per capita for women is less than half of mens currently. (hdr.undp.org) Therefore, many male and female societal roles hold more closely to older traditions. Currently, forty percent of Indonesia’s population works in the agricultural sector. (indonesia-investments.com) The majority of those workers are male, and social norms tend to dictate that wives of farmers stay home to raise the family. However, small businesses in Indonesia are quite often owned and ran by both men and women, and currently about 1 in 5 parliament members are female. This doesn’t mean there still aren’t major problems with women’s rights in the country but they have been making steps toward gender equality for some time now. In fact, this gap was narrowing until about 2004 when a tsunami hit the shores of Indonesia and changed certain areas secular and progressive ways. Shortly after the tsunami, the Banda Aceh province was granted, by the Indonesian government, the ability to enact Sharia Law. (news.vice.com) This was due to a religiously charged public reaction to a mosque being the only building that survived in an area decimated by the natural disaster. While the majority of the nation’s Muslim population follows more modern Islamic policies, a growing push for Sharia Law across Indonesia has somewhat inhibited the progression of gender equality. Discriminatory regulations targeting women, both local and national, rose from 389 in 2015 to 422 in 2016. (hrw.org) While these recent developments do not sound promising, the government still is holding to its policy of freedom of religion, and is still pushing to remove sexist practices within the government. One example of this is, with a new military chief, the Indonesian armed forces might possibly be eliminating their so-called “virginity tests” to their female military applicants. (hrw.org) Many of the most economically strong areas of the country seem to be moving toward gender equality and hopefully that trend will continue indefinitely. Citations: Human Development Reports. (Retrieved 2018, February 12) Retrieved from http://hdr.undp.org/en/countries/profiles/IDN Human Rights Watch. (2018, January 25). Retrieved from https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/01/25/indonesia-new-military-chief-should-tackle-abuses Unemployment in Indonesia. (Retrieved 2018, February 12) Retrieved from https://www.indonesia-investments.com/finance/macroeconomic-indicators/unemployment/item255? Utomo, A. (2015, April 6). A woman’s place. Retrieved from http://www.insideindonesia.org/a-woman-s-place-3 VICE News. (2018) Retrieved from https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/bjyw45/this-is-what-life-is-like-under-sharia-law Wuysang, J. H. Indonesia Events of 2016. (2016) Retrieved from https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2017/country-chapters/indonesia
3 Comments
Lauren Labrum
2/28/2018 09:59:01 am
I really enjoyed all of the information! As I read, I thought it was neat to hear how 70% of women are choosing careers over housemakers. I also thought it was cool to read about the female parliament members. Every 1 in 5 parliament member is female and it's interesting to read about the ways in which they are trying to increase equality between men and women. It sounds like they have been working at gender equality for awhile now, and I think gender equality will continue to get better as well. Thank you!
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3/14/2018 10:03:05 am
"In many areas of Indonesia, women are no longer culturally influenced to only be a stay-at-home mother." I found your blog on men and women in Indonesia to be similar to South Korea. It is wrong that they treat women less than men, since they have proofed that they have the same brain capacity and talents as any other human being. Getting assigned only to just be a stay home mom can really be a struggle.
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3/19/2018 03:03:55 pm
Hi there,
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