Women’s Representation in the Parliament: From Rhetoric to Reality (2)

3. The Parliament as a Battle Field

The integration of women into politics, particularly in the Parliament could be in two forms, which are women as a Member of Parliaments (MPs) or legislators and women as the stakeholders whose needs and interest must be taken into account in the policy-making. The quota plays a significant role in increasing the numbers of women MPs. However, the Parliament is a gendered institution which based on the male norms and already preserved inequality and thus, would not increase both the quantity and the quality of women’s representation. Women’s movement could fill in the gap in order to advocate women’s interest in the parliament. However, parliament is not homogenous. It consists of different groups with different platform and ideologies and different interests, including the women themselves, both among the women’s MPs and the women’s movements.

a. Parliament as a Gendered Institution: The Importance of Ideological Factor

According to Scott, gender operates in four levels, which are the symbolic level, the ideologies or norms, the institutions and the subjective identities (Zarkov: lectures notes, 2005). The ideological factors are based on the norms and values about women’s role which could enhance or constrain women’s participation in politics. It is originated in the notions of men and women. Men are considered as having capacity to reason, to govern and to moral judgment; while on the contrary, women are considered as not having such capacities. It is also supported by traditional and religious norms and values. It constructs the relationships between men and women (within and beyond households) which are reflected on the division between “public” and “domestic” or “private”; between ‘productive’ and ‘unproductive’ economy. Moreover, all institutions beyond the household or domestic sphere are gendered to the degree that they are located in a ‘public’ and ‘productive’ economy (Goetz: 1997).

These male-norms also embedded in the notions of “power”, “decision-making” and even “politicians” that have been socially constructed as the men’s territories. Men are considered better equipped than women to exercise power in the public domain and male candidates still perceived as stronger candidates than the females (Basu: 2005, p. 2). Men perceive power as capacity to control and dominate. These norms are also institutionalized within structures and practices of organizations as well as in the society. Hence, institutions[1] produce gender differences through their structures and their everyday practices. Therefore, women were excluded from any public activities, including in decision-making process and any other political activities. Not having any political capacities, women became politically powerless, while the men became politically powerful.

In additional, the parliament has a long history as a political institution which previously dominated by men.[2] It is important to look at how the parliament is being historically shaped, for example in the Indonesian case, which throughout its independent history, parliament has not been genuinely representative and heavily male dominated and often indifferent to the priority concerns of women (Bessell: 2004, p. 5). Indonesian women have been politically active[3] before its independence, but have not translated into parliamentary presentation, even after 9 general elections. In 1998, after the fall of Soeharto’s regime which marked the beginning, women’s representation in Indonesian Parliament was still low.[4]

The causes for women’s under representation in the Indonesian Parliament are the new order’s ideology, religion and prevailing stereotypes and ideology (Bessell: 2004, p. 6-11). New order ideology has been developed and reinforced over more three decades and remain highly influential in shaping social and political relations in Indonesia. The Indonesian state has been highly gendered in which the construction of “ideal types” was central to their ideology and control, including the notion of ideal type of women (ibid).

Women were given specific roles and attributes. The notion of womanhood was centred on their ideal roles as a “good wife and mother”. It was symbolized by the image of the domesticated women which is supported by the traditional and religious values.[5] On the other hand, the notion of men as the head of the family and image of Soeharto as the father of the nation portrayed a strong paternalist culture within the concept of azas kekeluargaan (the family principle) as the foundation of the nation (Suryakusuma: 1996 as cited in Bessell: ibid). It constructed the social structure which was utilized politically by the state, for example to control the civil servants with their families.[6] Therefore, the “ideal” women could not enter the masculine world of politics, parliament and formal decision-making (ibid).

During new order, political positions for women were not based on the meritocracy system. They were given to the relatives or cronies of Soeharto. In addition, the division of labor within the parliament was also gendered where women usually to be placed at the commissions who handled “soft” issues (i.e education, culture, social, etc).

After the major changes in Indonesian political system in 2002-2003, the women’s representation in the Parliament did not showed significant changes. General election in 2004 showed that women’s representation in the parliament at national level 11% (DPR) and 21% (DPD) and at local level 9% (provinces) and 5% (city). The women’s representation in Indonesia is still at the 89^th rank (out of 186 countries) world wide, lower than Afghanistan which is in 24^th rank (IPU: 2004).

The causes are relatively the same since the patriarchal ideology that shaped the society, including the parliament and the political parties has not changed (Parawansa: 2002). Moreover, the women’s movement did not play a significant change until 1999. Although they were succeeded in imposing 30% quota in the legislation, there was a loophole which made the quota system could not applied effectively.

On the other hand, the Scandinavian countries, specifically in Norway, had the same experiences. However, due to the long tradition of women’s movement in giving public pressures to the Parliament to change throughout years had finally made changes in increasing women’s representation in the parliament and incorporating a feminist agenda into the platforms of several political parties, as well as affecting some major legislation (Bystydzienski: 1997, p. 12-13).

b. Advocating Women’s Voices in the Parliament: The Role of Women’s Movement

Integrating women into the parliament is through increasing the number of women’s MPs (as legislators) and through the women’s movements (as stakeholders or citizens). The women’s movements could give pressures to enforce the quota system and to advocate their interests in the Parliament. Both in Norway and Indonesia, women’s movements were involved in giving pressures for the implementation of the quota system; also advocating and empowering women to enter the Parliament. Moreover, women’s participation starts at the earlier phase of decision-making in the Parliament, which is the agenda-building or agenda-setting (Sinkkonen and Mannila: 1981, p.195), for example in Indonesia, through the setting-up of Prolegnas[1] 2005-2006 where the Parliament was promoting a gender-mainstreaming in their legislation agendas for the first time.

However, the parliament consists of many interest groups which sometimes conflicting to each other. Moreover, ‘women’ is not a homogenous group. Differences may occur between women groups. Again, ideological factor plays an important role in the way the women’s MPs and the women’s movement approach the women issues. For example, in Indonesia, feminist’s movements were conflicting with conservative religious parties over the enactment of Law No. 23/2004 on violence against women. In their opinion, such law would increase the number of divorces and would undermine and endangered the marriage as a basic institution which founded the society.

The conflicts are now increasing over the seven bills that have been prioritized for 2005, which are bills on: the anti-pornography, the amendment of marriage law, the witness protection, the citizenship, criminal code, criminal procedures code, and health. The debates on the anti-pornography bill create conflicts between two alliances. The first one is the alliance among the conservative religious groups. The second one is the alliances between the feminist groups, the media groups, the artists, and the progressive religious groups. Moreover, the religious groups even challenged the notion of gender equality which is considered as a “western” norm and against the Islamic values.

In addition, there was also a conflict over the substance of the amendment of Indonesian marriage law among the women’s organization within the JKP3 (Jaringan Kerja Prolegnas Pro-Perempuan, or women’s network for gender mainstreaming in the legislations) particularly on the issue of poligamy.[7]

On the other hand, Norway had different experience. Norway had a long tradition of well-organized women’s movement for gender equality. The key to the success of their struggle was building a strong coalition between two groups of major significance within the women’s movement: women representing traditional women’s organization, the establishment women and the new feminists (Bystydzienski: 1992. Despite ideological and structural differences, the two quickly found many issues they could agree on (i.e abortion, equal pay, treatment for rape victims and pornography) and developed a mutually supportive relationship.

4. Women’s Representation in the Parliament: From Rhetoric to Reality

The struggle for women’s representation in the Parliament still continues. In Indonesia, the struggle has just started. The objective is to create a gender-sensitive environment that enables women to create political spaces and exercise power in politics. The recent conditions in Indonesia (and any other developing countries) show the need for capacity building programs. According to Grindle, capacity building is the degree to which individuals, groups, organizations and societies are able to perform functions, solve problems and set and achieve objectives in a sustainable manner (Lusthaus, Adrien and Perstinger: 1999). It is broader than human resource development and organizational development as it includes an emphasis on the overall system, environment or context in which individuals & organizations operate and interact. Thus, the scope of the capacity building is:

Balancing the level playing field could start with reconstructing the norms and values which shaped the political institutions by bringing the women’s cultures, values and experiences. Women’s culture places value on cooperation, interdependence, caring and expressive. Thus, it could transform the hierarchal structure of political institutions so it is more responsive to human needs, flexible, democratic and personal (As, 1975; Laferty, 1981; as cited in Bystydzienski, 1992 : 14-15). It also could transform the daily practices of the organization, for example, in Norway, there was a campaign in 1980s initiated by the women’s movement toward creating a six-hour workday. They argued that the shorter workday will allow both men and women to have more time for family, community and leisure and that it would be favorable to women by freeing men to do their share of household and childrearing tasks (Forde and Hernes, 1988 as cited in Bystydzienski: 1992).

At the level of legal and institutional framework, there should be a clear regulation with imposing non-compliance sanctions of the implementation of quota system. Moreover, the organizational development is to ensure women’s access to politics in all institutions. Secondly, there should be an education programs for women, such as proper political education for women including gender training for women and men.

In addition, gender perspective should be embedded within the Parliament system by bringing the gender perspective into the policy or legislation-making (i.e in legislative drafting methodology) in the Parliament. The cost benefits and the impacts of bills and regulation on women should be taken into account in the legislation-making, particularly the impact of criminalization over women as reflected in many bills submitted to the Indonesian Parliament (i.e the anti-pornography bill).

Last but not the least is the involving of men in the process. Using the GAD approach, bringing in the women should be followed by bringing in the men, as changing power relation would requires men to change too. The social reconstruction of “man-woman” or “masculinity-feminity” are very related to each other. Changing the notion of woman would impacts the notion of men as well. Moreover, in the process, social reconstruction of men-women relations could benefit women as well as men, as Cornwall and White (Cornwall and White: 2000, p.3) put it:

“Women can gain as much as men from the active involvement of men in GAD. Recognizing both the power and vulnerability involved in the subject positions men take up and the variant gendered identities available to men is a step towards beginning to address issues such as male violence that are direct to women. Opening up safe spaces for men to express their emotions and explore the contradictions they inhabit may help break the silence that serves to shore up particular idealized masculinities that are detrimental to women, as well as to many men.”

5. Conclusion

Firstly, ideological factor is the most important factor which constraints women’s representation in the parliament. It constructs the power relations in creating the political space for women and have impacts to other factors such as social, economic and political factors) in implementing the quota system for women and integrating women into politics. Secondly, the parliament is as a gendered institution in which the norms and values are embedded from its hierarchal structures to everyday practices. Thirdly, to ensure that women are not isolated from the political life in the Parliament, is to reconstruct the gendered level playing field, including to have a gender perspective embedded in the system within the Parliament, to build a strong women’s movement and to have a comprehensive capacity building.

References

Basu, Amrita. Women, Political Parties and Social Movements in South Asia. Occasional Paper 5. UNRISD: 2005.

Bessel, Sharon. Women in Parliament in Indonesia: Denied a Share of Power. Australia: Asia Pacific School of Economics and Government, 2004.

Bystydzienski, Jill M. Ed. Influence of Women’s Culture on Public Politics in Norway in Women Transforming Politics: Worldwide Strategies for Empowerment. USA: Indiana University Press, 1992.

Cornwall, Andrea and Sarah C. White. Men, Masculinities and Development. Politics, Policies and Practice. IDS Bulletin Vol. 31 No. 2, 2000.

Dahlerup, Drude and Lenita Freidenvall. Quota as a ‘Fast Track’ to Equal Representation for Women: Why Scandinavia is No Longer The Model. International Feminist Journal of Politics, 7:1 March 2005, pp. 26-48.

Dahlerup, Drude. Using Quota’s to Increase Women’s Political Representation in Women in Parliament beyond Numbers. IDEA: Stockholm, 2002.

Goetz, Anne Marie. Getting Institutions Right for Women in Development. London: Zen Books, 1997.

Heywood, Andrew. Politics. Hampshire: Palgrave, 2002.

Kabeer, Naila. Treating Cancer with a Bandaid? The Theoretical Underpinning of WID in Reversed Realities: Gender Hierarchies in Development Thought, (London: Verso, 1994), pp. 11-39.

Nurbayanti, Herni Sri. Menanti Parlemen yang Peka terhadap Kepentingan Perempuan. Ulasan Mingguan Oktober 2004 Minggu Pertama. It is excerpted from www.parlemen.net.

Nurbayanti, Herni Sri. Mendorong Lahirnya Undang-undang Pro-Perempuan. Ulasan Mingguan Mei 2005 Minggu Ketiga. It is excerpted from www.parlemen.net.

Parawansa, Khofifah Indar. Hambatan terhadap Partisipasi Politik Perempuan di Indonesia: Studi Kasus. IDEA: Jakarta, No year.

Paxton, Pamela and Sheri Kunovich. Women’s Political Representation: The Importance of Ideology. Social Forces. The University of North California Press: September 2003, 82(1): 87-114.

Rai, Shirin Gender and Development: Theoretical Perspective in Context in Gender and the Political Economy of Development, Cambridge: Polity Press, 2002.

Sinkkonen, Sirkka and Elina Haaio-Mannila. The Impact of the Women’s Movement and Legislative Activity of Women MPs on Social Development in Women, Power and Political System. Margherita Rendel, ed. London: Coom Helm, 1981.

Soetjipto, Ani Widyani. Politik Perempuan Bukan Gerhana: Esai-Esai Pilihan. Jakarta: Penerbit Kompas, 2005.

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[1] According to North, institutions are best understood as frameworks for socially constructed rules and norms which function to limit choice. They are humanly devised constraints (North: 1990, p. 3 as cited in Goetz: 1997) which reduce uncertainty and provide structure to everyday life, making certain forms of behaviour predictable and routine, institutionalizing them.

[2] The exclusion of women in politics had started since the early periods of the history of democracy itself, for example, when Aristoteles stressed the importance of the citizen’s political rights, he referred to men, particularly the white men and excluded the white women and also the black people. Thus, it placed the white men in the top ranking, followed by the white women and black men and black women at the very bottom.

[3] The women’s movement grew since the late colonial period. Women’s issues were integrated along with the nationalist aspirations, focusing on education for girls, child marriage and polygamy. The first women’s congress was held in 1928 and the first Federation of Indonesian Women’s Association was established. Indonesian women were politically active, but they did not have a proper representation in the politics. During the New Order Regime, women’s participation limited to the Soeharto’s “family” or “friends” and thus, the position in politics for women was considered as a “gift” rather than based on the meritocracy system. During the reformation, the women’s movements became more active in politics.

[4] After the first general election in 1955, women constitute 6.5% in the Parliament. During Soeharto’s regime, the highest number is 13% (1987).

[5] For example, the influence of patriarchal Hindu ideology is reflected on the verse of the Ramayana, “when women are independent it will bring curses” and traditional proverbs “swargo nunut, nerako katut” (to heaven by your leave; to hell by your command), while the patriarchal Islamic ideology embedded in the conservative Islamic groups promotes polygamy as one of the implementation of Allah’s rule that should be followed by men and women.

[6] The civil servants must choose Golongan Karya (Golkar), the dominant political parties controlled by the government. Usually, the husband would join Korpri, a civil service organization and their wives were required to join Dharma Wanita, the association of wives of civil servants.

[7] Kompas, 15 May 2005. Url: http://www.kompas.com. One of the women organizations involved in JKP3 had different ideas on polygamy with other members of JKP3. In a hearing forum in the Parliament, some male MPs threw out a misogyny jokes as their response and was protested by some women’s MPs. Kompas, the biggest and most influential newspaper in Indonesia, put the news in its front page, showing that event as one of the embarrass moment in the Parliament.