By Mulyanda Djohan, Xinhua,
Jakarta : Although some of the Indonesian women have exceeded or been equal with the position of men in many sectors of life, the social status of the nation’s women as a whole is far behind the men, a woman leader said recently.
Rita Subowo, the first Indonesian woman taking up the post of the chairmanship of the country’s top sport council known as KONI, told Xinhua in an interview that the traditional challenges of discrimination against women had hampered their progress.
The archipelago country is home to a population of more than 230 million people comprising hundreds of ethnic groups with most of them still exercising traditional culture and habit of putting women on the back banner.
“In many cultures, family give a priority to men for progress rather than women. This makes the women in the position of being more difficult for improvement,” she said.
Although many women in the country had been able to reach top position in politics, business and social life, their number was still incomparable to men.
“Actually, the Indonesian women have been on progress, but their quantity is still low,” she said.
Subowo said that all the traditional barriers could be overcome gradually and surely by raising the level of education in both genders, which could improve the insight and the way of their thinking.
To change them internally through education was much easier than to change them externally by changing their culture or habit, which have been long rooted in the community, said Subowo.
“To change the tradition is very difficult. But, high education will lead the women to have a wide insight, which can make them think and realize by themselves about their right and capabilities,” she said.
“Please do not let the most of Indonesian women think about becoming migrant workers only,” Subowo urged.
Having low level of education, hundreds of thousands of Indonesian people, most of them are women, have been worked in the low prestigious position of helpers in many foreign countries.
Similarly, the chairperson said that the highly-educated men would easily understand their spouses and tend to put them on an equal position, said Subowo.
She urged the government to give more opportunities to women to take part in the fields of politics, economy and others.
In addition, she said, the country’s woman organization must actively encourage their members to get progress.
Subowo said that in reality, there were many positions which were more suitable to be posted by women.
“In sport, many achievements have been contributed by women athletes. Only women can manage them and understand them properly,” she said.
Since the first awakening of the Indonesian women led by the heroic struggle of Raden Ajeng Kartini, who was born in April 20, 1879, the women in the archipelago country have posted the most prestigious position, including President Megawati, incumbent Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, who has been declared as the most influencing women in Asia, and many others.
Unfortunately, education still can not be improved maximally due to the lack of budget.
Huge amount of foreign debt, poverty and seismic corruption areamong the major challenges which must be addressed by the promising-administration of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
Besides, the government, which has done a lot to overcome such obstacles, has now grappled with soaring global oil prices which have exceeded 120 U.S. dollars a barrel and food crisis. The government must cut over 15 percent of the budget in each ministry, including the ministry for education.
Some have been done by the government, such as the inclusion off our women in the cabinet and the target of 30 percent of women members in the parliament. But the target has not reached yet.
Subowo said the Indonesian culture and habit as a whole does not put women on priority to progress. And housework has also hampered women’s social progress, said Subowo.
“The women usually can do something else for their progress, should the economic problem of their family be settled first,” she said.