Between Womanhood and the Nation: Paradigms of Women Activism in Twentieth Century Indonesia

Between Womanhood and the  Nation: Paradigms of Women Activism in Twentieth Century Indonesia

Ayu Ratih (Jaringan Kerja Budaya)

This paper provides an overview of the relationship between women and the nation from the perspectives of women activists since the time of Kartini in the early 1900 to the present. It pays closer attention to two relatively under-researched but dynamic periods of the first two decades after Indonesian independence (1945-1965) and the years following Soeharto’s fall in 1998. Instead of providing descriptive narration of women’s activism over the course of the century, I analyse the changing conceptions among women activists of public and private dialectic amidst contending issues of tradition, religion, class and nationhood. I have written this paper based upon oral interviews with surviving women activists of the periods in question and written documentation.