Pustaka Ilmiah Universitas Padjadjaran

Abstrak

Challenges Faced By Women Legislators In Indonesia: A Case Study From Cirebon, West Java

Women’s representation in Indonesian politics has entered a new era following the introduction of affirmative action policy through the 2002 Political Party Law and the 2003 Electoral Law which was then expanded and strengthened in the 2008 Electoral Law. The said laws have the potential to improve women’s representation in the political sphere by stipulating that each participating political party must include at least 30 per cent (30%) women in its candidate list. Without a doubt, this affirmative action policy in the form of a gender quota system has brought new hopes for Indonesian women to be meaningfully involved in Indonesia’s political processes. Nevertheless, empirical evidence shows that this is not always the case. Indonesian women have faced significant resistance and challenges not only when they tried to run for election, but also when they performed as legislators in their respective legislative institutions. How can this phenomenon be explained? What sort of resistance and challenges have they faced? How do they cope with such resistance and challenges? This paper tries to answer these questions by specifically discussing a case study of women legislators in local representative assemblies (DPRD) in Cirebon, West Java, Indonesia.