Publications and other Resources >> New Publications

The Women's Movement in Postcolonial Indonesia Gender and Nation in a New Democracy
by Elizabeth Martyn, Monash University, Australia

ASAA Women in Asia Series

RoutledgeCurzon
December 2004: 234x156: 288pp
Hb: 0-415-30838-0: £60.00

Market: Women's Studies and Southeast Asian Studies

Published by: Taylor and Francis Group

Synopsis:
This book examines women's activism in the early years of independent Indonesia when new attitudes to gender, nationalism, citizenship and democratization were forming. It questions the meaning of democratization for women and their relationship to national sovereignty within the new Indonesian state, and discusses women's organizations and their activities; women's social and economic roles; and the different cultural, regional and ethnic attitudes towards women, while showing the failure of political change to fully address women's gender interests and needs. The author argues that both the role of nationalism in defining gender identity and the role of gender in defining national identity need equal recognition.

Contents:
Part 1 Theoretical and Historical Background

Missing Images: Approaching Indonesian Women's Activism
Emergence of a Women's Movement: Nationalism and women's rights in Indonesia 1900-49

Part 2 Women's Mobilization in the 1950s - The National Level

The Promise of Independence: Women's Mobilization in a New Nation-State
Meeting Practical Gender Interests: Women's Organizations' Socio-Economic Activities
Representing Women in a New Democracy: Women's Organizations and National Politics
Confronting the State: The Fight for a Marriage Law

Part 3 Challenging the National Level Perspective

Women's International Interests: Representing Gender and Nation at the International Level
Unity in Diversity: Women's Regional Interests in 1950s Indonesia
Constructing Womanhood in a New Nation-State: Indonesian Women's Experiences of Independence and Democracy

Appendix: Examples of women's organisations belonging to Kongres Wanita Indonesia 1958

Glossary

Bibliography