The Women's Movement in Postcolonial Indonesia: Gender and Nation in a New Democracy (Tapa dura)

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. Amongst other things, this work discusses women's organizations and their activities; women's social and economic roles; and the different cultural, regional and ethnic attitudes towards women. As a detailed account of women's activism in a new democratic state, this book shows the failure of such political change to fully address women's gender interests and needs. Ongoing nationalist struggle and the contested relationship between women and nationalism provide part of the answer. Furthermore, 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.