As part of its commitment to encourage women's political participation, IDEA held a press conference for the Women Democracy Network program entitled 'Wong Wedok Dudu Mung Konco Wingking', Friday, July 9, 2021. This press conference was held to disseminate information about the importance of promoting and supporting women's political leadership.
This program itself is implemented in order to strengthen women's awareness to become prospective leaders as well as have the ability to carry out public awareness movements on the issue of women's political leadership. Through this program, IDEA seeks to promote and support women's groups who dare to be involved in playing a role in public policy, both at the executive, legislative, and political party levels, including small-scale spaces such as RT, RW, Padukuhan, or village.
In addition, through this program, IDEA also wants to provide an example that in the DIY Province there are many female political leaders who are able to bring about changes in villages that are more democratic, pay attention to the welfare of vulnerable groups, and are innovative in developing all limitations in the Village.
The program was initially implemented because of the low political participation of women in public policy-making. According to data from the General Election Commission which determined 2,829 legislative candidates at the provincial and district/city levels for the 2019 legislative elections, there were 1,239 female candidates who also ran. However, of that number, only 9 female candidates were elected as legislative members in the DIY Province. Meanwhile, there were 46 male legislative members. This means that the representation of female legislative members is only around 16%, far from the 30% quota for women.
The election of female leaders also occurs in the Village/Sub-district. In Kulon Progo for example, the percentage of female sub-district heads and village heads is around 10%, far from the affirmation of the female quota set at 30%.
The number of Regents/Mayors in the Special Region of Yogyakarta is only 1 out of a total of 5 Regents/Mayors. In the simultaneous regional head elections held in December 2020, there were only 3 women running as regents and deputy regents out of 18 candidates who will advance in the regional head election competition. The number of female BPD members is also still minimal, in Sleman Regency, for example, out of a total of 904 BPD members, only 22 are women or around 2%. In the village head elections in Bantul Regency in September 2020, out of 75 candidates, only 2 were women. This indicates the importance of increasing women's access and participation to be further involved in the process of producing models of women's political leadership that support the interests of women and vulnerable groups.
This is in line with the 2019 DIY gender and child profile data in the field of politics and decision-making which shows that women's participation in public policy decision-making is still low. The number of women sitting in executive, legislative and judicial institutions is still far behind men who hold important positions in politics and decision-making. The decline in IDG was contributed by a decline in the number of women in the executive where in 2018 there was a decline in the number of female sub-district heads from 10 to 8. Likewise, the number of village heads/sub-district heads in 2018 showed a decline from 45 female village heads to 42.
On the other hand, there are still many questions that arise whether the presence of female political leaders is able to represent women's interests?. Is it able to accommodate their needs, experiences and aspirations or the needs of vulnerable groups?. In fact, women's political participation is currently increasingly needed in efforts to integrate gender needs in various public policies and can produce legal products. These legal products produce gender sensitivity that has been neglected so far, thus inhibiting women's participation in various sectors.
Contact person: Ahmad Hedar – Project Manager (082225434796)
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