Domestic responsibilities and social constructs are the biggest hurdles to improving women’s participation in politics, a researcher at the University of Indonesia’s Politics Review Center (Puskapol UI), Beni Telaumbanua, has said.
“Women encounter a domestic challenge in the form of their responsibility as a wife or a mother,” he noted at a webinar on ‘Ensuring Women’s Participation in the General Election’, streamed live on YouTube here on Tuesday.
Telaumbanua recalled his experience during the She Leads activity that aimed to guide the capacity development of prospective women candidates who wanted to become members of the General Election Commission (KPU) or General Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu.
During that time, he said that many women were unable to attend after deciding to register as KPU and Bawaslu members.
There were three primary reasons why the women were unable to attend, he pointed out.
These reasons were: they had a responsibility as a commissioner in a region, they were sick, and domestic challenges in the form of their responsibility toward their families, children, and parents, he informed.
Domestic challenges were the most frequently cited reason out of these three, he said.
“This made them unable to attend and participate in the selection,” Telaumbanua added.
In addition to social constructs and domestic challenges, he also highlighted three other hurdles: difficulty in identifying and ensnaring potential candidates, gaps within the regulation and women failing the selection process, as well as political interests that undermine the issue of women representation.
The last hurdle occurred quite frequently, especially during the fit and proper exam in the House of Representation (DPR), he elaborated.
To this end, Puskapol UI held She Leads as one of the strategies to encourage and ensure women’s participation in the general election organizer institution, he said.
It especially aims to bolster women’s capacity and provide guidance to prepare women to go through the selection process and participate in organizing elections, he added.
Source: Antara News