The Quest of The Next Women Leaders in Indonesia
“I’m a great woman!”, exclaimed 25 young women from Poso while crossing their arms over their chests like the Wonder Woman pose.
‘I am a great woman’ is an encouraging mantra that has been continuously chanted during the two days of the GirlsCanLead (GCL) Leadership Camp in early May 2019 in Poso, Central Sulawesi. This is the second time that I, Abigail, have come to Poso. The greetings have also been made not only by these 25 young women, but also by 100 of their compatriots in other cities, such as Ambon, Tangerang and Sukabumi.
GCL Leadership Camp is a basic leadership training that targets high school students. In this camp, participants will be invited to understand the basic values of leadership and to exercise various standard skills needed to become a leader. For example, speaking in public, thinking analytically, time management, and team work. Since our first pilot in Poso in early 2018, GCL has focused on bringing this program to post-conflict or intolerant-prone areas.
It all starts with frustration
This activity was born out of frustration at the lack of representation of women at the highest levels of decision-making in various fields, from local to national levels.
However, this frustration gave me the impetus to do something. Starting from my lack of confidence in myself, I just wanted to help other young women to move forward. I remembered on an article from TIME magazine stated that the secret of happiness is by helping others. GCL can be said to be born as a form of “treatment” for my ownself. That every time I teach these girls to be confident, I am retraining my self-confidence. That when I encourage them to dream and contribute to their communities, I am also doing the same through this organisation.
As a development professional, I experienced a lot of anxiety when I started my career. I come from a working class family and raised by a single mother who work 9-to-5, non-stop, for the past 25 years (and counting). It took a big struggle for me to finish my education with all of the economic limitations. As a result, I grew up with a lot of insecurities. My insecurity increase when entering the world of work. I began to feel that my identity as a woman carried certain “burdens”. I experienced it myself when I first became an apprentice in one of the government agency in Jakarta. I am often seat in a room where I am the only woman in those meetings, or if there is any, usually the woman only acts as the supporting staff and chooses not to contribute / comment on anything that is discussed at the time. Basically, I felt lost!
When conducting personal research in an attempt to answer my dilemma, I found that the lack of representation of women does not only occur in government institutions, but also in the business world. Whereas according to Indonesia’s Central Bureau of Statistic data, almost 50% of Indonesia’s population are female and quoted the statement from the Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani,
“Indonesia is estimated to experience economic loss of up to 15% when it does not maximize the potential of its female population.”
This discovery made me realize that my dilemma was not due to only my personal condition. It turns out that there is a much bigger problem than just Abigail who lacks of confidence or Abigail who lacks of support. It turns out that there are various external factors, mostly cultural, which make it difficult for women to achieve leadership position.
Why is women’s representation important?
I often use this example with GCL participants; imagine that out of a total of 560 members of Indonesian parliament (DPR), only 17.3% are female. Not to mention the number of DPR members who are under 40 years old is only 97 members. So it can be concluded that the majority of our parliament members are (not really surprising) the classic old men club. Therefore, no wonder their priority agenda will focus on important areas according to them. No wonder also the Bill on the Elimination of Sexual Violence continues to face a bottleneck even though it has been advocating by many for years.
If you want to go to a more practical level, the main reason for my frustration need to be channeled into something positive is due to the reflection I get when I explore back the feeling that I have when I was the only woman or one of a few women in a conference room. Often, I feel inferior and reluctant to comment until there was one moment when I attended a meeting chaired by the Head of Jakarta’s Regional Body for Planning and Development. The head is a woman; Ibu Tuti Kusumawaty. Seeing this lady taking charge on the meeting, I was so amazed and began to feel enthusiastic and confident. This experience has become one of my “aha moments”: you believe what you can see.
That spirit is what I brought through the GCL. The spirit to provide space for young women to be more confident, to reach those who have minimal access to capacity building kind of activity.. so that they can become future leaders in their respective communities. After all, how can Indonesia have more women leaders if from a young age, women do not understand and do not have the life skills needed to become a leader?
Start simple
GCL can be said as my personal passion project. Even after the organization was founded for almost 5 years ago, our team still relies on volunteers and support from local communities in the provinces we visited. Despite the bitterness and sweetness of the process of maintaining the sustainability of GCL — unending work as young professionals, difficulties in getting grants, and lack of government support to support gender issues — my team and I continued to be consistent in providing this activity to different areas in rural Indonesia. It’s difficult, considering that our personal standard refers to world-class women’s movements, such as Lean In and Me Too. But I am sure, even though our impact is still quite small, we started to instill the seeds of leadership in every young girls we met in this past few years.
Quoting the words of Simon Sinek,
“Dream big. Start small. But most of all, start. “
Published for the first time in ceritaperempuan.id. This is the translated and edited version of the original one.
