instruction. They opposed a major demand of non-
Islamic women’s organizations, monogamy in mar-
riage. Socialist women organized under the banner
of a male-dominated socialist Islamic organization,
the Sarekat Rakyat (People’s league). In those years
socialist and Islamic views were not so much per-
ceived to clash as they would be in later years. The
PKI, established in 1924, counted several women
among its members. Some of them were also
involved in the 1925–6 communist uprising, which
was quickly crushed by the colonial government.
In 1928 the first all-Indonesian women’s con-
gress was held. Until the Japanese occupation, the
unity of the women’s movement was continuously
threatened by the opposition between Islamic and
non-Islamic groups over the issue of marriage
reforms. Gradually the women’s movement rallied
behind the nationalist movement. Their leaders
maintained that Indonesian women could only be
emancipated after national liberation was won.
Sukarno spoke of women as being the “second
wheel of the chariot” of national liberation
(Sukarno 1963, 255).
Women joined the guerilla war against the Dutch
who refused to accept Indonesia’s independence
and tried to regain control of the region. Some
young, radical women joined the Laswi, women’s
army units, and engaged in active combat. Others
were engaged as messengers. Many more were
involved in public kitchens to feed the fighters and
in hospitals to care for the wounded soldiers.
Several national women’s meetings were held
during the years the national liberation struggle
lasted. This period culminated in a major national
women’s congress held in August 1949, which was
attended by 82 groups from all religions. Major
women’s interests were formulated, such as equal
rights for women, protection for women workers,
and education. The unity achieved at this congress
was geared toward the achievement of national
unity but left two major issues unresolved – the
extent of the marriage reforms discussed (Suwondo
1981), and the struggle for socialist emancipation.
Women and socialist
nationalism
The reign of Indonesia’s first president, Sukarno,
lasted until 1965. This was a period of nation
building in which women and men were swept up
in nationalist rhetoric, which became increasingly
socialist. The new constitution of the republic guar-
anteed women equal rights, but the marriage issue
remained unsolved. Now that the struggle
for national independence was won, non-socialist
women retreated to the domestic realm and left the
indonesia 649political arena to men. Particularly religious (both
Muslim and Christian) women increasingly returned
to the “kodrat wanita,” an essentialist, supposedly
divinely-ordained code of women’s conduct, which
stipulates women’s obedience to men. Gerwani was
founded in 1950. Many of its members had been
actively engaged in the guerilla struggle against the
Dutch. In the first years they focused on building a
small group of dedicated women. After 1954 they
followed an instruction from the PKI, and started
building a mass movement of revolutionary women.
The PKI saw itself as the head of an Indonesian
“communist family” in which Gerwani was as-
signed the role of the “mother.” After 1959, when
Sukarno established his authoritarian rule called
“Guided Democracy,” Gerwani also became radi-
calized. It was the only women’s organization that
refused to leave the national political arena to men.
The organization’s “militant mothers” (Wieringa
2002) concentrated less on gender concerns than
they had in their first years but increasingly voiced
national concerns. This led to tensions with non-
socialist women’s groups, particularly the Islamic
mass women’s organizations. Gerwani never offi-
cially became the PKI’s women’s wing. They had a
weekly corner in the communist daily, and for many
years published a magazine called Api Kartini
(Kartini fire).
On 30 September 1965 leftist colonels abducted
the nation’s top generals, except General Suharto,
and murdered them on a field on which young com-
munist women were being trained for a nationalist
campaign of Sukarno against the formation of
Malaysia. Later the military accused these women
of having castrated the generals. This greatly an-
tagonized conservative groups in society and par-
ticularly Islamic youth groups were mobilized.
Ultimately over a million socialist women and men
were massacred and tens of thousands detained
for many years. Muslim and Catholic women were
in the forefront of the demonstrations and joined
in demonizing Gerwani members as “whores”
and “perverse women.” General Suharto replaced
President Sukarno and restored an order built on
women’s domestication. During his reign women’s
political agency was associated with sexual and
moral disorder (Wieringa 2002). Initially Islamic
women’s groups experienced relief; later they real-
ized that they too were no longer able to implement
the social programs they had formerly harbored.Bibliography
R. A. Kartini, Brieven aan Mevrouw R.M. Abendanon-
Mandri en haar Echtgenoot met andere Documenten,
ed. F. G. P. Jaquet, 1912, Dordrecht 1987.