A Social Construction, Deconstruction, and Reconstruction of the Primordial Nature of Indonesian Women

In a primordial and conventional Indonesian culture, an ‘ideal woman’ is depicted as a loving wife and a caring mother. A wife who always obeys her husband and always-caring for her family. This kind of ‘template’ or ‘blueprint’ has developed into a seemingly permanent standard and norms in social institutions, and it has been and will always be developed from time to time. Hence, this condition will affect how society ‘shapes’ women, especially how the men view women, and how women view themselves in which how they would put their ‘roles’ in the social process in society.

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As time goes by, this primordial nature of how society views women as ‘second-class’ citizens and how they depict women ‘only’ as a loving wife and a caring mother, should not be conserved anymore. The women’s emancipation and the feminist waves of movements have been consistently increasing women’s participation in society. Initially, the whole world and civilizations, particularly Indonesian, they view women belong to the kitchen, and for reproduction purposes only. After the ‘paradigm shift’ and such great movements done by the feminists and the rising wave of feminism, such primordial views of women were gradually changed into something better. The world is starting to view the equality between genders that transformed gender equality thinking into the real thing.

One thing of gender equality has always been seen as a 'danger' for the religious orthodoxy or even the conservatism of world society. This concept was introduced to 'dismantle' the long-lasting reign of patriarchal norms which they portrayed as ancient norms. They also stated that these patriarchal norms created the mistreatment, suffering, and oppression of women. Gender equality is a condition in which men and women are enjoying the same privileges and rights to achieve their greatest potential in every aspect of human development.

In Indonesia, the women’s emancipation has developed into something bigger, into such a way for women to express their aspiration and self-actualization by getting educated, going to work, and participating actively in society. Particularly in the ‘New Order’ era of the Indonesian government, there was a slogan that said “Women participation in country’s development” which triggered the women empowerment to be developed even more. (Handoyo, 2015).

The phenomenon of women ‘getting out’ to the public either to get educated or to work has been implicated in the social, economic, political, and psychological aspects. This implication has clearly ‘destroyed’ the conventional views and thinking of how society views women as ‘second-class citizens’. The ancient stereotype about women has significantly been reduced. The world that was so full of masculinity can gradually coexist with femininity.

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There were Indonesian women activists, namely Rd. Adjeng Kartini and Dewi Sartika. They have advocated women’s rights and greatly contributed to female education in such harsh conditions of a ‘masculinist’ society. As for Dewi Sartika, she founded the first school for women in Dutch East Indies (Indonesia). At that time, the women in Indonesia were barred from higher education. They fiercely fought for women’s rights and gender equality at that time, and they have inspired many great women in Indonesia since then until now.

Handoyo (2015) in his book titled “The Study of Indonesian Society” stated that to create a new social reality, it will be needing three processes consisting: 1) construction; 2) deconstruction; and 3) reconstruction. (Handoyo et al, 2015).

Construction is a set of objective realities that has been accepted by the general consensus of society. The primordial social construction of how society views women are far more inferior than men is an example of ‘construction’. It was constructed and accepted for centuries and still happening until this exact point of time. 

Deconstruction happens when the ‘legality’ of reality starts to be questioned. The deconstruction of social reality conducted by the emancipation and feminist movements has questioned the social reality of women. They clearly stated that women are not lesser than any men, women are not second-class citizen that only belongs to the ‘domestic’ nature of familism but they also belong to the ‘public’ nature of society. They have proven that women are also capable to do things that men are capable of.

Lastly, reconstruction is a reconceptualization and redefinition process of the very existence of women in society. After such ‘paradigm shift’ and ‘reformation of thinking’ in the society that has changed how the society views women into such better views, the social reconstruction process is happening.

References

Handoyo, et. al. (2015). Studi Masyarakat Indonesia. Penerbit Ombak.