Currently, there are many woman leaders in the Indonesian government. A total of eight women are appointed as ministers in the current cabinet, such as Retno Marsudi as Minister of Foreign Affairs, who is the first female foreign affairs minister. Some areas in Indonesia are even led by woman leaders. But this number is still few compared to man leaders in this country. “There are already more woman leaders than before, but the number is still quite few,” Dr. Eni Harmayani, Professor of UGM, said at the Women Leadership National Seminar held by UGM Centre for Women’s Studies at the University Club, Tuesday (24/5).
The member of National Research Committee added that nowadays woman has equal opportunity as man to become a leader. It goes side by side with what national heroine RA Kartini had fought years ago regarding women emancipation. Not only that, in the field of education, the number of women who are studying at college is more than the number of man. Yet, it differs from the number of woman leader compared to man leader,” she added.
Eni mentioned other examples such as UGM as one of the first campuses in Indonesia that is led by a woman, but only one faculty is led by a woman. “Not only the dean, the number of woman lecturers is only 35% of all lecturers in UGM.”
According to Eni, woman has a chance to become a leader but they have to prepare themselves and have to be confident with themselves. She said that woman leader at least must have a good vision, be innovative, and capable of giving solution to problems that arise. “She also has to be able to manage time between family, career, herself, and her team,” she added.
The director of Society and Women Empowerment of Yogyakarta local government, Arida Oetami, said that woman are capable of being a leader especially in the health department. She put three women out of five chairmen of health institutions as examples. “That’s why mortality rate at giving birth is decreasing from 56 cases a year to 29 cases per year,” she said.
However, leaders of health institutions in Yogyakarta are still facing big challenge as the rate of citizens with mental problems is still high. “In Yogyakarta, the rate of mental heath problem is still high”, she said.