Gerwani
Gerwani was a women's organization founded as Gerwis in Semarang, Central Java, on 4 June 1950.
In 1954, Gerwis as an activist-based movement changed its name to Gerwani to signify its move towards a mass organization to appeal to communist supporters. Beginning with only 500 members in 1950, Gerwani claimed to have 1.5 million members in 1963. As one of the largest women's organizations in the 1950s, its broad membership was also a product of its close affiliation with the Communist Party of Indonesia – reflected in Gerwani's concerns particularly with helping poor women workers, as well as their alliances with various labor unions. Nonetheless, Gerwani was an independent organization with both a feminist, and PKI-led wing. By 1965, Gerwani claimed to have 3 million members.
Under Sukarno's Guided Democracy beginning in 1958, Gerwani's advocacy for gender equality, equal labor rights, and women's issues began to shift towards one more adherent with PKI and Sukarno's interests. Gerwani's priority by the 1960s was no longer feminism, but anti-imperialism and the "national unity of women to liquidate the remains of colonialism and feudalism." Founding members such as S. K. Trimurti, eventually left Gerwani after becoming disillusioned with the trajectory of Gerwani's political involvement.
Gerwani's affiliation with the PKI eventually led to their demise after the failed coup of the Thirtieth of September Movement and the subsequent transition to the New Order; Gerwani was among the groups suppressed in the Indonesian mass killings of 1965–66. The arrest and imprisonment of Gerwani members was justified by the accusation of the involvement of Gerwani in the killings of the six army generals during Thirtieth of September attempted coup. The Lubang Buaya narrative, as described by historians, claimed that Gerwani had performed sadistic, sexual crimes before and after killing the six generals during the Thirtieth of September attempted coup.
The memorialization of the Lubang Buaya narrative continues to be represented in the Monument of the Sacred Pancasila at the Lubang Buaya site today.
Historical context
Following Indonesian independence in 1945, the political milieu was fraught with competing interests between the military and the Partai Nasional Indonesia represented by Sukarno, Islamic groups such as Nahdlatul Ulama, PKI, and other women's organizations all vying for legitimacy within Indonesia's new parliamentary democracy. Scholars agree that in newly independent Indonesia, the short-lived democracy allowed a new space for women's organizations to flourish in their struggle for equal rights to political participation, economic opportunities and "social and cultural" spheres. The new political freedom of the period allowed the full participation of women's organizations to push for equal political, economic, and social rights. As Blackburn relates, however, the lack of resources made the task of implementing policies aimed at gender equality, such as adult literacy, education, and equal pay for civil servants, difficult. Nonetheless, this period was essential for establishing political equality for men and women – seen in the constitution that provided "the right to vote, participate in government and hold office" for men and women.Women's organizations in the early 1950s diverged on a number of issues related to their stance on issues of marriage, work, polygamy, and their perceived position as political or social organizations. Many of the national women's organizations were also aligned with political parties as "sections of" political parties – their affiliation thus determining how politicized their organization would be. For example, Gerwani was associated with the PKI, Muslim women's organization Muslimat, was affiliated with Masjumi, and Wanita Demokrat Indonesia with the PNI. The ties between women's organizations and political parties were often contingent on the expectation that gender interests would be fulfilled as part of the party's goals. Yet as Martyn describes, the failure to create a united women's political organization was the result of the divergent and conflicting ideological differences between the numerous women's organizations – political, religious or otherwise. Women's organizations affiliated with political parties were also greatly influenced by the respective politics. There were also women's organizations that did not align themselves with any political party. Perwari for example, decided in 1952 that it "offered nothing new" because there were already women's political parties – and it had been difficult to gain seats in parliament due to the diversity of its members' varied political alliances. Nonetheless, there was a central national body that did attempt to coordinate independent women's organizations: the Indonesian Women's Congress.
Kowani was the central national body that coordinated independent women's organizations working towards the common goal of improving the lives of women. As Martyn aptly describes, gender was the central signifier of difference between women's organizations because of the different interests represented that ranged from "Muslim women, as army wives, as secular non-aligned women, as university graduates, as doctors' wives, as communist women, as Catholic women, as nurses." As such, it was too varied to take a single political stance. Under Kowani's directives, women's organizations often tried to work to meet the socio-economic needs as part of the "development of the young state" through initiatives that focused on education, social welfare, and health.
Gerwani
Gerwani differed from the other women's organizations because of the contentious issue of polygamy and marriage reform. Wieringa argues that Gerwani diverged from other women's organizations because Gerwani did not regard marriage reform as the only "valid" issue for political mobilization and advocacy of gender equality. In Wieringa's words, Gerwani was the only women's organization that "claimed politics...as a legitimate field for women" because it was the most active on the "national political level." In 1950–1954, the preoccupation with marriage reform was the main issue that concerned many women's organizations due to the need to settle women's rights to do with marriage, polygamy, and child marriage. Other issues that women's organizations were concerned with included education, work, citizenship, violence, and motherhood. In essence, women's organizations conflicted over their perceptions of what the best approaches were for achieving the same ends. For example, even though all women's organizations supported the importance of education, some such as Persit, a wives' organization, rationalized its importance in terms of motherhood and citizenship whereby education would improve women's roles as wives in the home to "better assist her husband in his career." Gerwani however, focused on educating their members about socialism.The women's movement in the 1950s worked towards a common goal of improving women's lives within the nation-building project. The historical scholarship on the range of women's organizations makes it clear that there was no single coherent approach or political, religious ideology by which women's organizations agreed upon.
History
On 4 June 1950, a group of representatives of six women's organizations from various areas of Indonesia united to form Gerwis in Semarang. Communist and nationalist women from various women's organizations whose shared experience in the Indonesian National Revolution had motivated their search for a single organization that could represent their interests as "fully conscious women." Coming from women's organizations of Rupindo, Persatuan Wanita Sedar from Surabaya, Isteri-Sedar from Bandung, Gerakan Wanita Indonesia from Kediri, Wanita Madura from Madura and Perjuangan Putri Republik Indonesia from Pasuruan, the founders all shared a common experience fighting for the Indonesian National Revolution against the Dutch and the Japanese. The founding conference was chaired by activists such as Tris Metty, Umi Sardjono, S. K. Trimurti and Sri Koesnapsijah.Like other women's organizations in the 1950s, Gerwis focused on women's issues within nationalism. As historian Elizabeth Martyn describes, these efforts to amalgamate local organizations into nationwide initiatives for Gerwis and other local women's organizations, was a "reflection of the developing national identity." Gerwis in the early 1950s was one of the only organizations that represented poor, rural women beyond marriage reform – regarding women's issues as extending beyond the family and the home to include the lives of poor, working women.
Gerwis' constituting both communist and nationalist women was reflected in their mixed approach to approach to women's issues – a combination later dominated by the increasing influence of the PKI. According to Blackburn, Wieringa and Martyn, Gerwani's politics were radical only by comparison to other organizations, a deciding factor that made Gerwani a "threat to conservative powers." Nonetheless, this shift from a women's organization to a decidedly communist organization with mass appeal was reified in the name change in 1954 from Gerwis to Gerwani to signify the beginning of a new mass movement.
Gerwis to Gerwani
Scholars such as Blackburn and Martyn mark 1954 as when Gerwis decidedly changed to Gerwani Wieringa however, has traced this shift to a much earlier moment beginning with the first Gerwis conference in 1951. Gerwis' new leadership under Aidit advocated for a new-PKI influenced that aimed at gaining mass appeal. There were many members who opposed this transition. As Wieringa's interview with Gerwis' member Sujinah shows:According to the Gerwani leadership in 1965, this shift had been necessary because Gerwis had been too narrow as a platform only for "conscious women" – as the name Gerakan Wanita Indonesia Sedar, or the Movement of Conscious Indonesian Women, suggested. Another factor that contributed to this shift in 1954 was the increased PKI pressure for Gerwani to be a mass organization for women. By 1954, Gerwani had about 80,000 members.
This shift towards a mass organization was to address the issues facing poor, female workers. In 1955, Gerwani leader, Umi Sarjono, explained that the organization specifically wanted to help working women with pragmatic needs before women would be willing to participate in politics – especially because their priorities were not gender equality, but basic subsistence. This shift was also part of Gerwani's strategy after 1954 to have alliances not only with the PKI, but also with trade unions in order to broaden their ability to address women's issues. As Blackburn details, trade unions were overwhelmingly male dominated, and Gerwani worked towards increasing awareness of women's issues and advocating changes that would improve the lives of women workers and their families. Unions were also linked to political parties. As such Gerwani's alliances with PKI-affiliated unions such as All-Indonesian Labor Unions Federation and Indonesian Farmers' Front were able to directly push for women's issues through communist unions and the '''PKI.'''