The Challenges of Women Contribution in Policymaking and How They Overcome It: An Indonesian Study

Abstract

The problem of the women's participation in the Indonesian parliament begins with its mainstreaming in participation policy. Affirmative action policies aimed at empowering women's representation in parliament are judged by the quantity of women's participation in parliament having a fundamental problem in the commitment to representation itself. Women's contributions to policymaking are often systematically undermined in a political culture that is maledominant and masculine-driven, thus hindering the progress for gender-mainstreaming policies. The aim and focus of this article are to analyze the roots of the stagnancy of women's contribution and progress in such an intricate political sphere that is Indonesian parliament and how women politicians tackle it. Through our study, we acknowledged that there is a dualreality of Indonesian politics that is a vote-based representative system of decision-making that is commonly employed in legislative bodies and the Indonesian culture that heavily emphasizes consensus-building decision making through deliberation. The crippling sexism behind the political practices of policymaking obstructs women legislators to contribute more significantly and be given credit to the legislative process through which they are fighting for