The Obstacles of Women’s Parliamentary Representation in Indonesia

Women's representation in the legislature as the subject of national development is still underestimated, this is indicated by the small number of women who are members of the legislature as at both the central and regional levels. The purpose of this research is to examine the factors that cause the low representation of women in the legislature. Using a quantitative approach, the survey was conducted toward members of the Regional House of Representatives of West Java Province. A total of 72 respondents were selected by simple random sampling method which was further analyzed using exploratory factor analysis. The results show that of the 12 variables tested, 4 new factors were formed that caused the underrepresentation of women in the legislature. These factors include knowledge, the environment, discrimination and political parties. Keywords—women’s’role, exploratory factor analysis, legislative elections