Journal article by Justus M. van der Kroef (American Catholic Sociological Review, June 1957) on women's status and marriage in Indonesia: adat versus Islamic law, polygamy, divorce rates, colonial and revolutionary change. Surveys women's organisations (Perwari, Kowani) and notes Kowani's early left turn and WIDF cont
Chapter 'The Political Role of Southeast Asian Women' by Amara Raksasataya in The Annals of the American Academy (Jan. 1968, 'Women Around the World'). Surveys Burma, Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam: equal legal rights but modest office-holding; Thailand as case study of indirect influence. For
Saskia Wieringa's 1992 article comparing Gerwani and the New Order's PKK to criticise Molyneux's practical/strategic gender interests; contrasts Gerwani's alliance with Sukarno/PKI and democratic centralism with PKK's subordination via husbands. Foundational theoretical comparison.
Wieringa's 2000 article on communism and women's same-sex practices, prompted by Kowani chair Ine Sukarno's 1999 claim that Gerwani supported lesbianism; argues Gerwani's morality was puritan and heterosexual and that 'militant motherhood' threatened conservatives. Links Gerwani slander to sexuality politics.
Saskia Wieringa's 2002 monograph, the foundational history of Gerwani: a semi-autonomous organisation with triple loyalty to feminism, nationalism and socialism, and the New Order's founding on manipulation of sexual symbols through the 1965 slander. Based on interviews with Umi Sardjono, Sulami, Sudjinah, Trimurti and
Susan Blackburn's 2004 book on how Indonesian women's organisations and the state interacted over education, marriage, suffrage, polygamy, motherhood, work and violence from the colonial period to 2003. Standard background, with Gerwani as one actor.
Elizabeth Martyn's 2005 book (from her Monash PhD) on the 1950s Indonesian women's movement as a whole, covering organisations, socio-economic work, elections, the marriage-law campaign, international activism and the regions. Gerwani appears within a broader field.
Agung Ayu Ratih's review (2007) of Elizabeth Martyn's book on the postcolonial women's movement, welcoming its recovery of 1950s activism as complementing Wieringa and confirming that Gerwani's destruction meant women's political retrenchment, with sharp critique of the core argument.