Indonesia: Miss Darmini of Gerwis (WIDF, 1954)
WIDF 1954 profile of Miss Darmini of GERWIS, reporting to a WIDF meeting. Membership rose from 6,000 at the 1951 first congress to 37,000 by 1953 and about 600,000 prior to the March 1954 second congress (as printed); the Union of Railway Workers' Wives affiliated. She describes campaigns on women's rights, maternity l
Indonesian and Dutch delegates meet at WIDF Executive, Geneva (1954)
Caption (1954) from WIDF's magazine: Indonesian and Dutch delegates met at the Geneva WIDF Executive Committee. Mrs. Rie Lips of the Dutch women's movement was invited to the congress of GERWIS, described as the national organisation in Indonesia with 80,000 members.
WIDF 1954 article compiling women's campaigns against atomic and hydrogen bombs after Bikini, with excerpts from Eugénie Cotton and the WIDF Executive appeal (Geneva). Countries covered include Britain, US, Japan, Germany, India; the Indonesia entry apparently refers to a national women's congress of 349 delegates dema
Soviet Woman, Feb 1954: Rantijem, 'Our Unity Is Growing Stronger'
Soviet Woman, 28 Feb 1954, p. 30: article by Rantijem (SOBSI National Council member), written after her Nov 1953 USSR tour with a trade union delegation, on Indonesian women's conditions. Describes legal bars to women's state and foreign-firm work, unequal pay (4.30 rupees/day vs 155.49 subsistence minimum), no matern
They went to Canberra
Tribune (Sydney), 10 Mar 1954, p. 6: short review of Australian women's peace and welfare activity in 1953 (200-woman deputation to Canberra, Peace and War convention, delegations to Copenhagen). Says Australian women's representatives will doubtless attend the Indonesian women's congress soon to be held in Indonesia.
We need their friendship: 80 million Indonesians
Tribune (Sydney), 12 May 1954, p. 11: Allison Dickie, Union of Australian Women delegate, reports on the 1954 Indonesian women's congress. She describes Gerwis, the league of women 'more politically awake', whose work helped hundreds of thousands become literate and from which Gerwani developed; the six-day Gerwani Nat
We need their friendship: 80 million Indonesians
Tribune (Sydney), 12 May 1954, p. 11: Allison Dickie, Union of Australian Women delegate, reports on the 1954 Indonesian women's congress. She describes Gerwis, the league of women 'more politically awake', whose work helped hundreds of thousands become literate and from which Gerwani developed; the six-day Gerwani Nat
Letters to the Editor: SEATO's aim
Tribune (Sydney), 13 Oct 1954, p. 11: letters page covering SEATO, Eisenhower, Pakistan, housing and criticisms of Tribune. One letter claims Indonesia, India, Ceylon and Burma's abstention from SEATO shows Asian peoples want peace and independence; another praises the Union of Australian Women journal 'Our Women'. No
Soviet Woman, 30 Nov 1954: 'Our Guests', first Indonesian women's delegation in the USSR
Soviet Woman, 30 Nov 1954, p. 36: 'Our Guests' news column on foreign women's delegations to the USSR. Opens with the first Indonesian women's delegation, headed by Mrs Sastrohusodo Andreas, welcomed at Moscow airport; an article by Mrs Supardjo is promised. Other delegations from Britain, Romania, Albania and Israel.
Soviet Woman, 31 Dec 1954: Supardjo, 'Distance Is No Bar to Friendship'
Soviet Woman, 31 Dec 1954, p. 4: Supardjo, an Indonesian public figure of Taman Siswa, reflects on the first Indonesian women's delegation's three-week USSR tour (factories, collective farms, schools). Stresses peace, the Indonesian Peace Committee and anti-illiteracy work. Gerwis/Gerwani are not named, but it document
WIDF commemorative booklet (Berlin, 1955) for its tenth anniversary: history from the 1945 Paris founding congress, peace and anti-atom campaigns, the 1953 Copenhagen Congress, children's work, the 1955 Lausanne World Congress of Mothers. Page 28 states that in Indonesia 'the women's organization which had 6,000 member
Keynotes of the Council Meeting: Unity and Confidence (Bertrand, 1955)
Simone Bertrand, WIDF Assistant General Secretary, reports in 1955 on the Fifth WIDF Council meeting in Geneva (45 countries). She cites GERWANI as a remarkable example: mostly peasant and plantation women, membership up from 80,000 to 281,000 in a year, and with nine organisations it formed a committee opposing a US b
Women of the Whole World no. 89, April 1955: cover note on Balinese women
Cover note of Women of the Whole World no. 89 (April 1955, 10th year), stamped by the Amsterdam Institute of Social History. The cover photo shows Balinese women, described as largely bound by feudal tradition yet joining the fight to strengthen the country's independence. No Gerwani mention.
For Friendship: Gyanchand, Suryadarma and Che Zahara on the World Congress of Mothers (1955)
1955 WIDF magazine feature 'For Friendship' with statements by Anusuya Gyanchand (India), Utami Suryadarma (Indonesia) and Che Zahara (Malaya) for the World Congress of Mothers. Suryadarma, a vice-president of the Preparatory Committee and of the Foundation for the Well-being of Indonesian Children, links Bandung to pe
WIDF magazine 1955 report on the Asian-African (Bandung) Conference, 18-24 April, listing participants and the ten principles of the communique, with supportive statements from women (Anusuya Gyanchand, Erika Wendland, Gusta Fucikova) for the World Congress of Mothers. Presents Bandung as boosting peace and disarmament
WIDF magazine 'Women Write to Us' (1955), country letters after the World Congress of Mothers (Lausanne): Bulgaria, Argentina, France, India floods, and Indonesia. The Indonesia item reports delegate Mme Suryadarma's warm airport welcome, press and radio coverage of her Congress speech, and the Indonesian Women's Movem
Daily Worker, 26 April 1955: Bandung notebook - the spirit in the streets (Ralph Parker)
Page 2 of the Daily Worker (New York, 26 Apr 1955) with Ralph Parker's 'Bandung Notebook' on the Asian-African Conference: Indonesian hosts, students, land and independence hopes. A separate item reports 27 doctors' protest over Claudia Jones's imprisonment, citing a WIDF report. Indonesian women appear only in a fragm
Soviet Woman, 30 Apr 1955: 'Visit to Indonesia' (V. Mikosha and I. Sokolnikov)
Soviet Woman, 30 Apr 1955, p. 36 (fragment): 'Visit to Indonesia' by film-makers V. Mikosha and I. Sokolnikov, describing two months filming a documentary in Indonesia. Includes filming the welcome at Jakarta airfield for an Indonesian women's delegation returning from the USSR. Umi Sardjono, listed in metadata, does n
Daily Worker, 13 May 1955: Perwari, Indonesia's largest women's organisation, joins Asian women leaders (assail polygamy
Page 8 of the Daily Worker (New York, 13 May 1955). A short Djakarta dispatch (12 May) reports that the central committee of Perwari, described as Indonesia's largest women's organisation, joined Pakistani women in criticising Prime Minister Mohammed Ali's second marriage, and recalls Perwari's protest the previous yea
Sunday Worker, 31 July 1955, p. 11: Lausanne congress sends message to mothers of all nations
Sunday Worker, 31 July 1955, p. 11: Federated Press report on the first World Congress of Mothers at Lausanne (7-10 July 1955), more than 1,000 women from 68 countries, which issued a manifesto calling for the defence of children against war and for banning atomic weapons. The OCR is partly garbled and shares the page
World Conference of Women Workers, Budapest 1956 (WIDF issue)
Issue of Women of the Whole World (no. 105, 1956) on the World Conference of Women Workers in Budapest, 14-17 June 1956 (497 delegates, 44 countries): reports on wage discrimination, working mothers, African women, Latin America, plus a contents list pointing to the Indonesian delegate's speech. This page itself says l
WIDF Council (Peking, 24-30 April 1956) 'Appeal to the Women of Asia and Africa', with a side item on a European girls' conference in Paris. The appeal salutes anticolonial struggles, welcomes the Bandung principles, and opposes the Baghdad and SEATO pacts and nuclear tests. Indonesia and Gerwani are not named.
Moscow News, 30 May 1956: Indonesian women's delegation in Moscow
Moscow News (English), 30 May 1956, p. 5. Among general items (Afghan independence day, Anglo-Soviet and trade comment), a short piece reports a delegation of Indonesian women arriving in Moscow at the invitation of the Central Council of Trade Unions, led by Setiati Surasto, secretary of the plantation workers' union,
Daily Worker, 24 July 1956: Women unionists from 42 lands hold conference in Budapest
Page 4 of the Daily Worker (New York, 24 Jul 1956) reporting a Budapest conference of women trade unionists from 42 countries called by the WFTU, which demanded equal pay and opportunities and paid maternity leave. An unnamed delegate from Indonesia is cited on women workers being treated as cheap labour. Gerwani is no
WIDF magazine 1957 report on the WIDF Council meeting in Helsinki, 22-27 June 1957: Finnish hospitality, Palace of Culture built by volunteer labour, reports by Eugénie Cotton, Branca Fialho, Molly Keith and Elisa Uriz, a new draft constitution and call to the Fourth Congress, and resolution on nuclear tests and women'
Short 1957 WIDF magazine item: President Sukarno, visiting Tashkent, was asked by the Urazayev family to name their newborn daughter and chose 'Youldous Sukharno' ('little star'), symbolising Soviet-Indonesian friendship. Gerwani is not mentioned; it illustrates Sukarno's 1956-57 Soviet bloc visits and friendship propa
Geeta Mukherjee, 'About the Movement of Indonesian Women' (WIDF Circular Attachment, 21 April 1958)
Report by Indian MP Geeta Mukherjee on Gerwani, attached to a WIDF circular of 21 April 1958, based on talks with her neighbour Suwarti Bintang Suradi, WIDF Secretariat member and Gerwani organisation chair. It covers Gerwis's 1950 origin and renaming, the Third Congress, membership growth (to 460,000 by August 1957),
WIDF study publication (Berlin, 1958) on protection of motherhood as a right of women and a responsibility of society, with country contributions from Study Days participants, the ILO Convention 103 text and national summaries. It names Suwarti Bintang Suradi as Gerwani executive member and constituent assembly member.
IVth Congress of the Women's International Democratic Federation, Vienna, June 1958
WIDF volume on the IVth Congress, Vienna, 1-5 June 1958: speeches, reports and resolutions. Gerwani appears directly: Mudigdio, vice-president of Gerwani and head of the Indonesian delegation, speaks (pp. 89-92) for 663,740 members, citing equal-pay claims, the Third Gerwani Congress (December 1957), West Irian, work w
IVth Congress of the WIDF, Vienna, 1958 (Berlin Edition): Conference on the Rights of Women
Berlin edition of the WIDF IVth Congress (Vienna, June 1958) pamphlet on the conference 'Conditions which will enable woman to fulfil her role as mother, worker and citizen' (98 delegates, 55 countries). The Indonesian section (pp. 66-70) has Mudigdio, Gerwani vice-chair, urging a WIDF study or seminar on peasant women