Daily Mirror (Sydney), 18 December 1953, p. 11, a page of national and foreign news briefs. Only one item concerns Indonesia: a short AP report from Jakarta that 2,000 sarong-clad Indonesian women jammed the capital's streets demanding a government ban on polygamy and child marriage. No organisation is named. The other
Monica Felton (WIDF Vice-President) writes in 1954 on the Second Congress of Gerwani, which she attended: 349 delegates, 80,000 members, a meeting with President Sukarno, resolutions on West Irian, the 1955 elections, a nationwide marriage law, democratic rights and support for the government against armed gangs. She s
Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton), 1 June 1954, p. 9, report of Allison Dickie, Victorian president of the Union of Australian Women, on her return from an Indonesian women's conference in Jakarta (360 delegates for 60,000 women; Dutch WIDF delegates present). She describes sex equality in the provisional constitution but
Sydney Morning Herald, 21 Sep 1954, p. 1 (AAP-Reuter): a deputation from 30 Indonesian women's organisations, headed by Mrs Katowijono of Perwani, protested to Sukarno over his marriage to a second wife, Mrs Suwondo, without the first wife's consent. Press debate; women leaders say it dealt the women's movement a bad b
FBIS item (25 Sep 1954): on 24 September three Indonesian women who recently visited the Soviet Union lectured on their impressions: social care of women, workers, equal rights, absence of prostitution and marriage legislation. The meeting, sponsored by Gerwani, drew a large audience of women and trade unionists. Shows
The Observer, 16 Jan 1955, p.7, Rawle Knox, 'Djakarta Postpones the Evil Day': impressionistic report from Jakarta on a lively, disorderly capital, the Ali Sastroamidjojo government's dependence on Communist support, Sukarno's drift from impartiality, the delayed first election and anti-Dutch boycotts. A passing quote
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
Umi Sardjono's general report for the Gerwani DPP Executive to the 3rd DPP Plenary (16-19 June 1956), published by DPP Gerwani. Reviews the 1955 election campaign (23,480 new Gerwani workers; five Gerwani members elected, including Umi Sardjono and Salawati), marriage-law and anti-polygamy casework (86 of 115 cases res
1956 extract from a speech by Sunardi, Indonesian delegate to the World Conference of Women Workers, plus a column of international women's news. She describes low wages, foreign monopolies, plantation women workers, absence of democratic marriage law and labour protection, the unilateral abrogation of the Round Table
1956 page of speeches to the WIDF Council: Teng Ying-chao (China), Hajrah Begum (India) and Suharti, Gerwani Vice-President and MP. Suharti reports Gerwani membership grew from 281,000 to 565,147, its cooperation at the Palembang Women's Congress (March 1955), International Children's Day events, and delegations demand
1956 WIDF bulletin item on Indonesia: the Gerwani Central Council's report on cooperation with other women's organisations, overcoming mistrust, membership rising from 281,000 to 565,147, local marriage-rights actions, rural work with peasant groups, the All-Indonesia Women's Congress adopting Gerwani's proposed Charte
WIDF magazine 1957 'We Saw and Heard at the Council Meeting' with delegate speeches at the Helsinki Council. Umi Sardjono, President of Gerwani (640,000 members), reports a nationwide marriage-law campaign, the 1955 elections (five Gerwani members in parliament, six in the Constituent Assembly, 52 provincial councillor
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
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),
Speech by Mrs Mudikdio (Mudigdio), vice-chair of Gerwani and head of the Indonesian delegation, to the WIDF Fourth Congress, Vienna 1958. She urges a WIDF study or seminar on peasant women (50% illiteracy in Indonesia), explains Gerwani's 1954 draft marriage-law principles and support for the draft before Parliament (G
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
WIDF magazine 1958, one page carrying two pieces: a profile of R. A. Kartini for Indonesia's Kartini Day (born 1879, regent's daughter, quoted letters on education, polygamy and anti-colonial sympathy, died aged 25), and 'The Growing Family of the WIDF' on new affiliations (India, Japan, Sudan, Cameroons, Senegal, Ceyl
WIDF magazine 1958, one page carrying two pieces: a profile of R. A. Kartini for Indonesia's Kartini Day (born 1879, regent's daughter, quoted letters on education, polygamy and anti-colonial sympathy, died aged 25), and 'The Growing Family of the WIDF' on new affiliations (India, Japan, Sudan, Cameroons, Senegal, Ceyl
'From Our Mailbag' (WIDF magazine, 1959): readers' letters from France, Germany, USA, Sudan, Egypt, Colombia and Indonesia. The Jakarta letter, from Mrs Lies Said, editor of the women's magazine Wanita (30,000 readers), says Indonesian women still await the Marriage Law and will keep struggling for equal rights. Gerwan
US Embassy Djakarta despatches to the State Department, May 1961. One reports conservative views (Mohammad Roem) that the PKI won a limited victory by gaining legal recognition. The other reports the SOBSI National Seminar on Labouring Women (Jakarta, 11-14 May 1961), attended by Djuanda and Gerwani central board membe
US Embassy Djakarta despatches, Oct 1961: transmittal of the July 1961 war-administrator regulation on international friendship societies, and the report 'Role of Women in Indonesia: Women's Organizations' with a memorandum of conversation with Maria Ulfah Santoso (8 March 1961) and biographic notes. It describes Gerwa
Indonesia's official country report for the 1975 International Women's Year World Conference in Mexico City, prepared by the Indonesian National Committee under the Suharto government (Jakarta, June 1975). It gives speeches by Suharto, Tien Suharto and ministers, then chapters on women's legal status, the 1974 Marriage
MA thesis (McGill, 2000) by Ro'fah on 'Aisyiyah, the women's wing of Muhammadiyah, from 1917 to 1998, covering the Old Order and New Order. Gerwani is treated as a rival within KOWANI in Ch. 2 (pp. 59-62): Gerwis founded 4 June 1950 and renamed Gerwani in 1954, its mass base among peasant women, literacy classes, marri
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.