Reform of Gerwis Jakarta branch board and 8 March committee (Harian Rakjat, 29 February 1952)
Harian Rakjat, 29 Feb 1952, p.2 (Warta Daerah/news roundup): reports the reformed board of Gerwis Jakarta branch (chair S. Mardiman; secretary Tuty; finance A. Sunadi; labour Tuty Darta; peasants Kartinah, provisional; Gang Tengah 29). Also a Tegal committee of four women for 8 March International Women's Day chaired b
Constituent Assembly Member Profile: Mrs S.D. Soesanto
Konstituante.Net member profile (transcribed) of Nj. S.D. Soesanto, PKI member no. 202 of the Constituent Assembly. Born 22 February 1914 in Yogyakarta; Taman Siswa teacher training. Taught in Yogyakarta, Godean and Kebumen, belonged to Isteri Sedar and PIA, served in Perwari Yogyakarta, headed a TNI women's inspectora
USIS refuses Gerwani representative; Gerwani central board explains (Bintang Timur, 8 May 1956)
Bintang Timur (Jakarta daily), 8 May 1956, full issue. A front-page item reports that the Indonesian Women's Congress decided to send five organisation representatives, including one from Gerwani, to accompany the delegation to the UN Economic and Social Council in New York, but USIS refused the Gerwani delegate withou
Pewarta Soerabaia, 7 October 1957: Surabaya women's organisations federation
Pewarta Soerabaia, 7 Oct 1957, p. 2: Surabaya women's federation elects a board (30 Sept 1957) with the governor's wife as patron and Nj. Moh. Tam of Gerwani as first secretary.
A Little about the Indonesian Women's Movement
Api Kartini (late 1964) history of the Indonesian women's movement for Youth Pledge Day, tracing Kartini, Isteri Sedar, Perwari, wartime Fujinkai and Gerwis's founding on 4 June 1950 from the Gerakan Wanita Sedar, its name change to Gerwani after merging with railway workers' wives and Perwin Menado, joining Kowani and
Kuntilanak Wangi: women's organisations in Indonesia after 1950 (Wieringa, transl. Hersri Setiawan, 1999)
Hersri Setiawan's Indonesian translation (Kalyanamitra, Dec 1999) of Wieringa's 1988 working paper 'The Perfumed Nightmare' on Indonesian women's organisations after 1950, with a compact history of Gerwani and the Lubang Buaya slander. Accessible Indonesian-language Wieringa.
Notes of Sulami, Former Gerwani Secretary-General (YPKP 1965, 2006)
Sulami's reflective essay (written 1992, posted 9 Nov 2006) on why revolutionary women founded Gerwis on 4 June 1950, its rejection of 'man-hating feminism', its actions such as Tanjung Morawa and International Women's Day. First-person account by a Gerwani secretary-general.
Ups and Downs of the Indonesian Women's Movement (Wieringa, 2010)
Ten-page digest (in Komnas Perempuan's 2010 compilation) of Wieringa's Kuntilanak Wangi, tracing Indonesian women's movements from Kartini and Poetri Mardika to Gerwani, its rivalry with Perwari, the 1965 slander and New Order corporatism (Dharma Wanita, PKK). Concise overview.
Tempo, 18 April 2016: Onward the women's movement
Tempo editorial note (18 Apr 2016), recalling a 1978 Kartini Day feature on the women's movement from Aceh 1614 to the 1970s. It describes Kowani's formation (1946), Perwari's protest over Sukarno's 1954 marriage to Hartini, Perwari being squeezed as Gerwani, 'affiliated with the PKI', gained influence, and Gerwani ste
Twelfth Kowani Congress and its influence on the women's movement (Wijayanti, 2017)
Undergraduate article (2017) on the twelfth Kowani congress, Jakarta, 6-9 Feb 1961, arguing it tied the women's movement to government policy under Guided Democracy and sidelined polygamy and literacy issues; notes a Perwari-Gerwani split. Mostly general survey.
A heavy blow to the women's movement (Historia, 2018)
Historia article (2018) on the 1953 women's campaign against Government Regulation 19/1952 giving civil-service pensions to all widows of polygynous officials, including the 17 Dec 1953 mass meeting at Deca Park attended by Gerwani and others. Context on the anti-polygamy movement.
Tempo, 2 October 2021: Gerwani, Sukarno and polygamy (Gerwani and the dilemma of brotherhood)
Tempo essay (2 Oct 2021) by I Gusti Agung Ayu Ratih on why Gerwani did not criticise Sukarno's polygamy. It recounts Kowani expelling Gerwani on 29 Oct 1965 and removing Hurustiati Subandrio in 1966, the erasure of Gerwani from women's movement history, Perwari rivalry, Gerwani members' reverence for Sukarno, and anti-
Tempo, 2 October 2021: Limp before Bung Karno (why Gerwani did not criticise Sukarno's polygamy)
Tempo piece (2 Oct 2021, Hussein Abri and Stefanus Pramono) on why Gerwani, loudly anti-polygamy, stayed silent when Sukarno married Hartini. Umi Sardjono told Ruth Indiah Rahayu it was a private matter and Gerwani still needed Sukarno against imperialism (Harian Rakjat, 4 Jan 1956); Perwari backed Fatmawati; Amurwani
Transformation of Gerwani: gender struggle to post-1965 stigmatisation (Aisyah, 2025)
Rania Dhiyaulhaq Aisyah, 'Transformasi Gerwani' (Jurnal Sejarah Indonesia 8:2, 2025), a literature-based article on Gerwani's pre-1965 gender activism (education, health, anti-polygamy, 1955 elections, PKI ties, congresses) and its post-1965 stigmatisation. It repeats Wieringa's finding that the Lubang Buaya sexual-vio