Years of Dressing Dangerously: Modern Women, National Identity and Moral Crisis in Sukarno's Indonesia (Sullivan, 2020)
Charles P. Sullivan's PhD dissertation (History, University of Michigan, 2020) reads Indonesian women's magazines (Wanita, Puspa Wanita, Varia) from 1945-66 to argue that the Lubang Buaya narrative about Gerwani worked as a 'post-text' of long-running anxieties over modernity, moral crisis and the 'Mother of the Nation
Gerwani as a political school of Islam in the Sukarno era (Rahmanudin, 2022)
Deden Rahmanudin, 'Gerwani Mazhab Politik Islam Era Soekarno' (Jurnal Kewarganegaraan 6:2, 2022), a literature-based article presenting Gerwani as a feminist movement and discussing it from an Islamic viewpoint (Sukarno's Sarinah, Hamka). Drawing on Wieringa and Lestariningsih, it recounts Gerwani's 1950 founding, MPs
Remembering through Fragmented Narratives: third generation and the 1965 violence (Leksana and Subekti, 2022)
Leksana and Subekti (2022) on how 1965 memory reaches third-generation members of three survivor families, arguing family silence is a survival strategy preserving memory via fragmented narratives, mysticism and depoliticisation; one case has Gerwani grandparents.
Pohlman's chapter on the interrogation and torture centres ('devil's houses') in the army's 1965-70 detention system, opening with Sudjinah's account of capture with Sulami in Feb 1967 and torture at Gunung Sahari. Evidence from a handful of survivor testimonies.
Dialita: Collective Memories of Former Women Political Prisoners in Java (Lestariningsih and Sunarti, 2022)
Memory Studies article (2022) on the Dialita choir of former women political prisoners and relatives as a vehicle for identity and 'cultural reconciliation', drawing on interviews with Uchikowati, Utati and others; co-author wrote a book on Plantungan Gerwani prisoners. Key study.
Detention Camps in Asia (Brill, 2022): 'Torture Camps in Indonesia, 1965-1970' (Pohlman), opening with Sudjinah's memoir
Brill edited volume (2022) on detention camps in modern Asia; the chapter 'Torture Camps in Indonesia, 1965-1970' (Annie Pohlman, pp. 137-155) opens with Sudjinah's memoir Terempas Gelombang Pasang. It names Sudjinah and Sulami as fellow leaders of Gerwani who, after eighteen months underground and a clandestine pamphl
Detention Camps in Asia (Brill, 2022): 'Torture Camps in Indonesia, 1965-1970' (Pohlman), opening with Sudjinah's memoir
Brill edited volume (2022) on detention camps in modern Asia; the chapter 'Torture Camps in Indonesia, 1965-1970' (Annie Pohlman, pp. 137-155) opens with Sudjinah's memoir Terempas Gelombang Pasang. It names Sudjinah and Sulami as fellow leaders of Gerwani who, after eighteen months underground and a clandestine pamphl
Women's portrayal in the works of Sugiarti Siswadi (Setiadi et al., 2023)
2023 Padjadjaran article reading three short stories by Sugiarti Siswadi (Lekra board member, Gerwani activist, Api Kartini co-initiator) as expressions of her feminism; stories first appeared in Api Kartini 1960-61. Rare study of a Gerwani writer.
Fashioning Authoritarianism: Militarization of Society in Indonesia, 1930-1966 (Joshua, 2023)
PhD dissertation (Northwestern, 2023) by Norman Joshua on the militarization of Indonesian society, 1930-1966. It argues the Army intervened in non-military affairs through the 'twin logics' of emergency powers and counterinsurgency, culminating in the New Order. Gerwani appears only in passing: p. 428 gives its claime
The Butterfly Effect: Stealth Politics by the Reformist Women's Movement (Puspita, 2023)
PhD dissertation (Northwestern, June 2023) by Sabina Satriyani Puspita in political science on how the 'reformist' women's movement wins policy change through 'stealth politics', using the 2021 Regulation 30 on campus sexual violence. Gerwani appears in historical chapters: the 1965 stigmatisation and the sexual-dance/
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
Marriages between political prisoners' wives and army officers (Kochi Kaoru, 2025)
Kochi Kaoru's 2025 article using second-hand-market documents to show that wives and widows of leftist men, including former Gerwani members, married or became concubines of officers and soldiers, and the army banned the practice; also covers 'bersih diri' certificates and disenfranchisement.
The End of Silence: Accounts of the 1965 Genocide in Indonesia (Soe Tjen Marching, 2025 ed.)
Soe Tjen Marching's collection (Amsterdam UP 2017; Routledge 2025) of twenty survivor and descendant testimonies organised by generation, including 'Steel Women', and introducing the 'mutation of fear'. Summarises the 1965 slander of Gerwani; key testimony source.
Red Nanyang: Chinese-Language Literature of Indonesia, 1945-1965 (Borgonjon, 2025)
Columbia PhD dissertation (2025) by David Borgonjon, the first full-length study of Chinese-language (yinhua) literature in Indonesia 1945-65, set within Sino-Indonesian friendship, Afro-Asian translation and Guided Democracy-era debates on labour and schooling. Gerwani is barely present: a glossary entry gives Gerwani
The Heteronormative Family as Moral Infrastructure: Citizenship and National Belonging in Indonesia (Mirna Nadia, 2025)
PhD dissertation (Sociology, Northwestern, Dec. 2025) by Mirna Nadia arguing the heteronormative family acts as 'moral infrastructure' of Indonesian citizenship, via the Marriage Law, the AILA judicial review, the Family Resilience Bill, women household heads and LGBT people. Gerwani appears only in ch. 1's history of
Counter-Monuments: Art and Memory in Post-1965 Indonesia (Bontrager, 2026)
MA thesis (University of Georgia, 2026) by Alyx L. Bontrager on how Indonesian artists Rangga Purbaya, Dadang Christanto and Leyla Stevens use testimony, embodiment and place as memory activism against the silencing of the 1965-66 genocide, theorised as 'counter-monuments'. Gerwani appears only in passing: ch. 2 (p. 7)