A great and strong people fights for a better life: Rie Lips on Java
De Waarheid, 12 May 1954, p. 5: opening of an interview with Rie Lips, vice-chair of the NVB, back from six weeks on Java after the Gerwis/Gerwani congress. She rejects stereotypes of Indonesians as lazy, dirty or stupid, citing women who work in factories or walk hours to attend meetings of the women's movement, 'the
Mme Suharti, president of the Indonesian Women's Movement; Sukarno and polygamy
La Presse (17 May 1955, p.10): feature on a Muslim feminist campaign against polygamy, starting with the Pakistani PM Mohamed Ali's second marriage and spreading to Java. Says Fatmawati Sukarno was recruited and that Hartini was pregnant during the Bandung Conference. A snippet names Mme Suharti, president of the 'very
Mme Suharti, president of the Indonesian Women's Movement; Sukarno and polygamy (extract)
La Presse (17 May 1955, p.10), snippet extract of the polygamy feature: unrest in Indonesia over Sukarno's marriage to Hartini, in which Mme Suharti, president of the 'very communist-leaning' Indonesian Women's Movement (Gerwani), took advantage; Hartini's pregnancy surfaced as the Bandung Conference drew attention.
Yu Siyem, Gerwani activist, by Sulami (Harian Rakjat, 16 January 1957)
Harian Rakjat, 16 Jan 1957, p. 3: women's page ('Wanita') with a short story by Sulami (Gerwani) about 'Yu Siyem', a village market woman and Gerwani branch activist who recruits neighbours, tours distant villages and wins her husband's support, showing membership expansion and the Anak-Cabang structure. Also Soviet sc
US Monthly Indonesian Press Survey (1958): National Conference of Communist Women
US Monthly Indonesian Press Survey (1958) analysis of the First National Conference of Communist Women (Jakarta, 26-31 May 1958). Aidit's address presents the 'Communist woman' and calls for a wider Gerwani; Suharti Suwarto (Gerwani second deputy chair) and Sundari report on women's groups, only 100,000 women PKI membe
Suara Tani, January 1959 (10th anniversary issue): Gerwani greeting and cooperation with BTI
Suara Tani (BTI organ), special 10th-anniversary issue, January 1959, OCR noisy. Contains greetings from ministers, army chief Nasution and Gerwani; BTI New Year message; agrarian seminar results; BTI membership table (3.39 million); exposés of landlord exploitation in Java. On p. 5 Gerwani's national leadership (claim
Six million women volunteers ready: International Women's Day feature on Indonesia
Xinhua feature in Renmin Ribao (9 Mar 1965, p. 4) for International Women's Day on Indonesia's 'six million' women volunteers, enrolled since Sukarno's March 1964 call: military training, takeovers of US Information Service offices and US plantations, street protests. Mrs Arudji Kartawinata and Kartini Radjasa are quot
The Crescent Arises over the Banyan Tree: Muhammadiyah in a Central Javanese Town (Nakamura, 1976)
Mitsuo Nakamura's 1976 Cornell PhD thesis, an ethnography and local history of the Muhammadiyah reform movement in Kotagede, Yogyakarta, arguing that Islamization of Java is an ongoing, internally generated process. Gerwani appears only in passing (p. 208), listed with Pemuda Rakyat and Lekra as PKI-influenced mass org
Population movement hits Papuans
De Waarheid report (23 Mar 1985, p.3) on a Dutch parliamentary committee debate criticising Indonesia's transmigration to West Papua. CPN MP Ina Brouwer, pressing minister Schoo on freedom of organisation, states that Gerwani, 'the progressive Indonesian women's movement' that once did much for women, is banned; Schoo
She Who Earns: The Politics of Prostitution in Java (Sunindyo, 1993)
Saraswati Sunindyo's PhD dissertation (Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1993) is a feminist study of prostitution in Java based on 1987-88 fieldwork in three brothel resorts (Samas, Bandungan, Tretes), with life stories and a history of state policy. Gerwani appears mainly in Chapter 2 (pp. 29-39): it outlin
Autobiographical Fictions: Indonesian Women's Writing from the Nationalist Period (Shackford-Bradley, 2000)
PhD dissertation (UC Berkeley, 2000) by Julie Shackford-Bradley reading autobiographical fiction by Indonesian women writers of the nationalist period: Kartini, Hamidah, Suwarsih Djojopuspito and S. Rukiah Kertapati (ch. 5 on Kedjatuhan dan Hati). Gerwani is not discussed; it appears only in bibliographic notes citing
The Women's Movement in Indonesia, with special reference to 'Aisyiyah (It, 2005)
Suraiya It's 2005 Temple University religion PhD dissertation on the Indonesian women's movement, with the Muhammadiyah women's section 'Aisyiyah as case study (Ch. 2 history from Kartini to the New Order; Ch. 3 religion and family law; Ch. 4-5 'Aisyiyah; Ch. 6 conclusion). Gerwani appears only in passing: Gerwis is li
Women, Sexual Violence and the Indonesian Killings of 1965-1966 (Pohlman, 2015)
Annie Pohlman's 2015 monograph, the first book-length study of gendered violence in 1965-66, based on about 150 women survivors: patterns of arrest, torture, rape, sexualised mutilation, strip searches for the 'Gerwani mark', sexual slavery and 'wife-taking'. Key scholarly source.
Ummah Yet Proletariat: Islam and Marxism in the Netherlands East Indies and Indonesia, 1915-1959 (Lin, 2020)
PhD dissertation (History, University of Washington, 2020) by Hongxuan Lin tracing the confluence of Islam and Marxism in the Netherlands East Indies and Indonesia, 1915-1959, through vernacular print culture; it genealogises Sukarno's NASAKOM. Gerwani appears only briefly: citing Blackburn, it says millions joined for
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
Tempo English, 4 October 2021: Soft on Sukarno (Gerwani and Sukarno's polygamy)
Tempo English cover story 'Soft on Sukarno' (4 Oct 2021, Hussein Abri) on why Gerwani, which campaigned against polygamy, stayed silent when Sukarno married Hartini in 1954. Umi Sardjono told Ruth Indiah Rahayu the group still needed Sukarno against imperialism, and defended him in Harian Rakjat (4 Jan 1956). The stanc