FBIS, 29 November 1950: Women's Congress (Kowani)
FBIS item (29 Nov 1950): the Kowani congress ended on 28 Nov and set up an all-Indonesia federation of women's organisations called the Indonesian Women's Congress. Secretariat headed by Dr Maria Ulfah Santoso (OCR: Marta Ulfan). Programme: Pancasila basis, full independence, equal rights for women, peace, and pressure
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
ACDWF telegrams for 8 March to women's groups incl. Gerwani (Renmin Ribao, 8 March 1956)
Xinhua note in Renmin Ribao, 8 Mar 1956 (p. 4): the All-China Democratic Women's Federation sent International Women's Day telegrams to women's bodies in India, Burma, Pakistan, Egypt and Japan and, in Indonesia, to Gerwani, to Kowani (the Indonesian Women's Congress) and to the Indonesian Women's 8 March Commemoration
ACDWF telegrams for 8 March to women's groups incl. Gerwani (Renmin Ribao, 8 March 1956)
Xinhua note in Renmin Ribao, 8 Mar 1956 (p. 4): the All-China Democratic Women's Federation sent International Women's Day telegrams to women's bodies in India, Burma, Pakistan, Egypt and Japan and, in Indonesia, to Gerwani, to Kowani (the Indonesian Women's Congress) and to the Indonesian Women's 8 March Commemoration
FBIS, 29 June 1956: Women's Asian-African conference (Kowani consultative committee)
FBIS item (29 Jun 1956): the Indonesian Women's Congress consultative committee (executive members of Indonesian women's organisations) will meet in Jakarta on 2 July to discuss a projected Asian-African women's conference; the organisations agreed sponsors should be the Bandung Conference countries: India, Indonesia,
Indonesian women's leaders meet Song Qingling (Renmin Ribao, 18 August 1956)
Renmin Ribao, 18 Aug 1956, p. 1 (Xinhua, Jakarta): Song Qingling, visiting Indonesia, is welcomed at a gathering of Indonesian women's leaders on 16 August, chaired by Mrs Abdulgani, with Kowani chair Mrs Santoso and wives of leading politicians present. Song speaks on peaceful coexistence and women's rights. Gerwani i
Indonesian women's leaders meet Song Qingling (Renmin Ribao, 18 August 1956)
Renmin Ribao, 18 Aug 1956, p. 1 (Xinhua, Jakarta): Song Qingling, visiting Indonesia, is welcomed at a gathering of Indonesian women's leaders on 16 August, chaired by Mrs Abdulgani, with Kowani chair Mrs Santoso and wives of leading politicians present. Song speaks on peaceful coexistence and women's rights. Gerwani i
Report on a visit to Indonesia, Song Qingling (Renmin Ribao, 27 September 1956)
Renmin Ribao, 27 Sep 1956, p. 6: Song Qingling's report to the NPC Standing Committee on her ten-day visit to Indonesia (14-23 Aug 1956): Jakarta, Bogor, Bandung, Yogyakarta, Bali, with Sukarno, Hatta and overseas Chinese. She meets Kowani-led women's leaders in Jakarta (16 Aug) and answers questions on Chinese women's
Report on a visit to Indonesia, Song Qingling (Renmin Ribao, 27 September 1956)
Renmin Ribao, 27 Sep 1956, p. 6: Song Qingling's report to the NPC Standing Committee on her ten-day visit to Indonesia (14-23 Aug 1956): Jakarta, Bogor, Bandung, Yogyakarta, Bali, with Sukarno, Hatta and overseas Chinese. She meets Kowani-led women's leaders in Jakarta (16 Aug) and answers questions on Chinese women's
Letter from Emma Poeradiredja to Helen Fowler, 12 January 1957
Letter from Emma Poeradiredja (Bandung, 12 January 1957) to Helen Fowler, answering a request to describe Indonesian women's work. She explains the Kongres Wanita Indonesia umbrella, its three foundations, women's organisations by type (social, officials' wives, political), kindergartens, schools, cooperatives and the
1957 'Letter to an Unknown Friend' by Sudjinah (Gerwani) on Indonesian children's conditions, framed by colonial history, Japanese occupation and the Round Table agreement. Gives statistics (15-20% infant mortality, one doctor per 59,000, illiteracy 65%, 5 of 12 million children in school) and notes Gerwani, with the I
Woman and the Changing Marriage Pattern of Indonesia (van der Kroef, 1957)
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
Kartini Day Figure: Mrs Utami Suryadarma
Api Kartini (1959-60) profile for Kartini Day of Utami Suryadarma, wife of the Air Force chief, presented as a leading woman of Indonesian women's organisations: Kowani foreign-information head, chair of the Children's Welfare Foundation, Armed Forces arts committee and an AURI wives' committee, and founder of a girls'
Birth and Growth of the Indonesian Women's Movement, Part I (Sulami, 1959)
Part I of Sulami's 1959 history of the Indonesian women's movement in WIDF's magazine: Kartini, Putri Merdika (1912), Wanita Sedar, the 1928 Women's Congress, the Congress League of Indonesian Women, and demands on marriage, education and voting rights through 1941, with PKI influence noted after 1920. Prefaces the bir
Birth and Growth of the Indonesian Women's Movement, Part II (Sulami, 1959)
Part II of Sulami's 1959 history: Indonesian women under Japanese occupation (Fujinkai, women coerced as 'geishas'), the 1945 proclamation, founding of Perwari (Klaten, Dec 1945), the formation of KOWANI (Solo, Feb 1946), its second congress at Madiun deciding to affiliate to WIDF, and women's role in partisan resistan
Soviet Relations with Indonesia, State Department Files 1960-1963
Compilation of State Department central-file items on Soviet relations with Indonesia, 1960-63 (telegrams, airgrams, despatches). One airgram (7 Dec) 'Soviets Woo Indo Women' describes the Soviet ambassador's wife hosting Indonesian women's leaders at the embassy, noting Gedung Wanita as a hub for Gerwani and Kongres W
Sulami's 1960 piece 'Kartini' for the anniversary of R.A. Kartini: biography (b. 1879, child-marriage custom, letters, schooling of girls, marriage as Regent's wife), Kartini as symbol for Indonesian women's national and emancipation struggle, quoting Sukarno's 1959 lecture. Paired with a parallel profile of Egyptian f
Women's Footsteps in 1961 (Hurustiati Subandrio)
Article by Hurustiati Subandrio (1961) reviewing women's activity at the start of 1961. She lists the Gerwani-organised National Seminar of Peasant Women (17-20 January, Gedung Wanita, Jakarta), the Asian-African Women's Conference in Cairo, and preparations for the Indonesian Women's Congress (6-8 February). She links
US Embassy Reports on Women's Organizations and Friendship-Society Regulation, Oct 1961
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
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
Tenth Indonesian Women's Congress: Sukarno's Counsel
Report (1964) on the opening of the 10th Indonesian Women's Congress (Kowani) at Istora, Jakarta, with extracts of Hurustiati Subandrio's speech and Sukarno's address. Sukarno calls for 'Manipolist' women, a cooperative body uniting women's organisations, and warns against admitting persons linked to subversion or bann
Soviet Woman, 31 May 1964: 'A New Realm', end of Soviet delegation's Indonesia visit report
Soviet Woman, 31 May 1964, p. (fragment): closing section of a Soviet Women's Committee delegation account of Indonesia (Mother's Day, Dec 1963), followed by an unrelated agricultural chemistry article. Delegates met Hurustiati Subandrio, Madame Supeni and 'Madame Umi Sarjono, Member of Parliament and President of Gerw
Soviet Woman, 31 May 1964: 'Our Visit to Indonesia' (Ludmila Balakhovskaya)
Soviet Woman, 31 May 1964: Ludmila Balakhovskaya's 'Our visit to Indonesia', on a two-week Soviet Women's Committee tour for Mother's Day (22 Dec) at Hurustiati Subandrio's invitation (Kowani). Notes 30 women among 300 MPs, creches and women's clubs, and that Gerwani runs 1,400 kindergartens (50+ children each), planni
Soviet Woman, 30 Nov 1964: 'Indonesia's Independence Day' (10th Kowani Congress)
Soviet Woman, 30 Nov 1964, p. 11-12: Victor Tsoppi's 'Indonesia's Independence Day' (with a separate Algerian woman's story). Madame Manai Sofian and Soviet women, incl. Nina Orlova, report on attending the 10th Congress of Kowani (Federation of Indonesian Women's Organizations) at Jakarta's stadium, invited by Hurusti
FO 371/181556: Joint Malaysia-Indonesia Department, Propaganda [1] (1965)
UK Foreign Office file FO 371/181556 (Joint Malaysia-Indonesia Department, 1965): minutes, letters and telegrams on countering Indonesian propaganda during Konfrontasi (crashed-aircraft evidence, guidance telegram no. 36, Afro-Asian posts). It has nothing on Gerwani in the official papers. Filed within it is a printed
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
Soviet Woman, 30 Apr 1965: 'Till We Meet Again', KOWANI delegation in the USSR (Nina Voronina)
Soviet Woman, 30 Apr 1965, p. 18: Nina Voronina's 'Till we meet again', on a three-week USSR tour (Moscow, Riga, Leningrad, Dushanbe) by a five-woman KOWANI delegation: Basariah Simorangkir, Sidi Moehammad (WANI), Ani Boesiri, Ratjih Natawidjaja, Mimi Soeparmi, with Hurustiati Subandrio in Moscow. Left a message in the
Soviet Woman, 30 Apr 1965: 'We Have Seen...' (Basariah Simorangkir, KOWANI delegation)
Soviet Woman, 30 Apr 1965, pp. 18-21: Basariah Simorangkir (KOWANI Presidium) 'We Have Seen...' on the January 1965 KOWANI delegation's USSR tour, after Nina Voronina's 'Till we meet again'; delegates incl. Ratjih Natawidjaja (Wanita Marhaenis) and Mimi Soeparmi. Then unrelated anti-Nazi statute-of-limitation statement
Subandrio Speech at International Women's Day Meeting (FBIS, 8 Mar 1966)
FBIS item (Jakarta radio, 8 Mar 1966): Subandrio's speech at the International Women's Day rally in Senayan, sponsored by the National Front and Kowani. He denied that Indonesia had veered right, urged solidarity with progressive states and Nasakom, and said women played an important role. Gerwani is not named.
Soviet Woman, 30 Apr 1967: 'Our Indonesian Friends Write'
Soviet Woman, 30 Apr 1967: Nina Voronina's 'Our Indonesian friends write' describes correspondence between the Soviet Women's Committee and Indonesian women (Asih Budi society in Bandung, journalist Sakti Alamsjah, pharmacist Salamah Adipura, Tulungagung teachers' club). Mentions Indonesia only through Kowani-era conta