Canberra Times, 31 Dec 1964, p. 1 (AAP-Reuter): two captured Indonesian soldiers claim Indonesia is forming a Malayan government and army in exile in Sumatra during Konfrontasi. Final paragraphs report about 500 housewives, led by Mrs Subandrio of the Indonesian Women's Congress, protesting prices in Jakarta. Gerwani n
Toowoomba Chronicle, 31 Dec 1964, p. 1 (AAP-Reuters): Sukarno claims Indonesian police arrested two groups of armed Malaysian infiltrators and says 'Malaysia does not exist'. Second item: about 500 housewives, including Mrs Subandrio, protest rising prices in Jakarta in a demonstration organised by the Indonesian Women
Official history of the Indonesian youth movement (1908-1960) compiled by the Youth Bureau of the Ministry of Education and Culture, Balai Pustaka, Jakarta 1965 (prefaces dated Dec. 1963), in five periods. Gerwani appears only briefly: it is listed among organisations demanding action against the 1957-58 PRRI separatis
UK Foreign Office file FO 371/180326 (Feb-Aug 1965): embassy telegrams, letters and Antara extracts on the PKI's growth before the coup: its 45th anniversary, Aidit's speeches, Mao's greeting, Sino-Soviet positions and Sukarno's leftward drift. Gerwani items: Antara of 9 June reports Sukarno addressing Gerwani, chaired
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
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
New York Times, 27 March 1965, p.55, Neil Sheehan from Klaten, Central Java: on how the PKI and affiliates win peasant support through land-reform agitation and practical projects. Mrs. Sukarni, chair of the Klaten district women's organisation (Gerwani) and district committee member, says Gerwani works to remove restr
Het Parool wire report (9 Nov 1965) under 'Women cheer Suharto': 100,000 anti-communist demonstrators in Jakarta demand a ban on the PKI and 'crushing' of the 30 September movement; the army searches a Chinese quarter. Thousands of women marched to National Front headquarters; Suharto thanked them for loyalty to the ar
Het Rotterdamsch Parool report (9 Nov 1965, p.1) under 'Women cheer Suharto', same wire text as other Dutch papers: 100,000 anti-communist demonstrators in Jakarta demand banning the PKI; the army searches a Chinese quarter; thousands of women march to the National Front HQ, are addressed by Suharto and cheer him, repr
Armed Forces Information Centre bulletin, 7 Desember 1965. Three Gerwani members seized among 124 people in sweeps in Pemalang, Cilacap, Blora and Boyolali; a statement condemns Gerwani for 'tearing apart the personality of Indonesian women'.
FBIS item (Jakarta radio, 17 Dec 1965) on Sukarno's speech at Perwari's 20th anniversary rally. He stressed ideas and Pantjasila, and the need for men and women together. Chaerul Saleh urged care for children of Gestapu victims or participants. Minister Rusiah Sardjono pledged Perwari loyalty. Gerwani is not named; the
FBIS summary of Sukarno's 17 Dec 1965 speech at the Perwari anniversary rally. He praised West Irian volunteer Herlina, discussed ideas and 'progressive' versus 'retrogressive' revolutionaries, and defended Nasakom. He ordered a tribunal for those directly involved in Gestok and said those responsible for killing innoc
US Embassy Joint Weeka no. 48 (airgram A-408), 21 Dec 1965: estimates 100,000 PKI deaths and 10,000 on Bali; notes Sukarno addressing the 20th anniversary of Perwari. Only women-related scene is a non-communist women's group used as a stage.
Howard Federspiel's PhD thesis (McGill, 1966) on the Persatuan Islam (Persis), the modernist Muslim organisation founded in Bandung in 1923, covering its beliefs, polemics and politics to 1963. Chapter 10 treats Persis views on women's role, veiling and polygamy. It never mentions Gerwani or Gerwis; the only link is a
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.
Algemeen Handelsblad (1966-03-09, pp. 1 and 11): student and schoolchildren demonstrations in Jakarta, tanks outside ministries, a student demand to ban the PKI, and Siliwangi troops beating the Cakrabirawa guard to the university. Sukarno told a meeting of Indonesian women (unnamed) to amend a resolution to condemn Am
Angkatan Bersendjata, 12 Mar 1966, the Supersemar issue, with Sukarno's 8 March International Women's Day address, Muslimat NU's Mahmudah Mawardi demanding a PKI ban 'because women feel the effects', and the decree dissolving the PKI.
JPRS translation of a Tempo profile (c. early 1977) of Maria Ulfah Santoso (b. Serang 1911): her marriage to political prisoner Soebadio Sastrosatomo with Subandrio's help (Jan 1964), early women's-movement work, Perwari and Kowani, and the PSI. She says that during her 11 years leading Kowani from 1952, 'PKI and Gerwa
De Waarheid text (7 May 1988, p.6), apparently a speech/interview by an unnamed Indonesian woman, on the Indonesian women's movement. She says Gerwani, with about 1.5 million members after 1949, gave the movement its mass character defending peasant and working women, while Perwari led on polygamy; after 1965 Gerwani w
Saskia Wieringa's 1992 article comparing Gerwani and the New Order's PKK to criticise Molyneux's practical/strategic gender interests; contrasts Gerwani's alliance with Sukarno/PKI and democratic centralism with PKK's subordination via husbands. Foundational theoretical comparison.
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
Het Parool (6 May 1995) continuation of the feature on the Indonesian road to independence. Francisca Fanggidaej recalls first hearing the word 'Indonesia' from a cousin; historians Harry Poeze and Pieter Droogleever and veterans Gondo Pratomo and Aky Djoehana discuss early nationalism, Perhimpunan Indonesia, ethical p
Het Parool (21 Aug 1995) report by Joop Holthausen on four Indonesians, led by Frans Seda and including S.K. Trimurti, 83, asking Queen Beatrix to recognise 17 August 1945 as independence day. Includes a profile of Trimurti: journalist, imprisoned by Dutch and Japanese, first woman minister (labour, 1947), member of di
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.
Muhadjir Darwin's survey (March 2004) of Indonesian women's movements from precolonial heroines through the 1928 Women's Congress, Fujinkai, Kowani and the Sukarno-era polygamy campaign against Hartini, to the New Order. Short historical overview.
Saskia Wieringa's Brill encyclopedia entry (2005) on women in Indonesia's revolutionary movements from Kartini to the New Order, noting the 1965 massacres spurred by accusations of sexual perversion against young communist women. Concise reference.
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
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.
Merdeka.com feature (24 Sep 2012) on Gerwani's dilemma over Sukarno's polygamy: it fought for a marriage law banning polygamy from 1950 but set the issue aside when Sukarno married Hartini, Dewi and Yurike Sanger, following the PKI line. Concise account of the polygamy contradiction.
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