One-line FBIS item (3 Jan 1953): the women's branch of the Indonesian Islamic Youth League (GPII) held a congress in Jakarta and demanded vocational training for Indonesian women and a government physical-education vocational school for women. Background on Muslim women's organisations contemporary with Gerwis.
De Nieuwsgier, 31 Mar 1953: on Gerwis's initiative a conference of women's organisation representatives from across Indonesia will meet in Jakarta on 2-3 April to collect data on Indonesian women's social, economic and political struggle, discuss the WIDF world women's congress in Denmark in June and consider sending a
Aneta report in De Vrije Pers (7 Apr 1953): at a Gerwis-initiated meeting of women's organisations (2-3 April, Jakarta) it was decided to send a delegation to the WIDF women's congress in Denmark in June. Delegates include S.K. Trimurti, Kandjinah and Maasje Siwi of Gerwis, plus Wanita Demokrat and others.
FBIS item (21 Apr 1953): the Jakarta Kartini Day committee closed the 1953 observance with a grand meeting at the State Palace; Mrs Sukarno said Kartini Day's essence is charity and self-improvement and that Indonesian women's supreme duty is to take part in the coming general elections. Background for official women's
Indische Courant voor Nederland, 24 Jun 1953, p. 1: Sukarno appoints Mangunsarkoro (PNI) and Roem (Masjumi) as cabinet formateurs after Wilopo's fall; reports party programmes. Gerwis issues a statement urging a cabinet that protects working and pregnant women, curbs unemployment, raises education budgets, controls pri
Het Nieuwsblad voor Sumatra (28 Oct 1953, p.2): at its 25 October conference the Jakarta women's organisation Gerwis resolved on 'Menteng 31' (supporting its return to youth but asking the government to rehouse the girls living there) and on a forced marriage of a 60-year-old man to a 14-year-old schoolgirl, expressing
Daily Mirror (Sydney), 18 December 1953, p. 11, a page of national and foreign news briefs. Only one item concerns Indonesia: a short AP report from Jakarta that 2,000 sarong-clad Indonesian women jammed the capital's streets demanding a government ban on polygamy and child marriage. No organisation is named. The other
Indische Courant voor Nederland, 23 Dec 1953, p. 3: over 2,000 women led by Perwari march in Jakarta against the amendment of Government Regulation 19 on marriage conditions and demand a marriage law; in Semarang, seven women's groups including Gerwis petition the Central Java governor.
News digest in De Vrije Pers (31 Dec 1953). Colonel Dr. Moestopo, for the "Corps of Fighting Women", defended polygamy and the pension rule for up to four wives, arguing withdrawal would stimulate prostitution. Gerwis is not named, but this is context for the contemporary polygamy debate.