1954 – 2023
Libération, Paris (21 Sep 1954, p.6), badly garbled page with a column '...et les femmes!': after Sukarno's second marriage to a divorcee, a feminist organisation says his private life cannot be separated from the presidency, and that Indonesian women fought ten years for their rights so the marriage is a heavy blow. N
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
Ottawa Citizen, 22 April 1959, p.27: society-page report of a Kartini Day tea and sherry party given by Mrs. L. N. Palar, wife of Indonesia's minister to Canada, marking the birthday of Kartini (b. 21 April 1879), described as a nationalist and pioneer of the Indonesian women's movement and symbol of women's emancipati
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
Soviet Woman, 30 Apr 1967, pp. 13-16: Kartini Day features by Mme Manai Sophiaan (ambassador's wife) and Soviet orientalist A. Belenky on Kartini as feminist, anti-colonial forerunner of the national movement, plus a book review on American women and a note on Soviet-Indonesian women's correspondence. Gerwani and 1965
Issues 6-9 (March 1974 onward) of Vashti's Voice, a Melbourne women's liberation newspaper, covering rape crisis, abortion, women's theatre and conferences. The only Indonesia item found is a page of Jakarta family-planning posters in Indonesian; no legible mention of Gerwani survives in the poor OCR.
Kinesis (Vancouver feminist paper), June 1977, p.10, 'Women round the World': a section on Indonesian women. It says Gerwani, the largest women's organisation (over one million members), was banned for alleged complicity in the 1965 coup and blamed for atrocities; many members suffered torture and sexual abuse in inter
Rudy Kousbroek's column 'Oost is Oost en West is West' in NRC Handelsblad (19 Feb 1988): an anecdote of a Minahasan surveyor in Maluku shocked by his atheism, with remarks on Indonesian attitudes to feminism and childlessness. Ends as the surveyor asks whether they are communists. No mention of Gerwani; background colo
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.
1994 collection edited by Grewal and Kaplan, a founding text of 'transnational feminist practices', rejecting centre-periphery and global feminism in favour of mapping 'scattered hegemonies'. Theory background; no Indonesian content.
Routledge volume (1997) edited by Alexander and Mohanty proposing transnational feminism against the centre-periphery model of global sisterhood, with fourteen chapters on colonial legacies, identities and organising. Theory background; no Indonesian content.
Chandra Mohanty's Feminism without Borders (2003): reprints 'Under Western Eyes', 'Cartographies of Struggle' and other essays criticising the monolithic Western view of the 'Third World woman' and global sisterhood. Theory background; no Indonesian content.
Duke University Press book (2005) by M. Jacqui Alexander gathering essays on heteropatriarchy, neocolonial states and 'palimpsestic time' in the Bahamas, Trinidad and the US. Transnational-feminist theory; no Indonesian content.
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.
María Lugones's 2010 Hypatia essay on decolonial feminism and the colonial/modern gender system, arguing the human/non-human dichotomy shaped colonised sexuality. Theory background; no Indonesian content.
Mursidah's 2012 survey of Indonesian women's organisations as a 'feminist movement', from Kartini to the New Order and left activism today; about two pages on Gerwani. Thin general overview.
Akhiriyati Sundari's second 2016 Jurnal Perempuan essay placing Gerwani in a typology of feminist theory as the most progressive socialist-feminist movement, strongest between its first and second congresses; marks 1965 and the IPT. Interpretive essay.
Novi Haryanti's 2017 postcolonial-feminist reading of Oka Rusmini's Balinese novel Tarian Bumi, arguing 1965 politics and caste adat both produce violence on women; notes 1965 is rarely a literary subject. Literary context; Gerwani not central.
Ruth Indiah Rahayu's 2017 biographical portrait of Umi Sardjono (1923-2011), Gerwani chair, from Umi's own stories told 2004-09; opens with the film's Jamilah, whom Umi met in detention and apologised to. Intimate life history of a Gerwani leader.
2017 Rowman and Littlefield volume edited by Margaret McLaren on decolonising transnational feminism under neoliberal globalisation, with ten chapters on epistemology and politics and a preface by Mohanty. Theory background; no Indonesian content.
FES-published study (2018) by Gadis Arivia and Nur Iman Subono arguing Indonesian feminism has local roots; one page on Gerwani, then New Order state women's organisations and Reformasi (Suara Ibu Peduli, Komnas Perempuan). Overview of feminist history.
Francisca de Haan's 2018 chapter proposing a 'global left-feminist 1960s' led by the WIDF network, from the 1953 Copenhagen Congress (whose declaration reached Indonesia) to the 1963 Moscow congress. Frames WIDF transnationalism relevant to Gerwani.
Part I of Ita Fatia Nadia's essay (südostasien 3/2020) tracing the women's movement 1912-65 to Gerwani: peasant and plantation work, marriage and land reform, WIDF ties and 1.7 million members. Notes Kowani in the WIDF 1946-49 and Indonesian women at the WIDF secretariat. In German.
Tempo biographical feature (2 Oct 2021, Isma Savitri and Nurdin Kalim) on Umi Sardjono's early life: born Suharti Sumodiwirjo in Salatiga, 24 Dec 1923, inspired by Kartini, joined Parindra then Gerindo, worked as an underground courier in East Java, tortured by the Japanese in 1943 alongside S.K. Trimurti, married Suki
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
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.