Gerwani Archive
Researcher log in
GA-03063 1993 relevance B licensed / copyrighted

She Who Earns: The Politics of Prostitution in Java

She Who Earns: The Politics of Prostitution in Java (Sunindyo, 1993)

Open file in Google DriveRead full text

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 outlines the women's movement from Istri Sedar to Gerwis (1950) and Gerwani (c. 1954), then argues that the 1965 propaganda about naked dancing and castration made 'whore' and 'Gerwani' fused labels used to stigmatise feminists, and that Dharma Wanita replaced Gerwani.

Disertasi doktor Saraswati Sunindyo (Sosiologi, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1993) adalah kajian feminis tentang pelacuran di Jawa berdasarkan penelitian lapangan 1987-88 di tiga kawasan wisata bordil (Samas, Bandungan, Tretes), dengan kisah hidup dan sejarah kebijakan negara. Gerwani muncul terutama di Bab 2 (hlm. 29-39): gerakan perempuan dari Istri Sedar ke Gerwis (1950) dan Gerwani (sekitar 1954), lalu argumen bahwa propaganda 1965 tentang tarian telanjang dan pengebirian menyatukan label 'pelacur' dan 'Gerwani' untuk menstigma feminis, dan Dharma Wanita menggantikan Gerwani.

“'Feminist activists since that time have been subject to two labels at the same time: "Whore!" and "Gerwani!"' (p. 37); the military propaganda 'made "whores" of the left feminists' (p. 35).”

People

Saraswati SunindyoKartiniSukarnoSaskia WieringaMargo St. James

Organisations

Indonesian Women's Movement (Gerwani)Indonesian Conscious Women's Movement (Gerwis)Isteri SedarCommunist Party of IndonesiaSarekat RakyatDharma WanitaFujinkaiIndonesian Women's CongressYasantiKalyanamitraCOYOTE

Places

JavaSamasBandunganTretesSurakartaJakartaYogyakartaLubang BuayaSurabayaIndonesia

Topics

Lubang Buaya and sexual slanderGerwani organisationGerwiswomen's rights and emancipationpropaganda and mediaNew Order

Tags

prostitutionsexual slander

Details

Date
1993
Creator
Sunindyo
Document type
thesis (thesis / dissertation)
Language
English
Perspective
Scholarship
Source role
secondary
Country
USA
Period
1980–1998
Source archive
ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global (Columbia) · source link
Access
library-licensed (Columbia University Libraries); personal research copy Library-licensed or subscription copy: show metadata and summary only; link to the source.
File
02 Secondary Sources/2.6 Theses and Dissertations/Sunindyo (1993) - She Who Earns, The Politics of Prostitution in Java (PhD Wisconsin) [ProQuest 304059626].pdf
OCR / text
Good (0.916) · proof-reading: no (script-cleaned only) · translation: not needed
Collection
02 Secondary Sources › 2.6 Theses and Dissertations
Summary basis
structured reading (introduction, chapter openings, conclusion and all Gerwani/women's-movement passages)

Related items

GA-03062 2020 rel A licensed

Years of Dressing Dangerously: Modern Women, National Identity and Moral Crisis in Sukarno's Indonesia, 1945-1966

Years of Dressing Dangerously: Modern Women, National Identity and Moral Crisis in Sukarno's Indonesia (Sullivan, 2020)

Charles P. Sullivan's PhD dissertation (History, University of Michigan, 2020) reads Indonesian women's magazines (Wanita, Puspa Wanita, Varia) from 1945-66 to argue that the Lubang Buaya narrative about Gerwani worked as a 'post-text' of long-running anxieties over modernity, moral crisis and the 'Mother of the Nation

shared: Indonesian Women's Congress, Dharma Wanita, Saskia Wieringa, Kartini

GA-00104 1964 Api Kartini rel A licensed

Sedikit tentang Gerakan Wanita Indonesia

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

shared: Indonesian Conscious Women's Movement (Gerwis), Indonesian Women's Congress, Fujinkai, Isteri Sedar

GA-02311 2025-11-11 Tempo rel A licensed

Saskia Wieringa: Rezim Soeharto Sangat Militeristik, Sama dengan Sekarang (Bahaya Soeharto Jadi Pahlawan Nasional)

Tempo.co, 11 November 2025: Saskia Wieringa - the Suharto regime was highly militaristic, like today (danger of Suharto

Tempo.co interview (11 Nov 2025, Shinta Maharani and Juli Hantoro) with Saskia Wieringa, known for Gerwani research, on Suharto's designation as national hero. She says it perpetuates symbolic violence and impunity (Drexler), recalls the brutal 1965 slander of Gerwani and the 'Gerwani baru' label, and argues Suharto de

shared: Dharma Wanita, Fujinkai, Saskia Wieringa, Yogyakarta

GA-02995 2013 rel A

Gerwani dan Perjuangan Politik Perempuan (Rio Apinino, IndoPROGRESS, 2013)

Gerwani and women's political struggle (Rio Apinino, IndoPROGRESS, 2013)

Rio Apinino's 2013 IndoPROGRESS review essay of the Indonesian edition of Wieringa's Gerwani study: the film's Lubang Buaya scenes, Gerwis's founding in Semarang on 4 June 1950, PKI influence and the persistent 'whore' stigma. Chapter-by-chapter summary.

shared: Indonesian Conscious Women's Movement (Gerwis), Saskia Wieringa, Lubang Buaya, prostitution

GA-02859 2025 rel A

Transformasi Gerwani: Keterlibatan dalam Perjuangan Gender hingga Stigmatisasi Pasca 1965 (Aisyah, 2025)

Transformation of Gerwani: gender struggle to post-1965 stigmatisation (Aisyah, 2025)

Rania Dhiyaulhaq Aisyah, 'Transformasi Gerwani' (Jurnal Sejarah Indonesia 8:2, 2025), a literature-based article on Gerwani's pre-1965 gender activism (education, health, anti-polygamy, 1955 elections, PKI ties, congresses) and its post-1965 stigmatisation. It repeats Wieringa's finding that the Lubang Buaya sexual-vio

shared: Indonesian Conscious Women's Movement (Gerwis), Dharma Wanita, Saskia Wieringa, Surabaya

GA-02885 2010 rel A

Pasang Surut Gerakan Perempuan Indonesia (Wieringa, 2010)

Ups and Downs of the Indonesian Women's Movement (Wieringa, 2010)

Ten-page digest (in Komnas Perempuan's 2010 compilation) of Wieringa's Kuntilanak Wangi, tracing Indonesian women's movements from Kartini and Poetri Mardika to Gerwani, its rivalry with Perwari, the 1965 slander and New Order corporatism (Dharma Wanita, PKK). Concise overview.

shared: Indonesian Women's Congress, Dharma Wanita, Saskia Wieringa, Surakarta

GA-02881 1999 rel A

Kuntilanak Wangi: Organisasi-organisasi Perempuan Indonesia Sesudah 1950 (Wieringa, terj. Hersri Setiawan, 1999)

Kuntilanak Wangi: women's organisations in Indonesia after 1950 (Wieringa, transl. Hersri Setiawan, 1999)

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.

shared: Indonesian Conscious Women's Movement (Gerwis), Indonesian Women's Congress, Kalyanamitra, Saskia Wieringa

GA-01071 1995-10-06 Het Parool rel A

Suharto's angst voor de stem van Gerwani (over het onderzoek van Saskia Wieringa)

Suharto's fear of the voice of Gerwani (on Saskia Wieringa's research)

De Vrijdag (Het Parool, 6 Oct 1995) article by Hanneke de Wit on Saskia Wieringa's Amsterdam PhD on the Indonesian women's movement. It recounts the 1965 press claims that Gerwani girls castrated and blinded generals and danced naked, which Wieringa calls lies; autopsies showed the generals intact. It details forced 'c

shared: Saskia Wieringa, Kartini, sexual slander, Lubang Buaya and sexual slander