Women urged to show they can play more public roles

Irawaty Wardany ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Denpasar   |  Wed, 04/30/2008 1:10 PM  |  Bali

The self-actualization of Hindu women is often hampered by patriarchal culture and tradition so they cannot have more public roles, a seminar concluded Tuesday.

"In the holy book Weda, there is actually no differentiation between men and women but in reality most people do not implement what was written in the book," Ida Ayu Tary Puspa, a lecturer at the state Institute of Hindu Dharma, Denpasar told a seminar here on Tuesday.

Around 500 people attended the seminar, titled Strategy to Improve Hindu Women Resources in Facing Global Competition

Puspa said most of the time women were hampered by patriarchal culture and tradition, which are still strong in the community, especially in Bali.

"Why is it that only men who are allowed to participate in village meeting? Even though there is no regulation that bans women from participating in such activity," she said.

She said it was all the product of a patriarchal culture, which was made by men.

"Such activity is usually conducted in the evening, a time where women have to take care of their children and other family matters," she said.

Another example, she said, involved a customary tradition of having a man became a member of his wife's family if the family has no male offspring. Usually, it is the woman who becomes a member of her husband's family.

"It is called kawin masuk. The man in this case will assume a female status in his wife's family while his wife will assume the male status. But he still has to represent the family as a man when it comes to rituals or tradition just because he is physically a man," she said.

However, she said she was not merely blaming the patriarchal culture and traditions.

"There is also an ability factor that should be considered. This is the one that has to be filled by the women themselves," she said, adding that if women did not have the ability they would not be able to compete with men.

Ni Made Dhanawati, a lecturer at Udayana University's Department of Literature, shared a similar view with Puspa, saying that even though the government had campaigned on the equality of the sexes, it was still difficult to implement in Bali. "Balinese families still prioritize having a boy because he is the one who will get the family inheritance and will be responsible to take care of the family's shrine and who will conduct Ngaben (cremation) for all family members," she said.

She also regretted women's unwillingness to participate in organizations or political parties.

"It will be useless to give women a 30 percent quota for legislative membership if they do not make use of this opportunity," she said.

She regretted women's lack of enthusiasm to participate in discussions or organizations, where they could gain new knowledge and a wider perspective on things.

This could be seen at Tuesday's seminar where at first the auditorium was packed of people, men and women, but after the lunch break almost half of the women had left the room.

Dhanawaty said most of the time women only had average ability in employment fields.

"If we get the opportunity to work in a low-level job like cleaning service most of us will refuse, but when we get the opportunity to get a high position we do not have the ability to have such responsibility, so it is kind of absurd," she said, adding that it might be the reason why women are always put in lower positions.

She encouraged Balinese Hindu women to do more to assist each other in moving forward.

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