With the theme of Bringing the best of Indonesian women, IWF 2018 is aimed at providing a comprehensive overview of the state of development of business and careers for women, as well as the gender issues that surround them.

IWF 2018 chief organizer Petty S. Fatimah said the lack of technology utilization in developing careers or businesses for women was one of the concerns within the environment of working women.

“Indonesia is the ‘capital city’ of social media in the world but if we look further into the usage of the internet, especially by women, it is still only aimed toward entertainment or private needs rather than business,” Petty, editor-in-chief of Femina magazine, told a press conference on IWF 2018 on Wednesday in Jakarta.

Therefore, the forum would also provide some 17 parallel master classes that would address such issues, both for women with office careers and women entrepreneurs, she said.

Google Indonesia corporate marketing manager Febrina Herlambang said the technology giant would host several sessions related to economic empowerment for women, such as digital business management and marketing.

“Nearly half of Indonesia’s micro, small and medium enterprises [MSMEs] are owned by women,” Febrina said in the same occasion. “However, there is fear from these women that as their businesses grow bigger, they will have less time for families.”

Since 2015, Google has provided digital and direct training programs for more than 1 million MSMEs, she added.

“The use of technology remains their biggest challenge [...] Google is aiming to help them maintain their productivity so they will still able to spend time with their families while also running their businesses through technology leveraging.”

Such efforts should be able to increase the number of women participating in the workforce as well as their contribution to the national GDP, said Febrina.

A Statistics Indonesia (BPS) report in August showed that 51.88 percent of the Indonesian female workforce is currently employed. Although the figure is an improvement from the same period last year at 50.89 percent, it is considerably lower than that of the male workforce at 67.26 percent.

“Although female participation in the workforce is still low, there has been a steady increase over the years. Women are increasing their contribution to the Indonesian economy, whereas the contribution from the male [workforce] tends to be stagnant,” BPS head Suhariyanto said in a recent press briefing.

Additionally, the forum will also address the wage gap between men and women.

Aside from the master classes, IWF 2018 will address issues through seminars, with speakers consisting of Indonesian women leaders and luminaries, including Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi and Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture Puan Maharani.

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