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Women break down barriers in male-dominated jobs
Learn to fly: Pilot captain Ida Fiqriah (left) and lawmaker Nihayatul Wafiroh share their experiences in breaking down barriers in their male-dominated careers
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earn to fly: Pilot captain Ida Fiqriah (left) and lawmaker Nihayatul Wafiroh share their experiences in breaking down barriers in their male-dominated careers.(Courtesy of The @america Center)
In patriarchal Indonesia, it is perceived that certain careers belong only to men.
Many Indonesians, bound by tradition and belief, believe the woman’s role is mainly in the household and to serve the man, who is seen as the “leader” of a family.
Thankfully, many women have managed to break through this stereotype to become successful in what are perceived as male careers.
Two examples are pilot captain Ida Fiqriah and lawmaker Nihayatul Wafiroh, whose stories could one day be the source of inspiration for women, if they are not already.
As the first ever active female captain for Garuda Indonesia, Ida said she dealt with countless mental battles in her quest to become a pilot.
Currently, she is the only female that holds captain status, as most of the active female pilots with Garuda are first officers or second in command in the cockpit. Ida currently flies regional routes and a few international ones but has yet to captain a wide-body aircraft.
Initially, she had no idea what she wanted to do in life but was eventually drawn to the world of aviation.
She graduated at the top of her class at the prestigious Indonesian State Aviation School (STPI) in Curug, Tangerang, on a scholarship about 20 years ago.
Few females have ever been admitted to the school.
“The gap between [me and the last female who was accepted at STPI] was about 10 years or so,” Ida explained.
In her graduating class of 67 people, there were only three females, and only two went on to become career pilots.
“At the time of my graduation, Garuda Indonesia had no female pilots whatsoever [...] The company had concerns of female productivity being affected by things such as maternity leave,” she said during a recent discussion at @america in Jakarta.
“I have my own dreams to be in command of a wide-body aircraft. I have dreams to one day land or take off in the snow or in the desert.”
On the other side of the career spectrum, the story of House of Representatives member Nihayatul is one that was driven by empathy for women who had been treated unfairly by a male-dominated system and society.
Currently sitting on House Commission II on interior affairs and electoral issues, the National Awakening Party (PKB) politician was responsible for being one of the original drafters of the Sexual Violence Against Females Act, which is currently still being fought for in the House.
“You have no idea how much work it takes to get the support of politicians in the House to back this law. Even from the females,” she said.
Her story began after she graduated with a master’s in Hawaii when she was working for a women’s issues NGO, which opened her eyes to the struggles faced by women across Indonesia, especially in rural areas.
“For one thing, when I visited them [women in rural areas] in around 2014, many of them did not even know what the internet was and they were not educated in simple Indonesian vocabulary,” she said.
This experience motivated her to run for a House seat, representing the East Java electoral area of Banyuwangi Bondowoso — her hometown — and Situbondo. During her campaign, she claimed the political circle “grossly underestimated” her chances of winning because she was squaring off against an incumbent.
After joining the House, she quickly found that the situation was overwhelming for a newcomer in her position.
“I do admit that in the first year, I experienced a lot of stress that it made me think twice about why I was there,” she said.
In her almost five-year tenure in office, she has tried to fight for women’s rights as much as possible.
“In my time, I’ve gotten a lot of criticism for my opinions and actions on certain laws and such,” she said.
“But my observation is that people tend to criticize female members of the House more than the males. If my people still believe I am able to serve them through this job, then it’s my job to go at it 100 percent, regardless of what people say.”
