Overseas Think Tank for Indonesia

By Jennie S. Bev

Sonia Sotomayor made history when President Barack Obama nominated her as Supreme Court Judge for, if elected, she would be the first Latina to hold this position. Megawati Sukarnoputri also made history when she became Indonesia’s first female president after the removal of Abdurrahman Wahid from office. With Megawati running for another presidential election this year, both her and Sotomayor have the chance to make history in the milestones of world’s gender politics.

The question now is: how far women can make meaningful differences in the political arena while keeping the balance within patriarchial structure? What can female legislators and representatives and female presidential candidate do to rid the perpetuating misconceptions of “passive feminine,” “the other gender,” and “female stupidity”?

It is obsolete to keep a separation of men and women. It is time to transcend it, yet female leaders should be aware of what it takes to construct an elegant social structure that accommodates both sexes fairly.

There is no doubt that Sotomayor has the required intelligence and skills for the post. She graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University in 1976, attended Yale Law School, and taught at New York University and Columbia Law School. She is known for her exemplary philosophical knowledge and practical skills.

Above all, she is praised for wearing the so-called badge of hardships honor. Still, she is being haunted by her past words spoken at University of California Berkeley in 2001, “I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.” This statement has been a boomerang used to discredit her impartiality as a judge and an individual.

Based on educated guesstimate, her intention was likely expressing a deep level of empathy and compassion. While she might have meant well, it is never agreeable to mingle empathy with justice and fairness.
Empathy can be very useful when it comes to discern one’s level of involvement in a case, for instance, but it should not go any further than that. As a judge or a jury, one should limit empathy in a manner so that it is productive and constructs clear mental judgment.

Thomas Sowell, an economist at Stanford Hoover Institute, said it well in his syndicated column that a Supreme Court judge is like a sports umpire, who must not “empathy” to determine a pitch was called a ball or strike. Apparently, Sotomayor has much more than gender politics on her plate.

It was, however, admirable for her to mention how being a minority woman has been shaping her vantage points. Apparently, she was not trying really hard to be “one of the men.” She was aware of what being a female constitutes and she is likely to use her future position for ensuring equality among genders. Now the key for winning the election is how well she’s playing the cards.

Megawati, on the other hand, has not shown any specific stance towards the female gender and how being a woman is likely to shape her policies. We have heard some silly remarks perpetuating women as “passive feminine” and “the other gender.” For instance, she repeatedly said that she is just a “housewife” and “not a smart person.” For a presidential candidate, such remarks are far from intelligent. For a female presidential candidate, those statements are oppressive, which can be cited against her as examples of “female stupidity.” Those are misconceptions that we don’t wish to perpetuate in this fourth wave feminism era, in which separation of men and women is an obsolete concept.

Instead, Megawati should have been more gender conscious in policy making and in her rhetorics. She should remember that 57% voters are female and 51% of country’s population are also female. However, there are merely 12.8% women in legislative and executive bodies serving as representatives. On top of that, she should be aware that Indonesian women’s living standards were ranked 107th in 2007-2008, in between Palestine and Syria.

Megawati’s father was Indonesia’s founding father, whose charisma still lingers today. However, we should not live in the past. Indonesian voters expect to see a female presidential candidate who is suitable for the tasks of 21st century. And as a woman, she should be more than aware of Indonesia’s patriarchal structure that has been framing opinions and esotheric ideas for centuries. We might live in an era where there are women serving as doctors, lawyers, engineers, scholars, professionals, entertainers, and politicians. However, it is time to look at issues –any issue—from both genders’ eyes, as male’s eyes have been framing almost all issues in society.

It is any statewoman’s duties to ensure that old separation of men and women is no longer relevant, as believed by Betty Friedan and other modern feminists. It is time to transcend it without sacrificing the “socially and politically marginalized.”

____
Jennie S. Bev is an Indonesian-born columnist based in Northern California. She can be found at JennieSBev.com.