Women’s Representation in Banyumas Local Politics in the Perspective of David Easton’s Theory of Systems

The significance of women in public life rises as Indonesia embarks on reforming its political institutions and processes due to democratization. This study examines women's public life in Banyumas Regency, Central Java, in the context of cultural and Islamic values. Both Islamic and Penginyongan cultural values endorse traditional gender roles, potentially limiting women's public participation. However, these values also foster social harmony, community involvement, and religious ethics, which may support women's political engagement. The research data includes the number of women in public roles, their effectiveness in advocating for women's interests, and the interpretation of Islamic and Penginyongan cultural values. Data collection methods encompass interviews, observations, and document analysis. This study concludes by utilizing a sociological approach based on David Easton's systems theory that Islamic and Penginyongan cultural values influence women's public life, and political representation in Banyumas is multifaceted and shaped by various interacting factors. Understanding these dynamics is essential for crafting strategies to advance gender equality and women's public life empowerment in the region.

In Indonesia, women’s participation, particularly in parliament, has been intensively discussed in 2002. The extensive discussions continued in 2003 especially after the enactment of General Election Law. The enactment of this law is significant since it contained a provision regarding thirty percent quota for women, a provision which never appeared in the previous legislation. This provision is intended to increase the number of women in the legislature. This is based on the fact that in Indonesia the number of women is higher than that of men. The lack of women in parliament is perhaps one of the causes why issues about women rarely became a priority in government policy making. The significant number of women in parliament could be a way to articulate women’s interests in government policy making. This paper will specifically examine the implementation of ‘thirty percent quotas for women’ to increase the number of women in the Indonesian parliament. It argues that even though there is an effort to increase the number of women in parliament through electoral quotas, such an effort is not sufficient to increase the number of women in parliament. Electoral quotas may gain better result if it combines with the change of political culture and the change of government policy. In doing so, other actors such as political parties and the government should be involved. Political parties and the government should be more gender sensitive (women friendly) in policy making.

The number of women in parliaments globally has slowly but steadily increased over the years. In Uganda, this number has increased from two women at Uganda’s independence in 1962 to 189 women in the current parliament. To understand the impact that female parliamentarians have on tax debates, we analyse the contents of 72 tax debates that were held in Uganda’s parliament between 1995 and 2022. We then interview former and current members of parliament, officials from the Uganda Women’s Parliamentary Association and the Equal Opportunities Commission and representatives from civil society organisations. We find that most of the gendered tax debates are on issues relating to value-added tax and excise duty, with both female and male parliamentarians playing important roles in engendering these debates. While the engendering of tax debates can be traced back to the early 2000s, it was not until 2014 that gender became a more frequent component in these debates. In addition to the increase in the number of women in parliament, we find three other factors that facilitate the invoking of gender in tax debates: the introduction of the Certificate of Gender and Equity Compliance in 2014, the efforts of the Uganda Women’s Parliamentary Association and the presence of a female speaker of parliament. However, female parliamentarians are constrained in their ability to invoke gender in tax debates because they have limited tax knowledge and are sometimes constrained by political party positions.

The number of women in parliaments globally has slowly but steadily increased over the years. In Uganda, this number has increased from two women at Uganda’s independence in 1962 to 189 women in the current parliament. To understand the impact that female parliamentarians have on tax debates, we analyse the contents of 72 tax debates that were held in Uganda’s parliament between 1995 and 2022. We then interview former and current members of parliament, officials from the Uganda Women’s Parliamentary Association and the Equal Opportunities Commission and representatives from civil society organisations. We find that most of the gendered tax debates are on issues relating to value-added tax and excise duty, with both female and male parliamentarians playing important roles in engendering these debates. While the engendering of tax debates can be traced back to the early 2000s, it was not until 2014 that gender became a more frequent component in these debates. In addition to the increase in the number of women in parliament, we find three other factors that facilitate the invoking of gender in tax debates: the introduction of the Certificate of Gender and Equity Compliance in 2014, the efforts of the Uganda Women’s Parliamentary Association and the presence of a female speaker of parliament. However, female parliamentarians are constrained in their ability to invoke gender in tax debates because they have limited tax knowledge and are sometimes constrained by political party positions. Summary of Working Paper 199.

The article studies the legal issue of women’s political (under)representation in the Croatian Parliament from the independence of the Republic of Croatia to the present day, with a special focus on the ineffectiveness of electoral gender quotas as positive measures to increase the number of women in parliament. Namely, Croatia is the only country in the European Union that introduced electoral gender quotas by law, after which it recorded a serious decrease in the number of women in parliament. The Gender Equality Act in 2008 and Act on the Election of the Members of the Croatian Parliament (amendments 2015) prescribes 40 % quotas for each gender. However, not only did these quotas fail to achieve the expected result, but unexpectedly, the number of women parliamentarians in Croatia even decreased after their introduction. For every modern legal state and democratic society, it is very important to understand how electoral gender quotas work and how they can positively affect the representation of women in political decision-making. Care should be taken in determining what legislative solutions and political activities should be undertaken to increase the number of women in parliaments. The article begins by addressing the definition and terminological challenges associated with basic terms, and then proceeds to offer an overview and analysis of positive legal regulations on electoral gender quotas and equality within the legal system of Croatia. Furthermore, the article provides an analysis of the number of women in the Croatian Parliament across all previous parliamentary elections from the country’s independence to the present day. In conclusion, it proposes a thorough and effective redefinition and redesign of existing solutions for electoral gender quotas, advocating for concrete measures and activities aimed at increasing the number of female parliamentarians in the Croatian Parliament. Although this research topic has predominantly been explored by political scientists in Croatian academia, it is also a legal matter. Given the lack of research in the field of law, this article aims to address this gap in legal science. In addition to employing standard scientific methods common in the scientific field of law, quantitative scientific methods are also used in the study.

Purpose: The aim of the study was to analyze the effect of gender quotas on political representation in Scandinavian countries in Sweden. Methodology: This study adopted a desk methodology. A desk study research design is commonly known as secondary data collection. This is basically collecting data from existing resources preferably because of its low cost advantage as compared to a field research. Our current study looked into already published studies and reports as the data was easily accessed through online journals and libraries. Findings: In Sweden, gender quotas have greatly enhanced female political representation. These quotas have led to a higher number of women in parliament and political positions, promoting greater gender equality in decision-making. The Swedish approach, combining party quotas and legislative requirements, has effectively increased female participation and influenced more inclusive policy-making. This success highlights the positive impact of gender quotas on achieving gender balance in politics. Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: Social learning theory, expectancy-value theory & critical pedagogy theory may be used to anchor future studies on the effect of gender quotas on political representation in Scandinavian countries in Sweden. Educators and curriculum developers should ensure that textbooks and other educational materials represent genders equitably and inclusively. Education policymakers should establish and enforce regulatory standards that mandate gender balance and inclusivity in textbooks.

The achievement of the advancement of cultural globalization has spread to various advertisements in the mass media including one of Sari Ayu Ads. The transformation of Islamic culture has made one of the important changes in the representation of cultural values in advertising. The focus of this study examines the Islamic cultural values represented by ad text and how Islamic cultural values are represented through ad text. The approach used in understanding signs was developed by Roland Barthes. Roland Barthes interpreted the denotation and connotation of the Sari Ayu ad text sample. The results found that the cultural values represented in Sari Ayu's ad text indicate the value of harmony to nature, traditional beauty care values, modern cultural values, gender, social class, tradition, femininity, and history. The Islamic values contained in Sari Ayu Ads represent Indonesia in interpreting universal cultural values for the development of the world today. These cultural values are widely presented, especially seen in modern cultural values mixed with Islamic values in text and visual advertisements.

English Language Teaching (ELT) materials are significant as tools in facilitating a second language teaching and learning including for preschool level. Also, it is necessary for teachers to opt for appropriate ELT materials which encompass cultural and local identity to generate a meaningful and relatable context of teaching and learning. Nonetheless, most of the materials currently available for preschool education in the publishing market are foreign and therefore little focus on local context. It is more evident in Islamic preschools, as the ELT materials need to be infused with Islamic values to align with the philosophy of Islamic preschools. Hence, this paper presents and discusses a part of a study on Islamic preschool teachers’ perception of the Soleh English (SE) teaching materials developed in the attempt to integrate Malay culture and Islamic values with ELT. The study employed a Case Study design involving five female Islamic preschool teachers in the Klang Valley Region. They were purposely chosen based on their experiences using the SE teaching materials. The data was obtained through semi-structured interviews and triangulated with a questionnaire and document analysis. The interview data reported in this article were thematically analysed. Findings illuminated four key themes for each research question which indicated that there is an integration of cultural and Islamic values in the SE teaching materials as well as in ESL teaching. This enabled the teachers to instil Islamic and cultural values in their English language teaching in contribution to generate noble citizens.
 Keywords: materials, ESL teaching, integrated values, islamic preschool, cultural.

Many African countries have committed to supporting quests to include women in decision making platforms and many African national assemblies have women representation, however, the number of women representatives in parliament remain far from gender parity in many countries. There are, however, several notable cases where the number of women in parliament is relatively high, for instance, the leading country in the world in terms of women’s representation in parliament, is in Africa. The factors that led to such a high performance are analysed in this chapter along with other countries that have achieved more than 40% of women representation in parliament. The chapter deployed a fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis approach to ascertain conditions that are necessary for African countries to maximize the number of women in parliament. The configuration of factors that lead to a high number of women in parliament are constituted by a constellation of factors such as electoral system, type of quotas, quota targets, reduction of gender gaps in significant indicators and the role of political parties.

This study aims to determine the extent of gender inequality in human resource development in Indonesia against Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN). This research using secondary data from various relevant sources. There are five dimensions that and are important for measuring gender equality, namely economic participation, economic opportunities, political empowerment, educational attainment, and health and welfare. The assessment was carried out on Indonesia and other countries in Southeast Asia. The results of the study show that Indonesia has the lowest gender development index (GDI) score compared to the average in ASEAN. Then, gender empowerment measure (GEM) Indonesia increased slowly. The most striking gap is in the income dimension, where men’s income far exceeds women’s income. This happens because women work less than men because women are more traditional in domestic roles in Indonesia, where women are prioritized in managing the household. However, for political indicators, there has been an increase in the number of women in parliament, but the target has not yet reached 30 percent of the total number of women in parliament. This situation shows that there is a reduction in the gender gap in the economy and politics. But the number is still too small, it is necessary to increase the equally distributed equivalent percentage (EDEP) for the Economic Participation Index, Parliamentary Representation Index and Income Index.

Malaysia and Singapore and may be geographical neighbors, however, these two countries have not particularly experienced the same paths to the development of women"s political participation. Malaysia has seen a gradual growth in the number of women in parliament while Singapore portrays a significant increase despite a shorter time period as compared to its neighbor. This paper argues that economic growth and education attainment will impact the advancement of women"s political participation in parliament but these two conditions are not sufficient. The analysis suggests that economic growth and education together with a cultural perspective towards women"s social role and strong political parties" will to enhance women"s political participation will ensure better women representation in the political field.

Migration not only contributes to development through financial remittances, but also through flows of knowledge and through the diffusion of social, cultural and political norms and values. In fact, these more intangible contributions are more appreciated during economic and financial crises, as financial remittances become unstable or decrease in those circumstances. This paper, therefore, addresses the effect of migration on women’s empowerment in Turkey. The number of women in parliament in Turkey is chosen as a gauge of women’s empowerment and is explained by the emigration rate, the relative education of women to men, and a measure of democracy. Utilization of data over six decades from 1960 until 2011 gives the possibility that these series can be spuriously correlated. Therefore, the paper addresses the issue of spurious correlation in an analytical way. Spurious correlation is the risk of linking the share of women in parliament, for example, to the emigration rate when in fact there is no association. This study adopts the bounds testing procedure as a method to determine and to avoid spurious correlation. The results of bounds testing gives clear-cut evidence that women’s empowerment, the share of women in parliament in the present context, is related to the emigration rate, the relative education of women and to a measure of democracy. The bounds-testing procedure is replicated for emigration flows by destination country groups such as European and other core OECD countries, Arab countries, and Russia and CIS (Commonwealth Independent States) countries. Again, it is found that the share of women in parliament is related to the country groups with the largest effect in European and core OECD countries. The results are robust for the inclusion of asylum seekers and refugees in the emigration data. These results have important policy implications for sending as well as for destination countries, implications which are discussed in the paper.

The teaching process of Indonesian for Foreign Speakers (BIPA) at UIN Raden Mas Said Surakarta combines aspects of culture and Islamic values that are typical of Surakarta. This study explores the concept of glocalization in the context of BIPA education at UIN Raden Mas Said Surakarta, with a special focus on the integration of Islamic-based culture in the curriculum and teaching methods. Through case study approach and SLR (Systematic Literature Review). This research identifies effective glocalization strategies and approaches in Surakarta's local culture and Islamic values into Indonesian teaching. This strategy includes adjusting learning materials, using contextual teaching methods, and integrating learning resources based on culture and Islamic values, especially in Surakarta. The results showed that a glocalization approach that focuses on Islamic culture and values can increase students' understanding and appreciation of local cultural Indonesian and values. The implications of this research provide practical guidance for BIPA educators at UIN Raden Mas Said Surakarta in designing programs that are not only effective in teaching Indonesian, but also promote cultural understanding and practice with deeper nuances of Islamic values in Surakarta.

Values assist in shaping individuals’ moral. Ethical principles and integrity are the outcome of strong moral. Previous research highlighted those values can be viewed from western and Islamic perspectives. The objective of this paper is twofold, and they are (i) to provide a comparison of western and Islamic values and highlight the difference in values (ii) to analyze the application of Islamic values in an Islamic focused university in Malaysia, namely Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM). USIM has five Core Values, namely (i) Professional; (ii) Trustworthy; (iii) Efficient; (iv) Global and (v) Consensus. Islamic values have been found to also include a majority of Islamic values except for Power and Hedonism of Western values. This is expected as all community would want to instil good values amongst its community members to ensure the integrity and sustainability of its community in the long run. Islamic values do not include Power and Hedonism of Western values, because in Islam, Muslims believe that only Allah SWT has the ultimate will and power over life and death. As for hedonism which refers to worldly pleasures, Islam encourages the attitude of promoting mashlahah rather than focusing on worldly pleasures. USIM’s core values are much in line with Islamic values and it too does not include Power and Hedonism in its core values. Value of Tawheed is not included in the core value of USIM but it is embedded in its Vision. This paper has provided some preliminary analysis of the difference between Islamic and Western values and the adoption of Islamic values in an Islamic focused university being USIM. With the practice of Islamic values in USIM, it is hoped that USIM will be able to achieve its vision of producing “competent intellectual, leaders and professional based on the Muslim intellectual tradition, noble values of religion and culture for the universal good”.

United Nations as international organization issued an international convention to eliminate discrimination towards women, called CEDAW (Convention on Elimination of All Form of Discrimination Against Women). As the one of the nation that ratified the convention, Indonesia, adopted CEDAW articles that becomes UU RI No. 7 Tahun 1984. Indonesia agreed to prevent further discrimination towards women and implement all the policies written on those article. Unfortunately, the success and implementation of CEDAW is still doubtful, especially in political realm. The number of women political participation never reached 30% according to the affirmative action that is stated in Indonesian Constitution. The 2009 and 2014 general election showed that women’s representation in parliament in still low and not having significant change. The success of CEDAW can be seen from women’s political participation, measured by international indicator called GEM (Gender Empowerment Measure). GEM is used to measure shift and effectiveness of the implementation of CEDAW Convention in Indonesia, especially in political participation. This article concluded that CEDAW International Convention in political participation is not effective yet, considering the number of women in parliament not balanced with ratio of women citizen in Indonesia.