Women Who Persist: Pathways to Power in Eastern Indonesia

Longgina Novadona Bayo

doi:10.1177/1868103421989712

Abstract

In contrast to accounts that explain increases in women’s political representation by reference to structural and institutional factors, this article draws attention to the agency of women candidates. The number of women elected in the Eastern Indonesian province of East Nusa Tenggara ( Nusa Tenggara Timur, NTT) increased markedly in 2019. To explain this increase, this article highlights the remarkable persistence of women candidates, many of whom succeeded in 2019 only after competing in multiple prior elections, slowly building their personal political skills and reputations. The article also draws attention to the effects of positive female role models – showing how a female candidate in a gubernatorial race inspired other women politicians – and the positive effects that can arise from co-operation among women candidates. It shows that, despite the emphasis on male dominance and dynastic power in much of the literature on Indonesian politics, there are still pathways to power for women with origins in the grassroots.

Highlights

This article discusses advances made in women’s representation at the provincial level in East Nusa Tenggara (Nusa Tenggara Timur, NTT) in the 2019 legislative elections
Rai et al (2006) examine the quota provisions, Dewi (2018) identifies party nomination processes that favour family ties, and Sundström and Stockemer (2015) focus on socio-e conomic factors. Some such studies focus on local factors, including the role of local non-g overnmental organisations (NGOs) in assisting women (Drage, 2001), changes in social norms (Pini and McDonald, 2011), a trickle-d own effect from the increase in women’s national representation (Sundström and Stockemer, 2015), and the influence of female political role models (Baskaran and Hessami, 2018; Karp and Banducci, 2008; Wolbrecht and Campbell, 2007)
They often build an institutional base that is quite independent of their family ties, and are able themselves to enter in the ranks of a local political elite, albeit a party elite not a dynastic elite

Summary

Introduction

This article discusses advances made in women’s representation at the provincial level in East Nusa Tenggara (Nusa Tenggara Timur, NTT) in the 2019 legislative elections. This study shows that NTT women often enter politics as cadres of political parties and rise through the ranks at the same time that they are gaining political experience by contesting elections and participating in social movements As a result, they often build an institutional base that is quite independent of their family ties, and are able themselves to enter in the ranks of a local political elite, albeit a party elite not a dynastic elite. Research conducted for this article shows one key to the success of individual women candidates, and to increases in women’s representation overall, is their sheer determination to compete over multiple electoral cycles, despite initial setbacks In this way, they can slowly accumulate political experience and capital. Many of the women candidates who succeeded electorally in 2019 have either been participants in, or helped to run, several of these programmes, which can be seen as having at least partially countered some of the structural disadvantages women experience in NTT

2019 Election Results for Women

Result nominated

Conclusion

They include the following