UNAIR NEWS – Kartini Day is a reminder day for all of us, regarding the extent of treatment and recognition of the government and society for the human rights of women in the country. The importance to understand RA Kartini’s way of thinking is a step to restore women’s representation.
To commemorate the day, Association of Indonesian Women / Gender and Child Study Center (ASWGI) Universitas Airlangga (UNAIR), together with the Women and Youth Development Institute of Indonesia (WYDII) and the Women’s Learning Partnership (WLP), collaborated to hold a symposium on Wednesday, April 24, 2019 in Adi Sukadana Room, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences (FISIP) UNAIR.
Prof. Dr. Emy Susanti Dra., MA., Dr. Wahidah Zein Br Siregar, Dra., MA., Ph.D, and Prof. Dr. Anita Lie, MA, Ed.D, experts on women’s rights attended as speakers.
In the symposium, Prof. Emy presented the topic of social-gender deconstruction in Kartini’s thoughts and its relevance to the present. According to her, improvement in behavior differentiated and based on gender needs to be considered, including determining what should distinguish women and men.
Dr. Wahidah explained the challenges and urgency regarding the vision of women’s empowerment according to RA Kartini’s thought in the political sphere. It starts with telling about RA Kartini’s friends, one of them was Stella, a white woman who works in Dutch post office.
“Stella is RA Kartini’s pen pal who never met each other in person, but the similarity of thoughts about women’s movement makes them close friends,” she said.
Dr. Wahidah explained the importance of a profession that could change society, both in terms of life changing or equality such as doctors and teachers.
Meanwhile Prof. Anita as the last speaker explained the thoughts of RA. Kartini in Ethical Politics and its influence. In the era of ethical politics, RA Kartini gained a lot of experience and friends in solving the labor problems in colonial era.
“Her specialty in fighting colonialism was written in a book. When other heroes struggled with arms, she dared to document and write the history, ” she said. (*)
Author: Wildan Ibrahimsyah
Editor: Binti Q. Masruroh
