The women's movement in post-colonial Indonesia : gender and nation in a new democracy / Elizabeth Martyn.

"Transferred to Digital Printing 2010."--T.p. verso of paperback edition

Includes bibliographical references (pages [236]-260) and index.

Part 1 Theoretical and Historical Background -- 1. Missing Images: Approaching Indonesian Women's Activism -- 2. Emergence of a Women's Movement: Nationalism and women's rights in Indonesia 1900-49 Part 2 Women's Mobilization in the 1950s - The National Level -- 3. The Promise of Independence: Women's Mobilization in a New Nation-State -- 4. Meeting Practical Gender Interests: Women's Organizations' Socio-Economic Activities -- 5. Representing Women in a New Democracy: Women's Organizations and National Politics -- 6. Confronting the State: The Fight for a Marriage Law Part 3 Challenging the National Level Perspective -- 7. Women's International Interests: Representing Gender and Nation at the International Level -- 8. Unity in Diversity: Women's Regional Interests in 1950s Indonesia -- 9. Constructing Womanhood in a New Nation-State: Indonesian Women's Experiences of Independence and Democracy Appendix: Examples of women's organisations belonging to Kongres Wanita Indonesia 1958

This book examines women's activism in the early years of independent Indonesia when new attitudes to gender, nationalism, citizenship and democratization were forming. It questions the meaning of democratization for women and their relationship to national sovereignty within the new Indonesian state, and discusses women's organizations and their activities; women's social and economic roles; and the different cultural, regional and ethnic attitudes towards women, while showing the failure of political change to fully address women's gender interests and needs. The author argues that both the role of nationalism in defining gender identity and the role of gender in defining national identity need equal recognition.

Originally published : Routledge, 2005.