The Paradox in Women’s Political Representation in Indonesia: More Women in Politics, But What Changes?

The Landscape of Women’s Political Representation in Indonesia

Over the last two decades, Indonesia has witnessed a gradual increase in women’s political representation in the national legislative assembly, Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat (DPR RI), albeit with a slight setback in 2014. The average percentage of women’s representation in the DPR RI has ranged from 11.5 per cent in 2004, 18 per cent in 2009, 17 per cent in 2014, 20.5 per cent in 2019, to the highest figure of 22 per cent in 2024. Data published in October 2024 by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) shows the average percentage of women in national parliaments globally is 27 per cent, and regionally in Southeast Asia, it stands at 23 per cent. While Indonesia’s representation in 2024 is just shy of the regional average, its steady progress reflects notable achievements in increasing women’s political participation compared to many other countries in the region.

At the executive branch, while there are interests in headcounts to see the degree of recognition that has been given to women’s capacity and leadership, it is more meaningful to examine how the range of issues and responsibilities assigned to women ministers has expanded. In the past, Indonesia appointed only up to two women ministers to be in charge of traditional public issues such as women’s empowerment, child protection, and social welfare. In the last twenty years, however, more women ministers have been appointed to oversee strategic sectors such as environmental and forestry, public health, state-owned enterprises, maritime and fisheries, finance, foreign affairs, creative economy, communication and digital information, and administrative reform.¹ The increasing number of women leading ministerial offices suggests a growing demand for their intellectual capacity, leadership, and management skills. These appointments by the Presidents across administrations reflect not only a recognition of the candidates’ qualifications but also strategic considerations, such as their social affiliations and the dynamics of politics of retribution.

An Outlook of Feminist Policy Agenda and Orientation

The rise of women’s political participation in formal political institutions is the result of decades-long struggles for gender equality, inclusive political education, grassroots women’s empowerment, and policy reforms, particularly the adoption of gender affirmative action. However, increasing women’s political representation only tells part of the story. The struggle to increase numbers remains relevant, as Pitkin’s² concept of "descriptive representation" suggests. But when numbers become the primary target and sole objective, we lose sight of the principle behind affirmative action: acknowledging and addressing the structural marginalisation of certain groups within society. Affirmative policies are designed to ensure fairer access and equal opportunity for marginalised groups. More substantively, the struggle for better political representation of women aims to promote feminist policy agendas that influence and shape a fairer and more inclusive political system. With an increasing number of women in the legislative and executive branches, the question remains: How does the political representation of women in the national legislature and among cabinet ministers shape domestic and foreign policymaking in Indonesia?

Under the previous administration, which held power for two terms from 2014 to 2024, the issuance of the Anti-Sexual Violence Law in 2022 was a landmark achievement, particularly for civil society organizations focused on women’s issues, legal reform, gender justice, and human rights. The bill took over a decade to pass due to significant resistance, much of it rooted in interpretation of Islamic teachings that misconstrued the bill as supporting homosexuality and extramarital sex. The eventual enactment of the law resulted from the strategic alliances between female and male MPs at the national legislature (DPR RI), extensive media campaigns, and relentless advocacy and networking efforts by local civil society organisations.

However, the national legislature failed to pass two other long-awaited bills championed by pro-democracy civil groups:  the Bill on Recognition and Protection of the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights (RUU MHA) and the Domestic Workers Protection Bill (RUU PPRT). The latter has been stalled for over two decades, having first been discussed in the parliament in 2004 but never gaining enough support to pass. The RUU PPRT Bill is proposed as a legal framework to protect domestic workers in Indonesia who predominantly are female, underpaid, overworked, and vulnerable to various forms of gender-based violence. The RUU MHA, introduced in 2010 in the parliament, aims to ensure legal recognition of the indigenous peoples, particularly their rights to land, access to natural resources, and preservation of their customary practices. Both bills are fundamentally oriented towards protecting marginalised and vulnerable groups. Yet, despite an increase in the number of women legislators, progress has remained limited.

Despite having a female Speaker of the House and over 20 per cent female representation in the national legislature, structural barriers and male-dominated politics continue to hinder progress toward gender equality at the domestic policy level. Women’s political representation has reshaped power relations and influenced national policies, but it remains constrained by competing political agendas and conservative social and cultural values, especially concerning women-centred policies and those to ensure protection of the marginalised groups.

Furthermore, six out of thirteen working committees in the legislature (Komisi 1-13 DPR RI) still lack women in their leadership structures. Being in the committee’s leadership means having the authority to influence the legislative agenda, arrange hearing sessions on legislation drafts, and engage directly in substantive debates during the lawmaking process.³ Advancing political representation requires more than increasing the presence of women; it demands enabling them to hold positions of authority in legislative processes. The above data suggests that achieving meaningful leadership roles for women legislators in the national legislatures remains a persistent challenge.

Intersectionality plays a crucial role in shaping women’s political representation in Indonesia. Factors such as ethnicity, religion, class, and political party affiliation intertwine to influence how female politicians navigate their roles, often producing policy outcomes that do not always align with feminist policy agendas and orientation. The fact remains that not all women politicians would automatically comprehend and agree with feminist perspectives, where feminism refers to modes of thinking and resistance against all forms of oppression, exploitation, domination, and discrimination, particularly the ones that are based on gender and sexualities.

Feminist Geopolitics as a Perspective and an Instrument Amidst the Heightened Challenges Ahead

In 2014, Indonesia saw the first female Minister of Foreign Affairs, Retno Marsudi, who quickly emerged as a key figure in shaping the country’s international stance, serving in the role for ten years. Admittedly, Marsudi followed President Jokowi’s foreign policy orientation that promoted ‘pro-people, down-to-earth diplomacy’.⁴ Notably, Marsudi’s leadership as Minister of Foreign Affairs later coincided with the strong female leadership of Meutya Hafid, a legislator serving as the Chair of the DPR Working Committee overseeing Communication, Defense, and Foreign Affairs from 2019 to 2024. In the context of Indonesia’s presidential system, robust coordination between the legislature and cabinet ministers is required for effective policymaking and implementation. It can be argued that the combined leadership in both the legislative and executive branches significantly advanced the implementation of a feminist policy agenda and orientation carried out by a female cabinet minister.

During her decade-long tenure, Marsudi championed a human-centred security approach and gender-responsive diplomatic initiatives. A staunch supporter of UN Security Council Resolution 1325, she actively promoted the inclusion of women in peace negotiations and prioritised the issues of women, peace, and security as a cornerstone of Indonesia’s foreign policy. Her advocacy for multilateralism and commitment to inclusive diplomacy demonstrated the transformative potential of women in strategic leadership positions.

Under the leadership of Retno Marsudi as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Indonesia promoted the inclusion of women in peacebuilding efforts and negotiations, with a focus on addressing the gendered impacts of conflict and violence. She organised a series of events such as Regional Training for Women, Peace and Security and the Dialogue on the Role of Women in Building and Sustaining Peace, which supported Afghan women’s participation in their country’s peace process. Her leadership was also instrumental in pushing Indonesia’s agenda on women’s rights and human-centred security by focusing on issues of human trafficking and migration through the adoption of Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM), and worked to combat other gender-based violence. Interestingly, Indonesia’s foreign policy and diplomatic approach during Marsudi’s tenure has been criticised as passive and primarily focused on advancing domestic economy development through international diplomacy.⁵ However, such criticisms only affirm her feminist geopolitical focus, placing human security at the front and centre, emphasising non-traditional security threats such as human rights violations, social inequality, and migration—issues disproportionately affecting women and other minority groups.

In her final address as Indonesia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs at the 79th Session of the UN General Assembly in September 2024, Marsudi reaffirmed her commitment to feminist geopolitics. Responding to Israel’s military strikes in Gaza, she said, “Indonesia is and will always stand with the people of Palestine to attain their right to have an independent state of Palestine... We must pressure Israel to come back to a political solution for two-state solution.”⁶ As the world’s largest Islamic nation, Indonesia’s strong stance on Palestine reflects both popular opinion and Marsudi’s principles. During her speech, she also made another bold statement: “We have demonstrated that global leadership will never be attained through force domination and fear. Global leadership should be about guiding collective actions by listening, empowering collaboration, and instilling hope. This is what I say “Leadership … without hegemony”. These narratives reverberate the essence of feminist geopolitics.

Feminist geopolitics is an emerging cross-disciplinary field within political geography and international relations that refutes traditional geopolitical approaches by highlighting the role of gender in shaping power, security, and policy decisions. It highlights how gender identities, daily experiences, and struggles are often marginalised in conventional analyses of global politics.⁷ By critiquing the gender-neutral assumptions of mainstream geopolitics, feminist geopolitics seeks to expose how power is distributed in ways that disproportionately affect women and other marginalised groups. As a framework, feminist geopolitics emphasises the importance of recognising how geopolitical forces interact with both local and global power structures to produce gendered experiences of security, violence, and identity.⁸

At its core, feminist geopolitics critiques the traditional security paradigms, which typically focuses on state security, military power, and territorial defense as the central concerns. Feminist geopolitics scholars argue that these perspectives often neglect issues critical to women's lives, such as human security with its gendered power relations, social protection, and the lived experiences of marginalised communities. This approach shifts the focus from state-centric and militarised understandings of security to a broader, more inclusive conception that includes economic stability, health, freedom from violence, and equal political participation.⁹ By centring gender, feminist geopolitics challenges the notion that international relations and security policies are neutral or objective. Instead, it demonstrates that these policies are profoundly shaped by gendered power relations.

In this sense, Retno Marsudi’s series of diplomatic approaches, foreign policy orientation, and her final speech as Foreign Minister before the 79^th UN Session contrast with the militarised and aggressive security rhetoric typically found in traditional geopolitics, marking a shift toward prioritising the security of individuals and communities, not just states.

Following the inauguration of Prabowo Subianto, a retired army general, as the newly elected President of Indonesia in October 2024, at least three events signal the return of militarised politics and state-centric approach dominating the country’s policy agenda and orientation. First was the appointment of Sugiono as the Minister of Foreign Affairs, succeeding Retno Marsudi. Sugiono is the first non-career diplomat to serve as foreign minister in the past 23 years. Known for his extensive experiences in both the military and politics, he is a co-founder and the Deputy Chair of the Gerindra Party. Sugiono graduated from Indonesia’s military school and later pursued higher education at Norwich University, the oldest military campus in the United States. During his time in the Indonesian Army, he served as Prabowo’s personal assistant before leaving the military in 2008 to join Prabowo in founding the Gerindra Party. Sugiono is often referred to as “Prabowo’s ideological son”. His appointment as foreign minister also coincided with the absence of female leadership in the Committee of Digital Communication, Defense and Foreign Affairs at the National Legislature, where a woman had held a leadership position since 2019.

Secondly, the orientation program for newly appointed ministers and deputy ministers was conducted in a structured retreat resembling a military program. The event lasted for three nights and was held at the National Military Academy in Magelang, a location traditionally used for actual military trainings. Press livestreaming showed the arrival of hundreds of designated ministers and officials dressed in military attire with camouflage hats and combat boots. According to the President’s Media Team, the orientation included briefings and physical training sessions, with participants required to wake up at 4 a.m. for sports and marching exercises. The President defended this unconventional approach, stating that the ‘military way’ is widely used in the government as well as corporate settings to foster a collective vision, group discipline, and loyalty. Such an unconventional retreat marked a significant departure from past practices, even though Indonesia had had retired army generals as President before.

Thirdly, the proposal to convert the National Resilience Council (Dewan Ketahanan Nasional/ Wantannas) into a National Security Council, along with the Council’s declaration of the existence of LGBTQ individuals in Indonesia as a top security issue, marks another significant development under the new administration.

Such framing and rhetoric not only reinforce conservative social narratives but also reveal a troubling shift away from inclusive policy orientation. Civil society groups, including the Community Legal Aid Institute (Lembaga Bantuan Hukum Masyarakat), Konde.Co, and Indonesia Feminis, openly criticised the Council’s statements, arguing that this approach further marginalises vulnerable communities. This proposal—and the broader discourse surrounding it—signals a growing challenge for advancing feminist political agendas, as it prioritises the state-centric security frameworks and discriminatory politics over politics of care, solidarity, and inclusivity. With the exception of Aceh Province, there is no formal legislation in Indonesia that criminalises homosexuality.

These developments collectively highlight a significant shift toward militarised politics and a state-centric approach to governance. For women’s political representation, this shift poses substantial challenges. The appointment of a military-backed foreign minister, the militarised orientation of government leadership, and the focus on “state security” risks deprioritising gender-sensitive policies and inclusive governance.  

While the rising number of women in political representation marks progress, the challenges have intensified under the new administration. Women’s political representation must transcend mere numbers and percentages; the ultimate objective is the implementation of feminist policy orientations and agendas for meaningful impact. Despite a higher percentage of women in the national parliaments, fewer occupy strategic leadership positions within parliamentary committees, a disparity that undermines their ability to influence key policy decisions. This imbalance suggests a more challenging environment for an inclusive politics and policymaking processes, especially in light of the increasingly militarised and state-centric governance approach. Feminist geopolitics, both as a perspective and an instrument, is essential to advocate for gender justice and empower women in leadership to advance feminist political agendas and orientation. To achieve this, civil society, feminist organisations, and allies must work to ensure not only that women enter political spaces but also that they are equipped to challenge structural barriers and assume influential roles. Within Indonesia’s evolving political landscape, strengthening alliances and fostering inclusive institutional reforms remain critical. Without these measures, the increased number of women in the legislature may ultimately signify little more than numerical representation, risking the dilution of feminist aspirations and agendas in favour of conservative and state-driven priorities.

The opinions and statements of the guest authors do not necessarily reflect the opinion and position of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung.

• ¹ These sectors mentioned here are referring to ministerial cabinets since the administration of former President Yudhoyono in 2004 up to the current administration.
• ² Pitkin, H. F. (1967). The Concept of Representation. California: University of California Press.
• ³ See news.detik.com/berita/d-7623069/menteri-pppa-catat-jumlah-anggota-dpr-perempuan-2024-naik-tapi-belum-30 (Retrieved on January 4, 2025).
• ⁴ See www.rappler.com/world/asia-pacific/73758-foreign-minister-retno-marsudi-diplomacy/
• ⁵ See Iannone, A. (2024, Oct 24). Akankah Prabowo membawa kebijakan luar negeri Indonesia jadi lebih asertif? The Conversation. theconversation.com/akankah-prabowo-membawa-kebijakan-luar-negeri-indonesia-jadi-lebih-asertif-241580 (Retrieved on December 10, 2024). Also, see Lutfia, I. (2014, Nov 3). Indonesian’s new foreign minister: What does she bring to the table? Rappler Asia Pacific. theconversation.com/akankah-prabowo-membawa-kebijakan-luar-negeri-indonesia-jadi-lebih-asertif-241580 (Retrieved on January 2, 2025). See Parameswaran, P. (2015, Jan 9). The Trouble With Indonesia’s Foreign Policy Priorities Under Jokowi. The Diplomat. thediplomat.com/2015/01/the-trouble-with-indonesias-foreign-policy-priorities-under-jokowi/ (Retrieved on January 5, 2025).
• ⁶ See, Statement by the Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia
at the 79th Session of the General Assembly, available at www.un.org/unispal/document/statement-indonesia-un-ga-79-28sep24/
• ⁷ Naylor, L. (2017). Reframing autonomy in political geography: A feminist geopolitics of autonomous resistance. Political Geography, 58, 24-35.Naylor, L. (2017). Reframing autonomy in political geography: A feminist geopolitics of autonomous resistance. Political Geography, 58, 24-35.
• ⁸ Sjoberg, L. & Via, S.E. (eds) (2010). Gender, war, and militarism: Feminist Perspectives. California: Praeger Security International.
• ⁹ Enloe, C. (2014). Bananas, Beaches and Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics (2nd ed.). University of California Press.