Perception, Attitude And Perspective Of Women Towards Social, Culture And Political Organization

Abstract

Gender is very interesting issue to study, particularly the representation of women in politics. The representation of women in the political process becomes a necessity that can not be avoided in order to bring democracy and accommodating the women's interests. This research aims to analyze the perceptions, behavior, attitude and outlook of women towards social, culture and political organization at the village level. This research is a descriptive-analytical study that applies qualitative approach. The location of this research is in Sidokare and Kedungbanteng Village, Sidoarjo, Indonesia. The data are collected through in-depth interviews, observation, and documentation. Determination of informant using purposive sampling method with snowball technique. In this study, key informants were female activists. From the key informants, the supporting informants are members of Badan Pembangunan Desa (BPD), village head, community leaders, and female residents. Data analysis techniques using interactive models according to Miles and Huberman consists of data reduction, data presentation and data analysis / verification. The findings show that women have always played an active role and contribution in the field of social, economic, and culture to the community through various activities. But, in the political field, woman still hard to participate. The lack of women's participation in policy formulation caused by several factors such as tradition, culture, mindset, internal factors, lack of ability which indicates the assumption that women are weak with less responsibility.

Keywords: Gender StereotypesWomen’s PoliticalWomen’s Perspective

Introduction

The proportion of women more than men shows the greater proportion of women's interest in public policy-making processes. The representation of women in the political process becomes an unavoidable necessity in order to realize the democratization and accommodating of various interests of women themselves. However, the existence of roles / functions of men and women as citizens to get equal opportunity in political participation emerge a question, in fact, Women only occupy their domestic territory which far from political life. Women are seen only able and have to take care of internal family problems, while men hold external family affairs.

The phenomenon describes the existence of women in politics more discriminated and marginalized, while public policy is a process that expresses and accommodates various interests. Representation, participation and information become an important part of policy making. Given the condition of women who have not been in the proper place in the area of policy makers, especially at the village level. There is Law Number 8 Year 2012 on General Elections which requires 30% of women's representation in the legislature, or in the sense that women have the right to engage in public policy formulation (Internasional, Rekonstruksi, & Pembangunan, 1966).

Furthermore, Gender is different from sex. Gender, as a term, distinguishes gender-specific roles attributed to men and women in society. The problem is the division of roles in everyday life is not built based on biological criteria (sex), but by setting the structural conditions, culture and norms. Because the role of gender and hierarchy is based on the construction of culture and depends on the situation of the social structure, when the social structure is different it will be different in the role and hierarchy of its role. In the sociobiologist's view, men in primitive societies predominate women, even the existing high culture institutionalizes such dominance. Thus, genetics is the cause of the regularity of applying the male pattern of excellence and female submissiveness. Male genetic dominance became the basis and reference of sexual roles from the past to the present (Ilich, 1982).

Noor cited from (Supardjaja, 2006) also said that gender issues are a structural phenomenon, because:

• Behavior tends to be patterned

• Women are considered as elements of a system that has a function role and a specific focus, namely in the domestic sector.

• Relating to the phenomenon of gender stratification based on the structure of triangulation (household structure, economy, and social).

In relation to the effort to understand women's political life as a whole, it is necessary to pay attention to the broader model of explanation than just stereotyped explanation (stereotype), an explanation that only sees women as passive individuals as theoretical theorists of macro sociology. Gender, in such studies, becomes 'the subject of analysis', which 'can be changed', and simultaneously as 'part of the process of change'. Therefore, this research should be done using a model of micro-analysis with phenomenological perspective with the basic principles of gender perspective methodology. Especially if the research is to be followed up with policy interventions or activities continued to women.

Moreover, women and politics are two very distant things, especially in a developing country like Indonesia that is still attached to patriarchal culture (Sutinah, 2006). This can be seen from the existence of women in the position of leaders and decision makers. Public recognition of men as root in politics. This recognition occurs because men as heads of families, so that their wives and children also represent their political aspirations through their father or husband. Naomi argues that gender equality demands women as agents of change, a potential agent for change with many human resources (Sutinah, 2006). The phenomenon of women's role in the public sphere (including politics), especially in the position of leaders (decision makers) in some countries that women in the public sphere showed better performance and career achievement than men who viewed from personal characteristics possessed by gender (Sutinah, 2006).

Problem Statement

Women's participation in public policy making process is important to be observed because women have the potential to participate in developing nations intelligence through activities in the institutions it participates. At the village level there are several institutions and organizations that involve the role of women such as Pembinaan Kesejahteraan Keluarga (PKK), Aisyiyah, Fatayat NU . However, the current condition and existence of women does not yet have the power to enter the Badan Pembangunan Desa (BPD) , which is the institution authorized in the formulation of public policy at the village level. This is because internal conditions (women's perceptions) in addition to external conditions (male and community perceptions) still place women for not having the opportunity to involve in public policy-making processes at the village level.

Research Questions

What are the perceptions and attitude of women towards social, culture and political organization at the village level.

Purpose of the Study

This research aims to analyze the perceptions, behavior, attitude and perspective of women towards social, culture and political organization at the village level.

Research Methods

This research is a descriptive-analytical study that applies qualitative approach. The location of this research is in Sidokare and Kedungbanteng Village, Sidoarjo, Indonesia. The data are collected through in-depth interviews, observation, and documentation. Determination of informant using purposive sampling method with snowball technique. In this study, key informants were female activists. From the key informants, the supporting informants are members of Badan Pembangunan Desa (BPD), village heads, community leaders, and female residents. Data collection techniques were conducted through interviews, observation and documentation. Data analysis techniques were interactive models according to (Matthew and Huberman, 1994). The data analysis consists of data reduction, data presentation and data analysis / verification.

Results and Findings

The existence of women's organizations both directly and indirectly play a role in society. Women's organizations as a forum for women to contribute in society. The contribution of women's organizations can be seen from the various activities undertaken. Activities undertaken by women's organizations are determined by women's perspective on the organizations in which they are involved. Women's organizations at the village level synergize with each other and work together, especially in social activities. In addition to social activities, women's organizations are also active in economic activities and influential in the cultural field.

Demographically, the number of women is more than men. But the role of women in the community is still very low, especially in the political field. Various women's organizations in the community which is actually media that can serve as a container to show the existence of women in society is limited to social and cultural activities only. Women's organizations at the village level include PKK, Aisyiyah and Fatayat NU . At the village level, women argue that the organization is only a place for silaturrahmi (gathered) so that the activities of women's organizations are more towards social, cultural and economic fields. Activities undertaken by women's organizations tend to lead to activities related to health and welfare improvement.

In implementing its activities program, women's organizations work together with villages and villages. There is a synergy between women's organizations with villages and sub-districts. Women's organizations also contribute to the village as well as the kelurahan. Unfortunately the program of activities undertaken by women's organizations has not touched the political field, only on the social, cultural and economic fields. Activity programs undertaken by women's organizations in the social, cultural and economic sectors because essentially women's organizations are formed to accommodate the political only so that women in women's organizations have a way of viewing that the organization is limited to that field only.

Actually women activists want to be involved in the political field, especially at the village level, although only oversee the implementation of development in the village. For example, women want to be included in Musrenbangdes (discussion forum for village development plan) and oversee the process of village development. Women began to understand that organizations, especially women's organizations, are a means to express an opinion and representatives of society, especially for women. In fact, the village officials are objected and not transparent in the development budgeting. In the programming, women activists (women’s organization) are involved, but in decision-making, women's organizations are abandoned and surrounded by various reasons. Women are only involved in the voting part of the election, not involved in strategic positions as decision makers. The village women perceive themselves as marginalized in the policy-making process at the village level (Rodiyah, 2013). Furthermore they have the opinion that their involvement in the political process is still at the stage of "support" in a manner, not in direct behavioral support / involvement.

In the social, cultural and economic activities of women always play an active role and contribute to the community through various activities. However, in the political field women are still difficult to participate. The interests of women's organizations are often unaccommodated, only able to provide aspiration without follow-up. Women's lower education level than men has implications for the low knowledge of information, technology and communication so that women are difficult to get into the political sphere. It can be seen in the Table 01 .

Based on the data it can be seen that the proportion of female and male members of the village representative office is not more than 20%, it means that women have not represented a 30% percentage in political engagement in accordance with Law Number 8 Year 2012 on General Election. Imagery of women as weak creatures, not independent, less internalized responsibilities in their mindset becomes an obstacle for women in the process of self-actualization. As a result, the mindset of women becomes very familiar with resignation so intentionally or not often exploited by male superiority. This becomes more complex because the activities of women in various organizational activities are still limited to solving social, cultural and economic problems only.

The results of this study compared with some previous research results can be concluded that the involvement of women more leverage in social, economic and cultural activities, but in political activities, women's participation has not been maximized and tend to be marginalized. This is because the political involvement of women is still in the form of attitude rather than behavior. Women's political involvement is only due to the imperative of democratic system which must be done in general election.

Conclusion

Women have always played an active role and contribution in the field of social, economic, and culture to the community through various activities. But, in the political field, women still hard to participate. The lack of women's participation in policy formulation is caused by several factors such as tradition, culture, mindset, internal factors, lack of ability which indicates the assumption that women are weak with less responsibility.

Acknowledgement

This research work is supported by Lembaga Penelitian dan Pengabdian Masyarakat (LPPM) and Faculty of Social and Political Sciences of Universitas Muhammadiyah Sidoarjo.

References

1. Ilich, I. (1982). Gender. Pantheon Books.
2. Internasional, B., Rekonstruksi, U., & Pembangunan, D. A. N. (1966). Lembaran Negara, (10), 2–4. Retrieved from http://peraturan.go.id/search/download/11e44c4e70a81f00af76313231343130.html
3. Matthew, B. M. and Huberman, A. M. (1994). Qualitative Data Analysis: an expanded sourcebook/Matthew B. Miles, A. Michael Huberman. pdf.
4. Rodiyah, I. (2013). Keterwakilan perempuan dalam dewan perwakilan rakyat daerah. JKMP, 1(1), 55–70.
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6. Sutinah. (2006). Partisipasi politik perempuan dalam proses pembuatan kebijakan publik di Jawa Timur. Surabaya: Cakrawala Timur.