Isteri-Sedar (IS—Aware Women) was a women's organization established in Bandung,

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

in 1930 by Soewarni Pringgodigdo. It was a radical nationalist group founded on its anti-polygamy stance after the First Indonesian Women's Congress in 1928. The

Socialist Party of Indonesia The Socialist Party of Indonesia ( id, Partai Sosialis Indonesia) was a political party in Indonesia from 1948 until 1960, when it was banned by President Sukarno. Origins In December 1945 Amir Sjarifoeddin's Socialist Party of Indonesia (Pa ...

(PSI) maintained close links with Isteri-Sedar. But after the 1955 elections, the PSI felt that Isteri-Sedar had failed to mobilize women voters for the party and thus the party decided to form a women's wing of its own,

Gerakan Wanita Sosialis Gerakan Wanita Sosialis was a women's organization in Indonesia. It was the women's wing of the Socialist Party of Indonesia (PSI). Before the founding of GWS, PSI had relied on close political contacts with another women's organization, Isteri-Sed ...

. Wijono. ''The General Elections in Indonesia and the Partai Sosialis Indonesia'', in ''Socialist Asia'', Vol IV, November 1955/February 1956, Nos. 3-4. pp. 16-17

History

First Indonesian Women's Congress in 1928

The First

Indonesian Women's Congress The Indonesian Women's Congress ( id, Kongres Wanita Indonesia), often known by its Indonesian acronym Kowani, is a federation of Indonesian women's organizations which was founded in 1946. Its headquarters are located in Jakarta. The name also re ...

held on 22 December 1928 in Yogyakarta brought together various women's organizations from all over Indonesia to discuss gender issues. As Elizabeth Martyn describes, this was the first collective effort to organize around a formal agenda—marking the beginning of the women's movement in Indonesia. The first congress concluded with the formation of the Perikatan Perempuan Isteri Indonesia (PPII/Federation of Indonesian Women's Organizations) consisting of twenty organizations. IS refused to join PPII due to disagreements over their approaches to issues of national independence, polygamy, prostitution, matrimonial legislation, and the like.

History

First Indonesian Women's Congress in 1928

References

Further reading