The Renaissance of the Indonesian Woman

The newspaper Indonesia, published in Baghdad, printed in its latest issue the following words on the renaissance of the Indonesian woman: There is not a single field of activity in Indonesia in which we do not find the modern woman playing a part — even in weighty government posts and high offices. In the cabinet we find that Dr. Maria Ulfah Santoso has taken over the Ministry of Social Affairs, and in the parliament we find, among the nation's five hundred and nine deputies, twenty women deputies. This number may not be large, yet it has begun to grow ever greater. The modern Indonesian woman has stepped down into the arena of public life and political life and has kept pace with man, side by side, in his struggle and in the achievement of common interests and the restoration of security and prosperity. And this is natural, for she is a member of society.

The Indonesian woman parliamentarian does not defend the rights peculiar to woman alone — she is, before all else, as a member of a party, subject to the party's discipline — but she brings forward various projects of reform within the competence of the government and the party, and exerts her utmost effort for the advancement of woman, for her revival, and for the raising of her level, so that she may occupy a distinguished place in the democratic world.