O

2OO8 PSW-UGM; Hak penerbitan pada Penerbit Tiara Wacana

Women in Public Sector

IPerempuan di Sektor Publik]

Editor :
Reviewer

Dr. Siti Hariti Sastriyani

Prof. Dr. Hafeez-ur-Rehman Dr. Tom Hunter

Dr. Wening Udasmoro Sita T. van Bemmelen Jane H. Patten

Tata

: Letak : Perwajahan :
Penyelia Naskah

Elisabeth Sakka Arismantoro

Aye Z. Wafa

Cetakan Pertama, Juli 2008

Diterbitkan atas kerjasama Pusat Studi Wanita Universitas Gadjah Mada dengan Penerbit Tiara Wacana

PERPUSTAKMN NASIONAL R.I., KATALOG DALAM TERBITAN Sastriyani, Siti Hariti (editor) Women in Public Sector [Perempuan di Sektor Publik] Siti Hariti Sastriyani / Yogyakarta: Tiara Wacana, 2008.

vt + 778 hlm; 17 x 25 cm
ISBN

979-1262-20-9 (10 digit) 978-979-1262-20-0 (t 3 digit)

Penerbit Tiara Wacana

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Telp/facs. (0274) 880683 E-mail: yo gya@tiarawacana.co.id Anggota ll(APl

Female Civil Servants in Official Positions

Dra. Rita Rahmaw ati, MSi')

>><<
Background of Research The success of development carried out both by the central and regional

go-

vemment, the private sector and the society depends much on the participation of men and women as the agents and users of the results of development. Therefore, the participation of women and men must be equal, including the proportion to occupy official positions in the bureaucracy government.

The fact is that

in

several aspects

of

development, women lack active

participation despite the number of female population amounting to 49.9Vo (102.847.415) of the total (206.264.595) Indonesian population (the year 2000 Census). The female worKorce has not been fully accommodated in the nation's development, mainly in giving their share as decision makers in development. Participation of women in the legislative, executive and judicative authorities is still low. In the govemment, both centrd and regional, the proportion of women who hold official positions is still low.
Women still become the minority group in political discussion in Indonesia. About 50 percent of the Indonesian population are women. Nevertheless, the representation of women in politics is far below the figure. The highest figure for women representation in the Parliament was 13 percent in 1987. In the Parliarnent as the result of the first democratic election post the New Order, the figure declined to nine percent. That figure slightly increased in2OO4 to 11.3 percent. In other words, 62 of the 550 members of Parliament are currently female. This mears that women representation in the legislative authority is still low.
The representation of women in the executive authority does not differ much from that of the legislative authority. Data shows that 1 out of 6 Indonesian presidents was female (16Vo). One out of 30 provinces in Indonesia is also led by a female govemor (3.33Vo). Whereas at'the level of regency/municipaliry according to CETRO records, in 2001, only 5 out of 331 regencies and municipalities were

')

Universitas Djuanda, Bogor

572

WOMEN/NPUBLIC SECTOR

led by women, meaning that only 7.5vo of regents or mayors were women. This percentage may decline again in 2005 when the number of regencies and municipalities have reached 440, while there were no addition of female regents or mayors. (source: Muhammad Qodari, Deputy Executive Director, Indonesian Survey Institute (ISI), the Dar.ly Kompas,May 73,2005).

In official positions at rhe central Govemment, the gender composition of civil servants who occupy official positions is not proportionayunequal; male
employees who occupy echelon positions hold a higher proporrion compared to

that occupied by women.

For a more detailed explanation, the data of Indonesian civil servants (PNS) is specified according to gender and position, both official and unofficial, and can be seen in the following table:
Table 1 Number of Civil Servants Based on Gender and Position (as of September 2005)
GENDER POStTtON Echelon Male NUMBER 590 10,485 47,587 167,099 10,783 923,453 1,026,908 2,186,905
90.4o/o

Female NUMBER 63 9.6% 6.7%

13.5%

TOTAL
653 11,240 s5,031 214,447 13,878 1.896.406 1,537,213 3,728,868

Echelon ll Echelon lll Echelon lV Echelon V Particular Unofficial General Unofficial Total

93.3% 86.5%
77.9o/o 77.7o/o

755
7.444

47,U8
3,095 972,953 510,305 1.541.963

22.1%

223%
51.3o/" 33.2o/"
41.4o/o

48.7yo

66.8% s8.6%

Source: State Personnel Board, 2005

The above condition shows that the opportunity for women to occupy official positions at the central govemment is still low. This is understood considering that the quality of female civil servants at the Central Governmenr is still low compared to male civil servants.

At the Bogor Regency Government, women have begun to be taken into consideration in occupying official positions, as seen in the table below:
Table 2 Number of Civil Servants Occupying Official Positions According to Gender
Grade/
Rank Group Echelon
I

Male

Female
of

M+F
of

Ratio
ot

Number
0 18 130

Number
0
0

Number
0

0 26
155

0.00 2.25 5.20 3.56

126.00 137.00

Echelon ll Echelon lll Echelon lV Non-Echelon Total

69.2o/o

I
25
161

30.8%
16.10/o

o.2%
O.9o/o

83.9%
78.1o/"

574 8,934 9,656

21.9%

73s
15,996 16,912

4.3%
94.60/"

55.9% 57.1%

7,062 7,256

M.1%
42.9o/"

100%

source: Personnel Department at the Bogor Regency Government Regional secretariat, 2006

WOMENINPUBLIC SECTOR

573

The above data shows that the majority of decision maker positions are held by men. At echelon lI, of 26 available positions, 8 positions are held by women or about 30.76%. However, at echelon III, of 155 positions, 25 positions are held by women or about 76.12Vo, and at echelon M of 735 positions, 161 are held by women or about 21.90Vo. From the aspect of quantity, the access of women towards the public policy determination and their participation public policies in bureaucrary have exist but not yer oprimal.

in formulating

Considering the data of the lack of women who occupy official positions provides evidence that women are not proportionally represented in bureaucracy. Even though to involve women in organizing every public affair, including public decision making, one of the ways is by assigning women in official positions. The involvement is not merely to increase the number of representation, but rather through active involvement in influencing various forms of public policy making.
One of the assumptions towards the low representation of women in official positions is the socio-culture condition. Moreover, the regional govemment circle does not tend to support women, which is a reflection of an underestimating attitude towards the ability of women to compete in achieving policy making positions. The tendency has implications towards the condition of women in the regional govemment bureaucracy structure.

Probtem Formutation

On grounds of issues mentiond above, the fundamental issues discussed in this

research are:

1. 2. 3.

Employee attitude towards the role of women in development and their willingness to be led by a woman. Female leadership characteristics according to the viewpoint of policy performers.

Constraints faced by women

solutions.

to occupy of;flcial

positions and their

Resaerch Objective

Female civil servants have the following objectives sitions:

to occupy these official po-

1. 2.

To give a description of dominant factors that should be taken into

consideration by the Bogor Regency Govemment in assigning female civil seryants to occupy official positions.

To draw up an academic draft as a policy reference for the Bogor Regency Government in assigning female civil servants to occupy official positions.

574

WOMEN/NPUBLIC SECTOR

Resedrch Method

The method used in this research is a descriptive analysis. Research population are officials of echelon II, III and IV at all Regional official work units (sA?D) at the Bogor Regency Regional Govemment (consisting of 14 services, 4 Agencies, 3
Assistants, 2 Hospitals and 1 Secretary of Board). Research respondenrs totaled 60 Persons who were taken on quota and were differentiated based on echelon and gender which were chosen in random. The data compiling technique used was carried out through several methods which complement each other, i.e.: literatrire study, focused group discussions (FGD) and questionnaire distribution.

Resutts and Analysis

Indicators of the "female civil servant in official positions" research are as follows: 1. Employee attitude towards the role of women in development and their willingness to be led by a woman.

2. 3.

Female leadership characteristics according

performers.

to the viewpoint of policy

constraints faced by women to occupy official positions and their solutions.

Employee Attitude towards the Role of Women in Development and Their Willingness to be Led by a Woman
Women's role

in

development is basically influenced by two factors,

external and internal.

1. 2.

Internal factors are more related to the ability of women in giving their contribution to influence public policy making, Extemal factors usually tend more to be related to the social, political and cultural conditions that display gender unfairness.

There are two factors that influence why the role and status of women are left behind compared to men, which are as follows:

1. 2.

First is the intemal factor which is a factor from inside the individual sell e.g. women always have a perception that their status is below that of men; thus, they don't have the courage and confidence to advance.
Second is the extemal factor which is a factor outside the individual self, and the most dominant matter is the existence of patriarch culture values

which dominares the whole aspect of life in the family and society; thus putting the role of women in second place.
Those two factors eventually have an impact on the quality of life and role women in various strategic fields overall.

of

WOMENINPUBLIC SECTOR

575

Govemment
servant.

Another constraint which is said to exist in the body of the Bogdr Regency is the willingness of the performers to be led by a female civil

The attitude of the policy performers on their willingness to be led by a woman was measured based on 10 questions which required the respondents' response starting from'agree' to'disagree', which is as follows:
Table 3 Respondents' Response on TheirWllingness to be Led by a Woman
Agreement
No.

Question ltems

Male

Female

Respondents
1

Respondents
61.1o/o

I like to be led by a woman who is motherly.

I like a woman to be a leader, provided that she pos-

32.4o/o

53o/"
61o/o

sesses a combination of a good "Gentleman" characteristic/attitude and also a good typical female characteristic i.e. havinq a patient nature, firm but human. I like a female leader because women possess a supple and human female leadership instincl, carefulness, sensitivity, and patience. There is no reason for me to avoid female leadership because of her feminine and gentle attitude. An efiicient leader requires logic and feeling/intuition, facts and ideals, technical authority and the nature to love, help and cause harmony between each other. Therefore, to be a good leader, it is not necessary for a woman to imitate men and behave mannish.
I

26%

72%

4
5

35o/o

50o/o

79.4%

72.2o/o 23.5o/o
260/o

6
7 8

agree to women occupying official positions, as long

55.6%

as she is not my superior.

I agree to women occupying official positions, as long as she is not my wife/family.
I agree to women occupying official positions, as long as she possesses a much higher ability than men, but if her abilig compares to a man's, it is befter for a man to be the leader.

M%
44%

21%

I agree to women occupying official positions if she possesses a man's character and behavior, i.e. a gentleman nature: firm, stricl, no compromise, rational, independent, etc.

29%

50%

10

oppose to female leadership, because a woman by nature is a weak being and must obey men.
I

41.2o/o

66.7%

It can be understood from the table above that the respondents'opinion, both men and women have not fully supported women.

Leadership Characteristics of Female CivilSeruants

To assign female civil servants in official positions, it is necessary to have several considerations which enables the Government (Advisory Council for
Officiai Position and System of Ranking) to select female civil servants for a

576

WOMENINPUBLIC SECTOR

posirion having high challenge and responsibility. One of the considerations is to put forward the nature and characteristics of female leadership. Based on the results of the focused group discussions (FGD), it is understood that the opinion of both male and female respondents have not fully supported women, e.g. a statement appears that women by nature are not able to occupy ofEcial positions (to be a leader), because it is destined that men are leaders of women, MVo of male respondents agree with the statement and so do 61% of female respondents. This shows that female civil servant individuals consider themselves unnecessary to be leaders, because by nature it is men who become
leaders.

Based on the results

of the focused group discussions (FGD) and the

filling out of questionnaires, there were some good leadership characteristics shown which are femde and male characteristics. Of the many male leadership
characteristics (70 items) suggested and 44 female le -rdership characteristics, 10 characteristics mostly appeared were proposed by male respondents, while female respondents proposed 24 male leadership characteristics and 21 female leadership characteristics. Of the many characteristics, 10 priority characteristics were taken as follows:
Leadership CnaraaeristiE?in1"" and Female officials Proposed by Male and Female Respondents
ACCORDING TO

MALE RESPONDENTS
No
1

ACCORDING TO FEMALE RESPONDENTS

Andros
Firm Firm

Gynos
Wise
Firm

Andros
Firm

Gynos

? 3

Wise Authoritative lntelligent Honest Patient Disciplined Supple Fair Broad-minded

Meticulous
\y'Vise

Authoritative Honest Wise Fair Disciplined Rational Persuasive

Bold

Authoritative Fair Honest Meticulous Human Supple Rational

Bold

4
5

Patient Broad-minded Diligent Disciplined Honest Supple Loyal

b 7

I I
10

lntelliqent

ldentification of Constraints of Female Civil Seruants for Official Positions and Their Solutions To clearly identify what constraints are faced by female civil sewants in occupying offlcial positions, respondents suggested them through the focused group discussion (FGD) technique. Of dl the opinions conveyed by respondents, there were 48 identified constraints that must be faced by women to become an official. Of the many constraints, there were 7 items suggested by respondents that appeared the most, which is as follows:

WOMENINPUBLIC SECTOR

577

Table 5 Respondents' Answers on the Constraints for Women to Become Officials and Their Solutions
No
1

Constraints
Familv and household mafters The nature ofwomen being pregnant, having their period and delivering children, therefore ofien taking leave Unstable emotions (at certain times)/ emotional To think and behave based on sentiment (by nature)/sensitive Lack of firmness Averagely weak physical condition

Solutions
Time management To overcome taking leave by participating in Family Planning Must practice much and learn to be more focused, To control emotions Learn to think rationally To be outspoken/fi rm/bold Show that women have the ability to lead, have self-confidence, have a broad horizon and rational An occupation suitable to women's nature

4
5

Culture/religion/surroundings

Study results show that the opportunity for women to occupy official positions is actually quite oPened wide. Several respondents agree that women should be given the opportunity to compete with men to gain Position as an official without any discrimination in qualifications and treatment.
Nevertheless, the constraints that hinder women to advance is very great, especially from the family and the individual herself who is viewed by men as having the lack of giving optimal Productivity, e.8. because her working hours is occupied by family matters, not to mention taking leave as a result of her nature as a woman. Some respondents extremely express their opinions that to overcome these family matters, respondents are suggested not to have a family or to manage their time in balance, whereas to overcome the problem of matemity leave, they are suggested to participate in Family Planning in order not to often take

matemity leave.

Study results on employrnent regulations shows that in principal, discriminative rule formulation was not found normatively, so as to disturb productivity and the opportunity for female cMl servants to occupy official positions. Findings showed that the opportunity for female civil servants to occupy official positions have not been utilized, mainly due to the opinion that being a leader (official) is not a must for a woman and occupies much time, so that a woman
must sacrifice either her career as an official or her family. Even though being an official for a female civil senrant can be realized by managing time effectively and chrngng the paradigm among women themselves so that they would have more self<onfidence in believing that women can and are able to become officials.
The firm culture of the majority of society who consider women have the lack to perform in public space, besides the teachings of religion that is misunderstood, makes the struggle for women to gain justice and gender equality more difficult to adrieve.

s78

WOMEN/NPUBLIC SECTOR

At the time of the focused group discussions (FGD), some respondents put forward that the existence of gender justice or injustice at the Bogor Regenry Government is not known. Some respondents don't mind if female civil servants occupy official positions as long as they fulfill the requirements in effect. The situation where the respondent works is sometimes missed from
observation, whether there is gender justice or not at the workplace. Respondents generally never make a fuss about the issue in their jobs. This is an evidence of how the problem of gender is still considered trivid by civil servants at the Bogor Regency Govemment circle. Even though to demand the involvement of women in every aspect of development, minimally they should also be involved in every field of organization in the bureaucracy. The problem is that the majority of female employees at the Bogor Regency Govemment have a lower level of education than male civil servants at the same place. Besides, education and training on gender or gender mainstreaming are limited to Regional Official Work Unit (SKPD) employees who are directly linked to the gender mainstreaming program or women empoweffnent. As a result, some female civil seryants are passive or just accept anything that is determined by their job hierarchy. Female civil servants are generally assigned in certain fields or departments, as if reflecting the quality of femininity. This indicates the firm pauiarchal culture that still exists at the Bogor Regency Govemment bureaucracy. The domination of male employees also takes part in giving a negative image on women's ability to be involved in development. ,

With the cultural condition (linked with patriarchal culture values) which is also structural (established by the existing socio-political system), it is necessary to have a clear and concrete favoring action to reduce the gender gap in various fields of development. A strong political will is also necessary in order that all policies and development programs consider gender equality and justice.
One of the ways to improve the condition of gender gap is by increasing the number and also the quality of women who occupy positions of decision makers (occupy official positions), because in that way the decision resulted can actually protect women's interest and gender sensitivity. The priority and course of development policy which must be carried out are: 1. To increase the involvement of women in the process of policy making and public positions;

2. 3.

To improve the level of education and skill of female civil servants in other fields of development, to improve the quality of life and human
resource of female civil servants;

To improve the law (Regiond Regulations), making

it

more compre-

hensive to facilitate female civil servants in official positions;

4. To strengthen institutional, coordination, and gender mainstreaming

network in planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of various policies, programs, and development activities in every field,

WOMEN/NPUBLIC SECTOR

579

5.

including the fulfillment of inremational commirments, supplying data and statistics ofgender, and increasing the participation ofsociery Gender socialization among various walks of life, in order not to use religion :rs a reason to refuse the idea of emancipation, justice and welfare of gender. Therefore it is necessary to have the same interpretation, so as not to have an implication on women.

One of the ways to overcome socio-cultural constraints is to encourage positive socio-cultural factors, while the negative factors must be altered or eliminated for the sake of speeding up the implementation of gender mainstreaming and for the sake of the realization of gender justice and equality. Sociocultural transfomation is an effort that must be planned, structurized, intensive and continuous, so that a change in the people's mindset may occur, both in men and women, particularly among civil servants.

Female civil servants in the Bogor Regency must be able to release institutional ego and self-interest to dissolve themselves and struggle together within the scope of empowering the role of women in order to advance.

Conctusion and Recommendation

Conclusion

The opportunity for female civil servants to become officials is not at all hindered by discriminative institutional regulations or institutional policies. The mistaken viewpoint of female civil servants is what makes it less possible for the individual to optimize herself through various opportunities.
Besides the attitude of the female civil servant herself, the attitude of male civil servants also becomes one of the constraints for women to proceed to become of;ficials.

Normatively, no discriminative employment regulations were found, so that it greatly influences the opportunity for female civil servants to become officials.

. L

Recommendation
Based

on the conclusion, suggestions,/recommendations may be con-

veyed as follows:

The necessity of a change in the viewpoint on the opportunity for female civil servants to become officials by improving competence in each of their fields of study, so that the opportuniry to become officials may be achieved because of the perficrmance and competence possessed bn'
female civil servants.

b.

The neccesity to reformulate a more egalitairre work relationship with gender viewpoint.

s80

WOMEN/NPUBLIC SECTOR

The necessity of willingness from every Regional Official Work Unit (SKPD) to reformulate its organization in order to become an organization with a gender viewpoint. d. The necessity of an affirmative action (an action supporting the number of representation) with a quota system determining, certainly based on the potential possessed by the woman viewed from various aspects (performance indicator). Wittr the quota system, it is hoped that in the future the position of women representation in occupying official positions will be higher.

Bibtiography

Islami, Irfan (1994:18), Principla on the Formulation of State Policy. lakarta: Bumi Aksara.
Jakarta Jones, Charles, O (1996:49),IntrodrctiontoPublicPolicy.Jakarta: PT. Rajagrafindo Persada Dunn, William, (1999: 24), Evalwtion of Public Policy. Jogyakarta: Gajah Mada University
Press.

Wahab, Solihin Abdul, 1999 , Policy Analysis from Formalimtian to Implanentation of State Policy. Jakarta: Bumi Aksara. Wibawa Samudra Dkk (1994: L5),Evaluationof PublicPolicy.Jakarta: PT. Rajagrafindo Persada Mussanef (1992: 18). Employment Managanmt. Jakarta: Gunung Agung Moekijat (1984:286). Employmmt Managanent. Jakarta: Mandar Maju
Government Regulation No. 1 00, 2000

Nainggolan (1993:101). Civil Servant Management. Jakarca: Department of Education and Culture Gov emment Regulation N o. 4 3, 1 9 9 9 on Fundamentals of Employment

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