[:id]Women Emancipation[:]

[:id]

By Tania Esmara (10 Level B)

   Now we all know that women needs to be respected as much as men such as; gaining enough profit from the same job, getting into the job it self, and so on. In most countries, including Indonesia, women are allowed to do the same (not all) jobs as men. Sadly, in parts of the world many women are not fully educated and are not allowed work.

In Indonesia, it’s not always like this in the early 1800s. Like other countries, Indonesian women are not educated and are forced to work at home and taking care of their kids. But not until a woman named Raden Adjeng Kartini, also sometimes known as Raden Ayu Kartini,  who was born on the 21^st of April 1879. Kartini was the first women in Indonesia who was a prominent Indonesian national heroine from Java. She was also a pioneer in the area of education for girls and women’s rights for Indonesians.

She attended the Dutch language  primary school, and was aspired by her father. Sadly though, she couldn’t continue her education because she and other girls in Indonesia at that time are unable to study. Kartini’s family did allow her to study Dutch until she was 12 years old, but after that she was not allowed anymore. Kartini's parents arranged her marriage to Joyodiningrat, the Regency Chief of Rembang, who already had three wives. She was married on the 12th of November 1903. This was against Kartini's wishes, but she acquiesced to appease her ailing father. Her husband understood Kartini's aims and allowed her to establish a school for women in the east porch of the Rembang Regency Office complex. Kartini's only son was born on 13 September 1904. Sadly, she died on the 17^th of September 1904 because of childbirth.

In 1964, President Sukarno declared R.A. Kartini's birth date, 21 April, as ‘Kartini Day' – an Indonesian national holiday. This decision has been criticized. It has been proposed that Kartini's Day should be celebrated in conjunction with Indonesian Mothers Day, on 22 December so that the choice of R.A. Kartini as a national heroine would not overshadow other women who, unlike R.A. Kartini, took up arms to oppose the colonizers.

In contrast, those who recognize the significance of R.A. Kartini argue that not only was she a feminist who elevated the status of women in Indonesia, she was also a nationalist figure, with new ideas, who struggled on behalf of her people and played a role in the national struggle of independence.[:]