Change And Opportunity For Women’s Political Participation Before And After The Reform Era (A Case study of Women’s Representative of Local Parliament in West Sumatera)

Abstract

This article examines the involvement of women in Politics within two different periods in Indonesia. It is common to find the number of women's political participation across some countries that are lower than men. It can be affected by some factors including social, cultural and political situation. Before Reform Era, under Soeharto governance, women as Members of Parliament (MP) in many local parliaments in some provinces in Indonesia can be counted were few. It related to the number of political parties in Indonesia that were only three at that time. After Reform Era, it is assumed that this Era gave women's politicians greater opportunities to run for office. It is also expected that the political situation in Reform Era affected their electability that can increase the number of women's political participation in parliament and then will bring good impact on women's quality life through many women MPs and their public policies toward women. This paper uses the qualitative method. In-depth interview and observation of women's politicians who become MPs during two different periods have been done with eight women's politicians. The result shows that the changing political situation positively associated with an opportunity for women's politicians to participate in many different political parties, but only have less effect on their electability, public policies and women MP as decision makers. Keywords-Social and political change, women MPs, women's political participation, local parliament, West Sumatera