Portraits of women from Indonesian classic literatures are quite pathetic, Mariamin from Azab dan Sengsara novel of Merari Siregar for example; she failed to meet her happiness and dreams to marry her beloved man - Aminuddin, due to local culture values and set ups that limiting women at that time (1920). She finally died due to sickness and broken heart.

There is also Siti Noerbaja from Siti Noerbaja novel by Marah Roesli who, in the name of paternalism, was forced to marry a rich but old landlord (Datoek Maringgih) and left her beloved man (Syamsul Bahri) instead. Those two examples (Mariamin and Siti Noerbaja) are the reflections of women condition during 1920 – 1930. A very sad portrait, indeed. But what about women nowadays? Are they still limited by culture values and set ups like Mariamin and Siti Noerbaja?

From a study done by Polling Center in early 2009, it can be concluded that women nowadays have very different lives and fates compared to those in Siti Noerbaja’s time. As a woman myself, I am so proud to highlight that from political side, woman candidates are considered to be more apt to people’s aspirations and have better personalities than male candidates. Moreover, the majority of female and male respondents (49%) also consider the composition of woman legislators 30% and men legislators 70% in our parliament presently is not enough – in other words; they want a bigger number of women in the parliament. The majority of the respondents also think that with women in our government, violence (61.9%) and corruption (51.7%) can be minimized and the government will do a better job (59.5%).

Meanwhile from educational side, the demography reveals that the number of women and men percentage in education is not very far different. In S1 or under graduate level, the percentage of men is 50.91% while women 49.09%. For the opportunity to have education, the majority of male (82.9%) and female (81.9%) respondents do not agree to a statement saying that a woman does not have to study high since she will end up to take care for household chores anyway. And about 60% of male and female respondents do not agree that a woman should only be a housewife. And a housewife is supposed to be the decision maker from the perception of function in a household.

There is only one ‘red’ report that can be concluded from this study; job opportunity - since 67.99% of male respondents and 62.47% female respondents still agree that men should be prioritized in job opportunities than women. This could be related to paternal system in Indonesian society that is still strong where a man is supposed to be the bread winner in a family, thus should be prioritized in getting job. Meanwhile the role of women and men in a family nowadays has experienced a little change; there are lots of women out there who now become the bread winner in their families and have to work full time out of their houses while their husband spend more time at home doing household chores.

Well, reviewing the whole report of the study subjected to find out the role of women in these present days, it can be concluded that the gender equality viewed from all social aspects is quite good. The roles of women are now recognized in all aspects of life, not to mention politics. It is a relief to say ‘No More Siti Noerbaja…’ (eky)