Sociocultural changes and wider access to higher education are encouraging more and more Indonesian women to become scientists. They are as professional as their male colleagues.
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JAKARTA, KOMPAS – Sociocultural changes and wider access to higher education are encouraging more and more Indonesian women to become scientists. They are as professional as their male colleagues and some even say that they are more hard working and determined.
“Indonesian female researchers are as professional as their male colleagues and are even more diligent and rigorous. Many Indonesian female researchers have won awards, both nationally and internationally,” Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) acting chair Bambang Subiyanto said on Thursday (19/4/2018) in Jakarta.
LIPI has a relatively balanced ratio between its female and male researchers. Of the 1,711 researchers at LIPI, 936 are men and 775 are women, accounting for just over 45 percent. They are spread across 147 divisions and 284 scientific disciplines. The percentage of female researchers at LIPI is much higher than the global percentage of women scientists, which stands around 30 percent according to UNESCO.
“At LIPI, there is no rule that certain disciplines accept only men or women. The selection process is based on merit,” said Bambang.
Nevertheless, certain disciplines such as mechatronics lack female researchers. This is more a result of the lower number of women interested in the fields, rather than the field closing their doors to women.
At the Research, Technology and Higher Education Ministry’s Eijkman Institute for Molecular Biology, around 60 percent of researchers are women. At one time, the figure was over 70 percent. Seven of the 10 major research themes at the institute have women lead researchers.
Eijkman Institute deputy director Herawati Supolo Sudoyo said that the dominance of women in Indonesia’s scientific institutes often surprised foreign agencies. “One time, we wanted to collaborate with an Australian agency and they sent a special team to ensure that there was no gender bias in our agency. Of course, we passed. They were amazed that we have more women than men,” she said.
University of Indonesia anthropology professor MA Yunita T Winarno said that no gaps existed in the skills, persistence, opportunity, capacity and roles among female researchers in Indonesia and their foreign counterparts. “There are no gaps between Indonesian and foreign female researchers. Surely, there are no gaps either among male researchers,” she said.
Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection Minister Yohana Susana Yembise said that opportunities for female researchers was wide open because of the ease of access to foreign education through the high number of available scholarships.
“Now, it depends on our women to empower themselves with strong motivation and confidence in grasping these opportunities,” said Yohana.
KOMPAS/RIZA FATHONI
Yayuk Rahayuningsih
Pioneering researchers
Indonesian female researchers have made a large contribution in pursuing researches that benefit scientific development and in developing the people’s welfare. Apart from working in unpopular scientific fields, female researchers have also received high acclaim for their achievements. Some are renowned as the only researcher in their respective fields.
A number of women have pioneered research in several scientific fields. Yayuk Rahayuningsih Suhardjono, 68, and Yosmina Hellena Tapilatu, 41, are two such scientists. Yayuk has worked for more than 40 years at LIPI’s Biological Research Center. She remains the only researcher of Collembola (a type of insect) taxonomy in Indonesia, even in Southeast Asia.
Yosmina, who works at LIPI’s Deep Sea Research Center in Ambon, Maluku, is the only Indonesian researcher of the deep-sea microbe, Bacillus mojavensis. The microbe produces an active chemical compound that inhibits the growth of cancer cells in the blood.
Indonesian researchers have received numerous awards for their achievements. Every year, L’Oreal International recognizes female researchers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics with its Women in Science Award.
“The awards are given in fields where women rarely work,” said L’Oreal Indonesia spokeswoman Melanie Masriel.
University of Indonesia gender studies researcher Mia Siscawati said that, as people’s views changed and more women became interested in research, young female researchers would emerge in scientific fields that were commonly dominated by men. However, long efforts and hard work were still required to build careers in these fields.
The research results management and dissemination head at LIPI’s Population Research Center, Herry Yogaswara, said that he had never encountered any problems working with female researchers. “Since 1995, the research center where I work has always been headed by women. In our research group, the number of male and female researcher are relatively equal, including in [their] education,” he said.
Eijkman Institute junior researcher Gludug Ariyo Purnomo said that he benefited from working with female researchers, as they were generally more diligent, rigorous and organized. “Not all of them may be prepared to go out into the field. However, some men are also unprepared to do this. It’s more about personality instead of gender,” he said.
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