The Strides and Stumbles of Women Parliamentary Candidates

The General Election Committee (KPU) has recently announced the parliamentary candidate list (daftar calon tetap) for the 2024 election. Indonesia enforces an affirmative action policy requiring political parties to ensure that at least 30 per cent of their candidates are women, and despite women constituting approximately half of the population, women’s representation in Indonesia’s national parliament stands at 21%.

For the upcoming 2024 elections, women comprise 37.13% of the candidates. The critical question is how these candidates will perform. What obstacles do women encounter when running for parliamentary positions? Where does the primary barrier to women’s representation lie: is it with the voters (demand) or with the political parties (supply)?

My investigation into women’s representation in Indonesia began in 2017 while pursuing my Master’s degree at the London School of Economics. In an unexpected turn of events, my academic research transitioned into first-hand experience when I became a parliamentary candidate in the 2019 election. Despite not being elected, the defeat prompted a renewed exploration through a research collaboration with the Women’s Wing of the Golkar Party, supported by funding from the Westminster Foundation for Democracy. What I will present is a mix of quantitative analysis, based on a dataset compiled from thousands of election documents, coupled with personal anecdotes from my experience as a female candidate.

📆 : Saturday, 11 November 2023
⏰ : 11.00-12.00 BST
🌐 : https://universityofleeds.zoom.us/j/86830899451