Indonesia’s new President Joko Widodo has announced his working Cabinet and when it comes to gender representation it puts Australia’s to shame. The Sydney Morning Herald reports that 8 women feature in the group of 34, who are due to be inaugurated on Monday, which comprises a mix of professional, technocratic and political appointments.
Australia’s single female representative in Cabinet, Julie Bishop, will be joined by another female foreign minister. Retno Marsudi, who is the Indonesian ambassador to the Netherlands and has some familiarity with Australia, will assume the role as foreign minister, the first female to hold the position in Indonesia’s history.
Retno spent her first overseas posting in Canberra between 1990 and 1994 which proved to be a memorable and tumultuous time due to tensions in East Timor. “It was truly a challenging time for Indonesian diplomats in Australia,” Ms Retno explained in an interview with women’s newspaper Nova. “It ranged from threats and blockades to working out what to say to the media, the people and the Australian Government.”
In percentage terms that means women boasts 23.5% of the positions in our Asia-Pacific neighbour’s top level government group; by way of contrast here in Australia women currently hold 5% of the power in Cabinet. Indonesia’s cabinet hardly reflects gender parity but 23.5% is a considerable improvement on 5%. Isn’t it time the government addressed this?