Women's political participation in Indonesia's 2019 election : what contributed to the increasing number of women candidates ?

Abstract

Although political parties have been able to meet the requirement that there be at least 30% women in the legislature, practically all political parties have confessed that it is difficult for them to recruit women to run for office, however, in the 2019 election, a phenomenon occurred where the number of female legislative candidates increased in all political parties ranging from 37-55% This research explains why this was the case by discussing two variables: the role of political training and the pattern of the selection process within the political process. The two questions are formulated First. how did training in women's political participation by multiple stakeholders encourage female candidates to run for office in the 2019 election, bringing about the increased number and percentage of the list of candidates in the election? Second, what was the pattern of recruitment of political parties' participants in the 2019 election in selecting female candidates for parliament? The objectives of this study are First, to investigate whether political training undertaken by Indonesian women resulted in an increase in women candidates in the final list of candidates. Second, to examine the influence of political party recruiting trends in selecting candidates that exceeded the 30% nomination criteria of women participating in elections. The methodology employed in this study was qualitative using selected cases. Based on these two factors, the objective of this research shows that studies of women in politics that usually focus on women candidates who win seats can also be looked at through women's participation at the candidacy stage. The research and results of this study are expected to contribute theoretically and practically. First, the theoretical benefit is the development of science The findings from this study show that political parties with women's cadre schools and training for women cadres have a significant stock of candidates, so they have no difficulty getting women candidates. In contrast, political parties that do not have a mechanism for educating women candidates find it difficult but are helped by the existence of training held by the government and NGOs, both local and international Thus, the increase in the number of female candidates is the break-even point between the high demand from political parties due to being forced by the 30% gender quota system and the readiness of women who have received training to become legislative candidates for political parties in the 2019 election Advocacy by civil society organizations (CSOs) for women's voices can be an indirect cause and impact on internal party mechanisms that are friendlier and prepare female candidates to be empowered and confident so that a significant increase in women legislative candidates in the 2019 election ensured the 30% requirement was surpassed.