27 Mar 2014

Papuan women to overcome cultural norms for elections role

2:42 pm on 27 March 2014

An Indonesian academic says Papuan women need to overcome some cultural norms to get more involved in the election process.

Anna Lumban Gaol, from the University of Indonesia's Center for Political Studies, says the custom of men seeking political careers and women being housewives is hard to overcome.

The Electoral Act says 30 percent of election officials need to be women, but she says the law is too loose and not implemented.

Anna Lumban Gaol is running training sessions in Manokwari and Jayapura this week, and says 100 women are quickly learning the necessary skills to be observers at the upcoming national elections, but have to overcome cultural norms first.

"Women who also are housewives, they show great interest to become members of the electoral monitoring bodies but they also have to have permission from their husbands. This is one thing that a law cannot really address but a training like this is aimed to address this very personal but very political issue."

Anna Lumban Gaol