5 - The Promise and Paradox of Women Judges in the Judiciary in Indonesia

Summary

Studies of Indonesian Law over the past two decades have been animated by one theme, law reform, and one question, how law reform is used as a tool for social change. The fall of Suharto in 1998 and the demand for democracy and the rule of law led to major efforts at constitutional and political reform, including significant court reform. Indonesia is the third largest democratic country, yet there has been no major study of women either in the legal profession or in the judiciary. Studies of the legal profession have focused on towering male figures and their contributions to advocacy and judicial practice, such as lawyer Adnan Buying Nasution or former Chief Justice Jimly Asshidiqqie. This does not explain the rise of figures likes Maria Farida Indri, Indonesia’s first and only female Constitutional Court judge, nor of the women judges in the Supreme Court, lower courts, advocacy and legal profession. This chapter interrogates to what extent we can speak of the feminisation of the judiciary in Indonesia, both in a thin sense of entrance to the profession and in a thick substantive sense of gender equality. The author considers the wider social and legal context of steps forward and backwards in terms of gender equality in Indonesia, and reviews existing legal scholarship to identify where and how women appear. In the Constitutional Court, the role of the only female judge, Ibu Maria Farida Indri is analysed, and the author argues that she was successful because she was considered to be a ‘model minority judge’. A brief outline of women judges in the Supreme Court and lower courts is also offered, acknowledging that women judges’ may not necessarily be any less corrupt than male judges, nor are they necessarily more sensitive to issues of gender equality. While some women judges like Maria are clearly trailblazers, the paradox is that other women who have entered the judiciary have perpetuated the system of corruption and patriarchy inherent in the courts. The chapter concludes by suggesting that any agenda for research on the feminisation of the legal profession in Indonesia needs to hold in tension both the promise and paradox of women in the judiciary.