Funding provided by AusAID Australian Development Research Award

In August 2007, the UN praised Indonesia for the promulgation of Law No 21/2007 on Human Trafficking, Law No 12/2006 on Citizenship (children from Indonesian mothers whose fathers are non-citizens have the right of dual citizenship until they reach 18 years old), and Law No 23/2004 on Domestic Violence. Nevertheless, development does not yield equal benefits for women and men. Important government positions and parliamentary membership are still strongly dominated by men. The incidence of violence against women and sexual harassment and crimes against women and the girl child remain high. Gender gaps in education and wages persist and there are many laws that contain disadvantageous gender biases. An important new consideration is the rise of fundamentalist Islam and its impact on young people and the implementation of Syariah law restricting women's mobility in more than 56 districts in Indonesia.

The formal education system (K-12 curricula) provides an excellent opportunity to promote gender equality and reproductive health and rights among the rising generations. Integration of an understanding of gender equality into school curricula would directly address the inequitable values being supported by the conservative forces of fundamentalist religion and patriarchal value systems. There have been many small-scale research and case studies on gender in Indonesia but none have attempted to link research directly with the promotion of progressive curricula for primary and secondary schools nationwide. Investment in gender equality, particularly in education and health, can yield some of the highest returns of all development investments.

Dr Iwu Utomo was the lead investigator of a team of researchers from the Australian National University, the Islamic State University (Jakarta), and Hassanudin University (South Sulawesi). The study was divided into two phases. The first phase evaluated core school books used in primary and secondary school and analysed whether the material provided was gender sensitive and whether any of the books included information on reproductive health issues. The second phase involved a survey of school students to ascertain their level of understanding of gender issues and reproductive health as well as in-depth interviews with policy makers, program implementers, school teachers, parents and NGO activists on these issues.

Throughout both phases, government institutions responsible for gender and reproductive health issues were contacted and included in the research process developemnt.

The outcome of this research was gender-sensitive curriculum design materials that can be integrated into the national and local curricula for primary and secondary education.

Researchers

• Dr Iwu Dwisetyani Utomo (Lead Research), Fellow, ANU School of Demography
• Prof Peter McDonald, Emertius Professor, ANU School of Demography
• Dr Ariane Utomo, Research Fellow, ANU College of Asia and the Pacific

Indonesia Collaborators

• Dr Ida Rosyidah, UIN Jakarta
• Heru Suparno, Centre for Health Research, University of Indonesia

Publications

Articles

Utomo, I. D., McDonald, P., Reimondos, A., Utomo, A., & Hull, T. H. (2013). Do primary students understand how pregnancy can occur? A comparison of students in Jakarta, West Java, West Nusa Tenggara and South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Sex Education, (ahead-of-print), 1-15.

Policy briefs

1. Iwu Dwisetyani Utomo and Peter McDonald
   Gender depiction in Indonesian Primary and secondary school textbooks: The way forward (PDF 1.1MB), 2011
   Indonesian version (PDF 909KB)
2. Iwu Dwisetyani Utomo, Peter McDonald and Terence Hull
   Improving reproductive health education in the Indonesian National Curriculum (PDF 235KB), 2011
   Indonesian version (PDF 259KB)
3. Iwu Dwisetyani Utomo, Peter McDonald, Terence Hull, Anna Reimondos, and Ariane Utomo
   The positive impact of reproductive health and HIV and AIDS education in primary and secondary schools: Evidence from Jakarta, West Java, West Nusa Tenggara, and South Sulawesi (PDF 690KB), 2012
   Indonesian version (PDF 705KB)
4. Ida Rosyidah and Iwu Dwisetyani Utomo
   Gender and Islam, 2012
   Indonesian version (PDF 1.13MB)
5. Iwu Dwisetyani Utomo, Peter McDonald, Terence Hull, Ariane Utomo, and Anna Reimondos
   Understanding of domestic violence: Evidence from a school based survey of Grade 6 and Grade 12 students in Jakarta, West Java, West Nusa Tenggara, and South Sulawesi (PDF 1.1MB), 2012
6. Iwu Dwisetyani Utomo, Peter McDonald, Terence Hull, Ariane Utomo and Anna Reimondos
   Understanding of sexual harassment among Year 6 and Year 12 students in Jakarta, West Java, West Nusa Tenggara and South Sulawesi (PDF 1.2MB), 2012
7. Ariane Utomo, Iwu Dwisetyani Utomo, Anna Reimondos and Peter McDonald
   Attitudes to gender roles among school students (PDF 1MB), 2012
8. Iwu Dwisetyani Utomo, Peter McDonald, Terence Hull, Ariane Utomo, and Vu Son
   The Impact of Domestic Gender Roles on the Gender Egalitarian Attitudes of Children (PDF 702KB), 2015

Papers

1. Iwu Dwisetyani Utomo, Peter McDonald, Terence Hull, Ida Rosyidah, Tati Hattimah, Nurul Ilmi Idrus, Saparinah Sadli and Jamhari Makruf
   Gender depiction in Indonesian school text books: Progress or deterioration (PDF 980KB), 2011
2. Iwu Dwisetyani Utomo, Peter McDonald, Terence Hull, Wienta Diarsvitri, Saparinah Sadli, Ida Rosyidah, Tati Hattimah, Nurul Ilmi Idrus and Jamhari Makruf
   What are they learning: Lessons about reproductive health in Indonesia primary and secondary school textbooks (PDF 960KB), 2011

Posters

• Iwu Dwisetyani Utomo, Peter McDonald, Terence Hull, Wienta Diarsvitri and Ida Rosyidah,
  'Are children learning enough HIV and AIDS knowledge from Indonesian school textbooks?'(PDF 251KB) Poster presented at the 20th World Congress for Sexual Health, Glasgow, 12-16 June 2011.
• Father’s Involvement in Household Tasks and Students’ Attitude to Gender Roles (PDF 363KB) Poster presented at the 3rd Asian Population Association Conference, Kuala Lumpur, 27-30 July 2015.