Studies of women in politics have mostly been done within patriarchal socialstructures around the world. These studies show that women have many potentialopportunities to become involved in public life; as voters in elections, like politicalcandidates, and if successful as members of the administrative class or asMembers of Parliament (MPs). However, female politicians may be affected byseveral factors within the social, economic, political and cultural systems. Thisthesis examined whether the matrilineal social structure of the province of WestSumatra, Indonesia, influences women’s political participation in localparliaments. West Sumatra is dominated by the Minangkabau ethnic group,which has a matrilineal tradition that provides more opportunities for women interms of property ownership and non-household activities. It was assumed thatwomen who were involved in local politics would be affected by these culturalvalues.This research was a case study. Three categories of informants, femalepoliticians, community leaders, and voters, were interviewed to identify thestrategies and experiences of female politicians and the diversity of opinionregarding female politicians in this matrilineal society. Data was obtainedthrough fieldwork carried out from July to October 2012 in West Sumatra.During this period, in-depth, semi-structured interviews were carried out inlocations where female politicians had been elected to the local parliament.Additional information was obtained from 17 voting members of the publicthrough the use of a questionnaire. Secondary data were obtained fromgovernment documents and local parliaments, online resources, institutions, andorganizations.The study found that the matrilineal system in West Sumatra inspired femalepoliticians in their efforts to gain a seat in parliament. However, they alsoexperienced disadvantages in the matrilineal and Indonesian political system. Itwas found that the opinions of community leaders toward female politicianswere largely neutral and saw female politicians as compared to male ones. Thevoting public tends to have less knowledge about female politicians and viewedthem as not significantly better than male politicians. The study concludes thatthe matrilineal structure of West Sumatran society does not have much impacton women’s political participation and female politicians can benefit byimproving their capabilities in order to win a seat in parliament. Additionally,the Indonesian government might play a role in bridging the gap between lowand high-level political participation by women and develop ways to includeaspects of local culture such as the matrilineal system into its policies that relateto political autonomy at the regional level.
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