One of the global manifestations, gender equality and women’s empowerment, began to experience a significant increase over the past few decades throughout history. This is shown by the increasing superiority of women in leadership positions. This change is certainly a form of reparation and consolidation of Women’s Rights Legislation.
Women’s empowerment is an important aspect to achieve gender equality. These include increasing a woman’s sense of self-esteem, her decision-making power, her access to opportunities and resources, her power and control over her own life in and outside of home, and its ability to make changes (United Nation, 2000; Musindarwezo, 2018). Thus, it can be said that gender equality is not just a difference between men and women, but focuses on the relationship between men and women, their role, access and control over resources, interests, and needs (FAO, 1997; UN Women, 2017).
However, fundamentally guaranteeing women’s rights and providing opportunities to reach their full potential is essential to meet various goals of international development.
The presence of female leaders in various development sectors shows the representation of women in contributing to economic growth in various countries, both in microeconomics and macroeconomics. The analysis of microeconomics aims to look at the level of leadership of women in the top management positions of the company, consisting of the chief director and c-level. Meanwhile, in terms of macroeconomics, it will look historically at the participation of women in running the wheels of government in both countries, Indonesia and America.
The table, sourced from ISS Analytics, shows the percentage of women who became managing directors and CEOs of large companies across the board in various countries in 2018. Despite recent advances in women’s participation globally, gender diversity among top executives remains disappointing despite some visible increases in some last year. In addition, there was no apparent correlation between council gender diversity and gender diversity in the C-Suite.
As can be seen in the chart, for women who occupy the position of managing director of the highest company, only 43% are in France and the lowest of the data is in Korea South only by 2%. As for the women who became the highest CEO , it was in Belgium with up to 10%. The surprising thing is that 3 countries, including Russia, Japan, and Mexico, do not have a female leader serving as CEO, which is 0%.
The United States entered the top 10, which is the 9th position after the Netherlands, with 24% president director and 5% CEO positions, respectively . When reviewed by area, there are 3 countries representing Southeast Asia as part of the country with the highest percentage of female directors and female CEOs. The three countries include Malaysia with 20% female directors and 3% female CEOs, Thailand with 16% female directors and 6% female CEOs, the last one being the Philippines with 14% female directors and 3% female CEOs.
In Indonesia, the number of women occupying the position of CEO is less than 5 percent, even though women who graduate from universities reach 57 percent. When entering work the figure becomes 47 percent, and it continues to fall to 20 percent when entering the middle management level. Meanwhile, no exact percentage has been found for women occupying director positions.
However, based on RESEARCH BY UN Women, 84 percent of companies in Indonesia state that there is at least 1 (one) woman on the board of directors. Indonesia is indeed trying to encourage the representation of women in corporate leadership, but there are still challenges that must be faced. (Dwi Yuliawati Faiz, 2017). By 2025, it is targeted that 30 percent of the Board of Directors (BOD) of SOEs will be women (Handayani, 2021). The next discussion will analyze how these projections will be able to compete with other countries or what actions the authorities need to implement will at least able to match the level of leadership of women in the United States.
On the scale of government, Indonesian women have been quite represented by the election of Mrs. Megawati Soekarno Putri as President of the Republic of Indonesia for the period 2001–2004, as well as several other women as the ranks of the president in the position of Minister. This is one of the things that is quite proud of. At the 2021 National Meeting of Indonesian Women Leaders (PPI) I with the theme Of Resilient Women’s Leadership as a Pillar of the Nation Towards a Golden Indonesia Lighthouse of the World, said the Minister of Women’s Empowerment and Protection Child (PPPA), Bintang Puspayoga said 3 that women’s leadership is in fact very essential for the welfare of the nation, even the world.
In the table, it is shown that Indonesia is ranked seventh with the proportion of women in parliament at 17.4%. Meanwhile, the House of Representatives (DPR) for the 2019–2024 period is chaired by a woman, Puan Maharani, with 575 members. This position is after East Timor became the country with the most female lawmakers in Southeast Asia, at 38.5% in 2019 at a percentage far above other countries , such as The Philippines (28%), Laos (27.5%), and Vietnam (26.7%).
In the United States, the unprecedented number of female candidates in the 2018 midterm election and the 2019 Democratic presidential primaries are striking examples of women who addressing the long-standing identification of leadership with masculinity. One hundred and seventeen women won office in 2018, including ninety-six members of the House of Representatives, twelve senators, and nine governors. Each of them is a record number, compared to the previous year. Among Democrats, female candidates are more likely to win than their male counterparts (Maya Salam, 2018). Hillary Clinton’s candidacy for the presidency is a significant step in the divisive, if not yet devastating, one of the hardest “glass ceilings” in the world (Center for Women and American Politics, 2018). And Angela Merkel’s deft leadership for Germany and the European Union has provided a model for women in politics around the world.
This needs to be continuously hyped and echoed, so that it is embedded into a new perception in society. Giving women the right to lead an organization or institution is a tangible form of women’s empowerment. The author hopes that through the comparison of women’s leadership between the two countries, it will be able to provide an overview of the position of gender equality and women’s empowerment in Indonesia and become an initial consideration in taking constructive steps to deal with the problem at hand.
So that through the solutions that Table 2 and 3 The participation of Indonesian women in government and parliament 4 may be obtained, Indonesian women feel more represented and fulfill the human rights of women can be well realized. In the future, Indonesia will be in the ranks of countries with the highest achievement for one of the global actions of Sustainable Development Goal 2030 5 together with other countries.
