Women Leaders In Local Democracy In South Sulawesi

Abstract

From the 2009 to 2019 elections, the number of female legislators in the South Sulawesi Regional House of Representatives (DPRD) increased significantly. In the 2009 election, 12 women were elected; in the 2014 election, the number increased to 16, and in the 2019 election, 26 women were elected as legislators, which met the 30% quota for women in parliament. However, the affirmative policies in the legislative domain do not apply to the executive realm. The regulation that stipulates the quota of 30% for women only covers legislative elections; in regional head elections, the quota is not accommodated. For this reason, women candidates (political party candidates and independent candidates) for regional heads are less accommodated. In fact, in the simultaneous regional head elections (2005 until now), only one woman has been elected as a regent in South Sulawesi. This paper studies women leaders in local democracy in South Sulawesi, especially in relation to the simultaneous regional elections in 2020. The descriptive, qualitative research method is used, and the processed data include secondary and primary data. This research follows several steps: problem identification and formulation, data collection, data processing and analysis, drawing conclusions, and verification. The results of the study illustrate that the lack of emergence of women candidates as regional heads in South Sulawesi is due to structural and cultural constraints, which are still strong. Some conclusions were reached: (1) Regulations governing the election of regional heads have not been in favour of female candidates, even though regulations governing legislative elections are very pro-female candidates. (2) Political parties have not seriously supported women as candidates for regional heads, but they are still oligarchic. (3) The support given by the public to women candidates for regional heads is still low. (4) The role of gender-based social institutions has not been maximized to encourage women to become regional heads. (5) The patriarchal culture is still strong in the society, making women candidates for regional heads less appreciated. Several suggestions are given: The regulations governing regional head elections need to be revised to make them more pro-female candidates. Likewise, regulations related to political parties need to be revised in relation to education and political representation that is more proportional for women.