UNAIR NEWS – Universitas Airlangga Postgraduate School (UNAIR) held a guest lecture on Feminism Development and Women’s Empowerment in Fulfilling SDGs Targets . The guest lecture on Saturday, October 1, 2022, invited Prof. Aquarini Priyatna, PhD, Professor of the Faculty of Humanities, Padjadjaran University.

“I’ve heard someone ask, ‘Women ask for feminism, but why is there maternity leave?’ Those are two different things, right, one is a human right, the other is because it is a woman’s biological response,” said Aquarini, opening the discussion session.

She again emphasized that the purpose of feminism or gender equality is to consider two rights that can be experienced by both genders. “Cooking, to give a small example, is often considered a mandatory skill that a woman must have,” she said.

He continued that it is actually a form of patriarchal justification for the socio-cultural construction that occurs due to the non-fulfillment of gender equality. As a result, when a woman is not able to fulfill this justification, she will not be considered an ideal.

The importance of education

Reflecting on the case of sexual harassment recently occurred in higher education institution, Aquarini revealed the emergency of discrimination against women in education sector. “Not only in terms of quality, but also in terms of quantity, it shows that seven out of ten children who drop out of school are women, so we must be able to think that education can be an important agenda to achieve gender equality,” she explained.

To that end, Aquarini also added several things that must be done to promote empowerment of women in the education sector. It includes ensuring equal access to education, developing non-discriminatory education and training, allocating adequate resources to monitor education reform.

“We educate women (like, ed) we educate the whole generation because educated women will definitely ensure that those around them are educated so when we invest in women’s education, we will be able to generate much more substantial ‘dividends’,” Aquarini said. (*)

Author: Leivina Ariani Sugiharto Putri

Editor  : Binti Q. Masruroh