Momma's Academic Trip to Manila - Part 1

The great thing in life is that during times of changing diapers and breastfeeding, I was given a chance to have an academic trip to Quezon City, The Philippines, to participate in a symposium on Building Korean-Asian Network of Women's Studies. I presented a research paper titled: "Has gender knowledge in Indonesia influenced policies?". The paper is a fraction of the report on "Study of knowledge needs and supply constraints for gender research in Indonesia's knowledge sector".  I was the coordinator of the research team, under the supervision of the Graduate Program in Gender Studies, Universitas Indonesia, which is the academic institution where I pursued my Master Degree. I won't write anything about the research in this post, because you can actually download the research report here.

There in the symposium, I concluded myself that women's studies progress in Indonesia is quite better than those in Brunei, Malaysia, even Singapore. They are interested more to analyze women empowerment, than gender relations between men and women. The issue of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) is certainly off discussion in the countries. The governments will not approve any research or studies related to the issue. Thailand, on the other hand, is the most tolerant country with various LGBT studies. However, the State's protection to LGBT groups is still questioned.

I amazed by how Korean women developed women's studies, not only in the country, but in Asia. Ehwa Womans University has become the leading university that manages Korean Women's Institute, Asian Center for Women's Studies, the Asian Association of Women's Studies, Asian Journal in Women Studies, Ehwa Global Empowerment Program and many more.

Now I'm sharing you the best part of this academic trip. It is the tour to the Women's Studies Center in University of the Philippines (UP). I envy because of the completeness of the center's services: Master Degree program, research centers, library, computer lab, baby room for staffs who rear babies, etc. The center also runs a day care center on another block but in the same campus complex. It is mainly arranged for UP staffs who have babies under five, but also open for public.

In front of the Women's Studies Center, the University of Philippines

I'm so sure that such progress could only be gained with strong support from the university management and the Ministry of Higher Education. I envy this because the research in gender knowledge that I took just showed how weak the situation of women's studies centers and graduate program in gender studies in Indonesia is and how they got lack of support from universities and government. I really wish that Universitas Indonesia had an integrated center as such in the Philippines. When???  *daydreaming.