The leader of an Indonesian trade union that increased the number of women in leadership roles has encouraged the AMWU to adopt a similar goal. 

Vonny Diananto, Senior Vice President of FSPMI (Indonesia’s largest union for workers in metal industries), told a gathering of AMWU members in Melbourne in October how an entirely male dominated union leadership was transformed into a more representational body.

“When we started this campaign in 2004, 50 per cent of our union’s members were women but under the leadership structure, there were no women.

“With the support of the IMF (International Metalworkers’ Federation), we initiated a strategy to increase the participation of women in leadership positions to 30 per cent.”

However, as Mr Diananto described, the campaign was not without its challenges.

“At first we faced much opposition to this plan from within our union. Many men did not believe that women had the ability and time to do the leadership jobs.

“After the decision was made that we would increase participation, the discussion was over.”

An action plan was drawn up that included mapping of workplaces with strong female membership.

This was followed in April 2004 by a women’s directorate, created to work solely on the campaign. With a heavy emphasis on training and education, women members were turned into activists and potential leaders.

By 2011, all but one sector within the FSPMI had achieved the target of 30 percent of women in elected leadership positions.

Mr Diananto said FSPMI was proud to be leading the way amongst Indonesian trade unions.

“To have achieved this number and to be the only one in Indonesia with this level of women leadership makes us very proud.” 

AMWU National Secretary, Dave Oliver, said the experience of the FSPMI showed greater representation of women could be achieved at the leadership level

“The FSPMI started from a very low base. Yet in five years they were able to significantly improve the place of women in their union.”

Mr Oliver acknowledged actions needed to match words. 

“At conferences in years past we’ve formed nicely-worded resolutions about women’s participation. But unfortunately we haven’t always been able to achieve those.

However, he said within the last 12 months the union had made significant progress on goals to increase women participation and leadership.

“This year alone we’ve seen three state women’s conferences (in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria). These conferences are an excellent opportunity for women to learn more about taking on leadership roles.”