Empowerment vs. meritocracy discourses in Indonesian public universities: The case of female leaders

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the tension between meritocracy and empowerment discourses in Indonesian public universities and its relationship with gender-related leadership representation. The recent emergence of five female rectors signals a change that allows women to undertake leadership roles. We argue that there are two contradictory discourses (i.e., empowerment and meritocracy), which are concurrently visible pertaining to university leadership. The discourse of empowerment promotes gender equity and women’s participation in decision making processes in universities in ways that highlight the historically progressive political agenda of empowerment in Indonesian society. In contrast, the discourse of meritocracy refers to achievement on the basis of individual merit, such as ability and talent. This contradiction is explored through interview data that illuminates the changing conditions of leadership representation in the Indonesian university context. This article makes three contributions to the literature. Firstly, it adds to an underresearched area in higher education in Indonesia. Secondly, it provides a different perspective and analysis of the relationship between gender and higher education by considering both local and international culture. Thirdly, the article offers an argument about the corrosive effect of meritocracy in any university, irrespective of geographical location and local culture.

ABSTRACT IN BAHASA INDONESIA

Artikel ini membahas tentang perbedaan pandangan antara wacana meritokrasi dan pemberdayaan di universitas negeri di Indonesia serta kaitannya dengan representasi kepemimpinan perempuan. Munculnya lima rektor perempuan menandakan perubahan yang memungkinkan perempuan untuk menjadi pemimpin. Kami mengemukakan argumen bahwa ada dua wacana yang kontradiktif, yakni pemberdayaan dan meritokrasi, yang terlihat berdampingan di ranah kepemimpinan universitas. Wacana pemberdayaan ini mendukung kesetaraan gender dan peran serta perempuan dalam proses pengambilan keputusan di universitas yang menekankan pada “pemberdayaan” sebagai agenda politik yang progresif di masyarakat. Sebaliknya, wacana mengenai meritokrasi mengacu kepada prestasi yang berdasar pada kelayakan individu, seperti kemampuan dan bakat. Kontradiksi ini diteliti melalui data wawancara yang mengilustrasikan representasi kepemimpinan yang selalu berubah di konteks universitas di Indonesia. Artikel ini membuat tiga kontribusi. Pertama, tulisan ini menambah literatur pada area riset yang tak terjamah, khususnya bidang pendidikan tinggi di Indonesia. Kedua, tulisan ini memberikan perspektif dan analisis mengenai hubungan gender dan pendidikan tinggi dengan mempertimbangkan budaya lokal dan internasional. Ketiga, artikel ini menawarkan argument mengenai efek korosif dari meritokrasi di universitas manapun, terlepas dari lokasi geografis dan budaya lokal.

KEYWORDS:

• Gender
• higher education
• leadership
• empowerment
• meritocracy
• Indonesia

KEYWORDS:

• Gender
• pendidikan tinggi
• kepemimpinan
• pemberdayaan
• meritokrasi
• Indonesia

Acknowledgement

We are indebted to Professor Sue Wright, Professor Jill Blackmore, and Dr. Rebecca Lund for the very fruitful discussion in the Gender and Higher Education workshop in Copenhagen 2016 which contributes to the development of the ideas for this paper.

Notes on contributors

Zulfa SAKHIYYA is a lecturer at the English Department, Faculty of Languages and Arts, Universitas Negeri Semarang, Indonesia. She has a particular interest in discourse analysis and the use of language in political processes and policy making, as well as the cultural political economy of knowledge and higher education. Email: [email protected]

Kirsten LOCKE is a senior lecturer in the School of Critical Studies in Education at the University of Auckland. She is interested in the philosophical theories that underpin mass education systems and the ways these shape issues of gender equity and democracy in education more broadly. Kirsten’s recent research has focused on women in academia and the ways in which women navigate the university landscape. Kirsten sits on the Executive Board of the innovative publishing platform for the Association of Visual Pedagogies, is part of the Editor's Collective for the New Zealand Journal of Women's Studies, and has a long association with the editorial board for the journal Educational Philosophy and Theory. Email: [email protected]

ORCID

Zulfa Sakhiyya http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4183-977X

Kirsten Locke http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2089-2793

Notes

1. There are actually several metaphors that explain barriers and entrapment encountered by women in leadership, such as “leaky pipelines,” “ivory basement,” and “glass cliff”; “glass ceiling” effect is preferred here because it captures the situation that gender is made as barrier for it is stronger at the top of the hierarchy than at lower levels (Cotter, Hermsen, Ovadia, & Vanneman, 2001), and this barrier is invisible like “glass”. This concept of “glass ceiling” has also been used to describe structural and cultural barriers for women in Thailand’s higher education system and Southeast Asia (Luke, 1997, 2002).

2. New Order is the English translation of Orde Baru. This was the period in which Soeharto ruled (1965–1998) Indonesia and is often labeled as an ‘authoritarian developmentalist’ regime which prioritized economic development and considered politics as a risk to national stability. Women were “depoliticised and mobilised to support the New Order’s developmentalist goals through a series of highly ‘interventionist state institutions’ ” (Suryakusuma, 2012, p. 1).

3. Personal communication.