Revealing Ika Lailatun Nikmah’s Struggle in Pursuing Higher Education: Challenges for Javanese Women in Accessing Education

Women's Struggle in Pursuing Higher Education

Feminist Society - Questions and statements such as “Why do women go to college” and “Women don’t need to go to college, because men will feel inferior” are common things heard by Ika Lailatun Nikmah (familiarly called Ela) who grew up in a neighborhood that still views women as only having 3 tasks, namely masak, macak, and manak (cooking, dressing up, and giving birth to children). These views are a challenge for her in achieving higher education.

Ela is the first daughter born into a simple Javanese family, where getting an education up to college is the most expensive dream. Since she was a teenager, Ela has often seen how women in her area are considered less equal and do not have the same opportunities to access higher education as men. Ela sees a misconception in society that seems to place the right to education only for men. This is certainly contrary to the mandate of the constitution, where every citizen has the right to receive an education as mandated by Article 31 paragraph  (1) of the Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia.

In her area, women are also often considered troublesome if they intend to continue their studies to college because the family must pay for their studies. Even worse, women in her area are often objectified as if they are used as a tool to improve the family's economy by being married to rich people.

This view is what strengthens Ela’s determination to continue her education to college in order to break the stereotype. Although at the beginning of the struggle to go to college, Ela faced many difficulties, such as parental blessing and also tuition fees. At first, her parents did not give her permission to continue college, where they thought that college was only for the upper middle class. So if she chose to go to college, her parents were worried that they would not be able to pay for her college until she finished, which would make the costs that had been spent also be in vain.

Based on these challenges, although in 2018 Ela had passed SPANPTKIN at one of the religious universities in Central Java, due to the very expensive tuition fees, she had to give up the campus and was willing to take a gap year to work in order to be able to finance her studies later.

At that time, Ela worked at a photocopy shop near her house for about 1 year. From that job she was able to save money to prepare for college fees and could meet other needs such as buying equipment needed in the college process later. In the second year, she decided to resign from her job and enroll in one of the religious colleges in Central Java. From that process, Ela was finally accepted at the campus with a KIP Kuliah scholarship that could fully finance her education and living expenses for 8 semesters of college.

Ela proved her efforts that women cannot be underestimated, even in her educational journey, she gave a very good record. She completed her studies in 3.5 years with Cum Laude predicate GPA 3.80 out of 4.00. In the process of her studies, Ela was a student who was active in organizations and participated in various competitions at the local, national, and international levels. She was able to balance her academic and non-academic affairs during her studies.

In fact, she once made an extraordinary achievement when she and her team participated in the Student Creativity Program (PKM) in Entrepreneurship in 2021. Where they made an innovation in transferring carved media onto fabric in the form of a hijab with a typical Jepara carved motif decorated with a quote from R.A Kartini's letter in the book "Habis Gelap Terbitlah Terang". This innovation succeeded in getting them a grant and was successfully registered as Intellectual Property Rights by the Ministry of Law and Human Rights of the Republic of Indonesia.

Currently, Ela is doing an internship at one of the institutions on her campus, while continuing to hone her skills in writing. In 2024, Ela successfully published a journal on the perspective of gender equality published in the Journal of Gender and Social Inclusion Studies. Apart from scientific works, she is also active in writing short stories and poems which she often publishes on Wattpad and Blog.

From this incredible journey, it finally led Ela to become the first graduate in her family. Ela managed to prove to her parents that education is important and with knowledge we can change the situation. As the hadith narrated by Abu Dawud and At-Tirmidzi:

"Indeed, the Prophets did not pass on dinars and dirhams, in fact, they only passed on knowledge, whoever has taken it, has taken a large portion".

You can also read: ARN’s Journey Goes Beyond the Comfort Zone: From A Teenage Who Received Verbal and Physical Bullying to Becoming A Career Woman Who Is the Backbone of the Family

Ela always advises women out there who are trying to achieve their dreams to never give up easily in achieving their dreams and continuing their education. "Dreams will never fail, they just look for the right time and wait for us to be ready" — said Ela.

Ela’s extraordinary journey in proving herself, in breaking the stigma of women is a movement for women's emancipation that must continue to be voiced and continue to be an example for all women out there. That education is everyone's right regardless of whether they are male or female. Women must have equal access to education. Hopefully, Ela’s struggle in continuing her studies to college will continue to echo in every corner of the inner eyes of other women.

In our section with Ela, we finally agreed on several crucial things, where Feminist Society will always support her and we also agreed to collaborate in the future in advocating and voicing the right to education for women.

If you have any case related to gender equality or feminist issues and you need either advocacy assistance, counseling, support for campaign media, or some kind of that, feel free to contact us by this section. All of those things are free, you do not need to pay anything, it is our commitment to promote progress in gender equality and women’s rights activism through education and advocacy.

You can also contact us on:

Instagram            : @feministsociety.id

Email                  : fem.official7@gmail.com

ARN’s Journey Goes Beyond the Comfort Zone: From A Teenage Who Received Verbal and Physical Bullying to Becoming A Career Woman Who Is the Backbone of the Family

“No matter who you are, how bad your past was, you have the right to have a dream” — Said ARN when interviewed directly by the Feminist Society team through an online meeting on Thursday, 20 June 2024. ARN is a real portrayal that women are not supposed to be underestimated since they also have the same chances in every field as men. Those incredible visions came from her personal experience when she underwent directly discriminatory treatment when she was a child. Coming from a small village in Kalimantan, ARN grew up in an environment where status as a poor woman was regarded as less important, and her rights were frequently done away with. Spending her teenage years in elementary and middle school in Kalimantan, ARN got bullied by her friends just because she was poor. Even they were not only verbal bullying but also physical bullying.

That experience really traumatized her until at one point she did not want to remember that childhood. “Most people probably would consider their childhood was fun and really want to go back if they could, but for me, it is different, I will not, even to recall that one I will not”. It was a bad day for ARN, hence she had to escape from that condition to change her life to be better.

That was the beginning of ARN’s motivation to progress and develop. To make ends meet during school, she worked as a helper at her aunt's restaurant to continue making ends meet. Then after junior high school, ARN intended to leave Kalimantan because she believed that to develop further we had to get out of an unsupportive environment. With her good academic abilities, ARN was finally able to continue her vocational studies in Malang in the field of culinary arts with a scholarship.

While she was in Malang, ARN really wanted to take advantage of all the opportunities available by trying many things. While attending school, ARN became a model and earned side income from there. Because when she was in Malang, ARN studied at a Catholic school which could be said to be very expensive, even though ARN received a scholarship there were still other expenses that ARN had to pay. Finally, apart from being a model, ARN also worked in the hospitality sector to make ends meet. With hard work, ARN was finally able to complete her studies in Malang

After studying vocational school in Malang, ARN then moved to Bali and worked for 2 years in Bali and then moved again to Balikpapan. It could be said that this position was the best point for her, by working in Bali and Balikpapan ARN was able to become financially stable. ARN was finally able to help pay off her parents' debts, help renovate her parents' house, and send her siblings to school until they graduated.

That success is not only achieved easily, many sacrifices have been made, starting from becoming a sales promotion girl for a cigarette brand, becoming a model in a nightclub and many more things have been done to survive to the point of financial success. With the financial stability she had, ARN then saw the opportunity to open a laundry business. After some time, her laundry business finally achieved success and earned a turnover of hundreds of millions.

At this point of success, ARN finally found her passion in the field of communications so she was moved to become a professional waitress who could work on cruise ships and be able to travel around the world and see the beauty of the world out there.

Realizing that to achieve her dream, there are many things that she must fight for and learn, one of which is English itself. At that point, ARN finally started her journey to learn English. In the end, when ARN had acquired English language skills, she finally received paid internship offers in three different places (Jakarta, Bali and Malaysia). Once again, ARN saw a big opportunity if she chose to go to Malaysia because apart from being paid quite well there, she could also prepare herself, especially in English language habits, considering that the English language culture in Malaysia is higher compared to Indonesia.

Now ARN has been running a paid internship program for 3 months in Malaysia and will end next September. After the paid internship process is complete, she will immediately prepare herself for all the subsequent needs and preparations towards her dream of becoming a professional cruise ship waitress who is ready to see the world. ARN's journey is proof that everyone has the right to dream regardless of gender. "Women are not slaves to men, women are equal to men, so don't be afraid to chase our dreams, we are women, we have the right to dream." ARN's voice is a loud voice to voice gender equality, it is a call to all women out there not to be afraid to chase dreams.

In our section with ARN, we finally agreed on several crucial things, where Feminist Society will always support her and we also gave several recommendations to her on what she could do to deal with several challenges forward regarding discriminatory treatment against her rights as a woman.

If you have any case related to gender equality or feminist issues and you need either advocacy assistance, counseling, support for campaign media, or some kind of that, feel free to contact us by this section. All of those things are free, you do not need to pay anything, it is our commitment to promote progress in gender equality and women’s rights through education and advocacy.

You can also contact us on:

Instagram            : @feministsociety.id

Email                   : fem.official7@gmail.com