Challenges to Equal Representation: Female Deputies in the Indonesian National Parliament

What hinders women's political representation in Indonesia? And what happens once they get into parliament? By observing (1) the trends and challenges in women's nomination, and (2) attitudes toward female politicians and gender quotas, this study finds that women's electability cannot be immediately improved by the provision of gender quotas targeting the process of nominating women. It highlights the open-list PR system that is prohibitively expensive and it hurts women candidates more than it does male aspirants because women generally have less access to financial resources. Also, most female MPs in Indonesia have been assigned to feminine and low-prestige committees.