Neo-Ibuism in Indonesian Politics: Election Campaigns of Wives of Regional Heads in West Sumatra in 2019

Abstract

This article focuses on electoral victories by wives of regional heads in West Sumatra province during Indonesia’s 2019 elections. We argue that these victories can be explained by the emergence of a phenomenon we label “neo-ibuism.” We draw on the concept of “state ibuism,” previously used to describe the gender ideology of the authoritarian Suharto regime, which emphasised women’s roles as mothers (ibu) and aimed to domesticate them politically. Neo-ibuism, by contrast, allows women to play an active role in the public sphere, including in elections, but in ways that still emphasise women’s roles within the family. The wives of regional government heads who won legislative victories in West Sumatra not only relied on their husbands’ political resources to achieve victories, they also used a range of political networks to reach out to voters, in ways that stressed both traditional gender roles and their own political agency.