Networks of Women’s Movements and Educational Institutions Aisyiyah and the Catholic Women’s Association, 1917–1945

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-624-6_21How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Aisyiyah; Poesara Wanita Katolik; Colonial Education; Women’s Organizations

Abstract

How did two women’s organizations rooted in opposing theologies—modernist Islam and Roman Catholicism— develop structurally convergent educational strategies in colonial Indonesia? This paper takes Aisyiyah (est. 1917) and the Perhimpunan Wanita Katholik (est. 1924) as comparative cases, arguing that both constructed educational networks in response to shared constraints: the exclusivity of colonial schooling, subordination within maledominated parent organizations, and community demand for educated female agents of social change. Through organizational history and their social network analysis, the study examines three dimensions: the institutional models each developed, the network mechanisms enabling reach beyond urban centers, and their ambivalent relationship with colonial subsidy and surveillance. A central finding is that both organizations strategically deployed domestic discourse—“educating women to become good mothers”—as a socially acceptable entry point, while covertly building women’s capacity as community leaders and institutional managers. Educational institutions thus functioned not merely as spaces of learning, but as durable infrastructure for women’s agency extending beyond the colonial era. These findings suggest that cross-theological convergence in institution-building offers a broader model for understanding how religiously grounded women’s movements negotiate patriarchal and colonial constraints to secure lasting institutional power.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Ni Ketut Alexa Dyah Puspita
AU  - Zahra Lathifa Batrisya
AU  - Syahidah Sumayyah Rahman
AU  - Ayi Budi Santosa
AU  - Syarah Nurul Fazri
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/19
TI  - Networks of Women’s Movements and Educational Institutions Aisyiyah and the Catholic Women’s Association, 1917–1945
BT  - Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on History, Social Sciences, and Education (ICHSE 2026)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 288
EP  - 303
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-624-6_21
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-624-6_21
ID  - Puspita2026
ER  -