WCGS World Conference on Gender Studies Volume 2020 Conference Paper Gender Sensitivity among Political Parties in Indonesia and India Vina Salviana Darvina Soedarwo 1 , Gautam Kumar Jha 2 , Gonda Yumitro 3 , and Nurul Zuriah 4 1 Department of Sociology (The Faculty of Social and Political Sciences) University of Muhammadiyah Malang,Indonesia 2 Centre for Chinese and Southeast Asian Studies, School of Languages, Literature and Culture Studies Jawaharlal Nehru unuversity, New Delhi, India 3 Department of International Relation (The Faculty of Social and Political Sciences) University of Muhammadiyah Malang, Indonesia 4 Department of Civics and Law (Faculty of Education and Teacher Training) University of Muhammadiyah Malang, Indonesia Abstract In Indonesia and India the participation of women in politics is influenced by their traditional social roles. This implies that gender ideology, cultural patterns, and previously determined conceptions of suitable social roles dictate the roles of men and women. Although there is a quota system for ensuring that the representation of women in democratic representation reaches the ‘critical minimum of 30%, it is a sad fact that gender sensitivity towards women as a political class is still severely lacking among the political parties both in Indonesia and in India. This is caused by the patriarchal gender bias against women that is inherent in political parties itself and also due to the lack of political education in gender sensitivity for both men and women. In Indonesia and India, the gender sensitivity of secular political parties is almost same but for the Muslim political parties, Indonesia has better condition than in India. Keywords: gender sensitivity, political parties, India, Indonesia 1. Introduction The core value of democracy is equality and includes Gender equality including in the political life of the State as equal citizens irrespective of gender. However the reality is that Social factors impede the full participation of women in political life both as participants and representatives and this ubiquitous situation has been acknowledged by the UN which recognizes women as the world’s largest excluded category. For ensuring Gender Justice in society and for the expression of the problems that are unique to women, their empowerment as a class and their participation as equals in the Political life of the State is crucial. Empowerment of women through political participation, as envisaged here, is not the domination by women of men or of the offices of democracy, but rather the ability to influence political decisions and effect changes as well as participate in the institutions of democracy. How to cite this article: Vina Salviana Darvina Soedarwo, Gautam Kumar Jha, Gonda Yumitro, and Nurul Zuriah, (2020), “Gender Sensitivity among Political Parties in Indonesia and India” in World Conference on Gender Studies, KnE Social Sciences, pages 81–92. DOI 10.18502/kss.v4i10.7394 Page 81 Corresponding Author: Vina Salviana Darvina Soedarwo vinasalvianaumm@gmail.com Published: 29 July 2020 Publishing services provided by Knowledge E Vina Salviana Darvina Soedarwo et al. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited. Selection and Peer-review under the responsibility of the WCGS Conference Committee.