"This book analyses the interaction between nationalism, feminism and socialism in Indonesia from the beginning of the twentieth century up to the New Order State of President Suharto. The focus is on the communist women's organization Gerwani, which was by 1965 the largest communist women's organization in the non-communist world. Gerwani members combined feminist demands, such as reform of the marriage law, with an insistence upon a political role for women. The organization was destroyed in a campaign of sexual slander orchestrated by the military under General Suharto."--BOOK JACKET.