WOMAN POWER
For the country as a whole, consumer prices rose 0.23 per cent in February and declined 0.02 per cent last month.
“Bank Indonesia’s policy will now be more focused as earlier it only considered the national aggregate,” said David Sumual, chief economist at PT Bank Central Asia, on Rosmaya’s appointment.
The only board member who wasn’t educated at an overseas university, Rosmaya holds a law degree from Universitas Padjajaran in Bandung, West Java, and completed a Master’s in social and political studies at the University of Indonesia.
She is the first deputy governor elected from a pool of regional heads, which, she said, bust a myth that being sent to work at offices outside of the capital was to hit the glass ceiling.
She began her career at the central bank in 1985, and has held various roles including as head of the payment systems department, deputy director for internal finances and running the rupiah transactions office.
In her new role, she has pledged to ensure the bank does more to boost women’s participation in the economy.
“When you say having more women leaders is important because of the different perspective we bring, I am the case in point,” she said.
Bank Indonesia has had two women on the board previously: Siti Fadrijah was appointed deputy governor in 2005 and Miranda Goeltom held the role from 1997 before being named senior deputy governor in 2004. But both were named suspects in separate corruption cases.
Women accounted for about 30 per cent of the total workforce at Bank Indonesia and occupy 10 of the 33 executive director roles, the top spot below the board of governors, said Rosmaya.
Still, the labour participation of females in the wider economy lags: it was 51 per cent in 2014, equal to countries in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, but lower than the 61 per cent in East Asia and the Pacific, according to World Bank data.
“Some women have this mental block that keeps them from going full tilt, telling themselves to follow the husband or settling for good enough,” said Rosmaya. “But we’ve had a woman as president and we have women ministers, so the doors are open. Now it’s up to us to make the most of the opportunity.”
Bank Indonesia hasn’t yet had a woman at the helm. “It could be anybody,” said Rosmaya, laughing, when asked if she could be that person. Bloomberg