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More women should come forward to show they are capable of performing as well or even better than men in order to promote gender equality public awareness, women leaders said.

“We need to prove gender equality is taking place by showing that more and more women are performing, and sometimes even doing better than men,” said Linda Gumelar, state minister for women’s empowerment and child protection.

Speaking at the Globe Asia’s Leaders Forum 2011 in Jakarta on Tuesday, Linda said that more women need to show that they are making an impact on business, politics, government and foreign affairs with their ideas, experience and aspirations.

Linda, the guest of honor at the forum, said that across Asia, women are now achieving higher levels of education and this enabled them to lead not just in households but in companies, politics and government.

But getting the to public understand the importance of gender equality was still difficult to achieve, she added.

“There is still a strong traditional value that describes the male as superior to the female. But the government is committed to support the struggle [against that thinking],” Linda told the Jakarta Globe.

Based on data from 2010, about half of Indonesia’s 238 million people are women and despite the many advances in education, health, politics, economy and other social spheres, gender equality is still yet to be reached.

Meanwhile, politician Yenny Wahid said that men have more freedom to express their hunger for power than do women.

“They don’t care if they hurt people as long as they get their objective targets,” Yenny said.

“If women are ambitious, people would say it is unusual but for men it is normal. This is why women should learn how to be as ambitious as men,” she said. 

Gouri Mirpuri, founder of the Learning Farm, said women seek validation from other women while men do not care.

“In offices, women always seek recognition from other women but men don’t seem to care. We have to stop judging each other. We are women and we have to help each other,” she said.

Other speakers included Denise Tjokrosaputro, an entrepreneur who runs Milestone Pacific business group, Shinta Kamdani, managing director of Sintesa Group, Noni Purnomo, vice president of Bluebird Group, Friderica W. Dewi, business director of the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX), Kasandra Putranto of the Women’s Business and Professional Association, and Tience Sumartini, a commissioner of Bali International Flight Academy .

The forum also presented the Globe Asia Women Leader Award to Surabaya Mayor Tri Rismaharini.

“Surabaya is a metropolis that needs a tough leader who won’t compromise. Ibu Tri Rismaharini is an example of that woman leader,” Globe Asia publisher Tanri Abeng said. 

In her address, Tri said that there are thousands of women in East Java she deemed worthy heroes.

“They are not the established women but are the small scale entrepreneurs,” Tri said, adding that she wanted to make women the main agents of development in the city.