page_title: Maria Ulfah Santoso
section_title: Early life and activism
hierarchical_section_title: Maria Ulfah Santoso / Biography / Early life and activism
caption_attribution_description: English: Maria Ulfah Santoso, first female government minister of Indonesia
context_page_description: Meester Hajjah Maria Ulfah Soebadio Sastrosatomo, better known by her first married name Maria Ulfah Santoso, was an Indonesian women's rights activist and politician. She was the first Indonesian woman to receive a degree in law as well as the first female Indonesian cabinet member.
  Santoso, the daughter of a politician, became interested in women's rights after seeing numerous injustices in her youth. Despite pressure to become a doctor, she graduated with a degree in law from Leiden University in 1933; while in the Netherlands she also became involved in the Indonesian nationalist movement. Upon returning to the Dutch East Indies, Santoso began teaching and working towards marriage reform. She was a member of the Committee for Preparatory Work for Indonesian Independence, and later became the social minister from 12 March 1946 to 26 June 1947. After her term, she continued to work with the government in various capacities.
  Chosen for the cabinet post in part for her emancipatory activities, Santoso paved the way for other female cabinet members, including S. K. Trimurti in 1947. She received several awards from the Indonesian government for her activities.
context_section_description: Born into the prominent Djajadiningrat family in Serang, Banten, Dutch East Indies on 18 August 1911, Santoso was the daughter of R.A.A. Mohammad Achmad and his wife R.A. Hadidjah Djajadiningrat. The youngest of three children, Santoso spent her childhood in Kuningan, where her father served as regent. One day, an ill aunt came over looking for help. However, upon receiving a letter from her husband, the aunt returned home and died not long after. Santoso later described this incident as inspiring her to work for women's rights.
  While Santoso was still in elementary school, her father sent her to Batavia (modern day Jakarta) to live with a Dutch family at Willemslaan Elementary School; while in Batavia she completed her middle schooling at Koning Willem III Middle School. While in Batavia, Santoso observed further women's issues, such as how women were devastated when their husbands took second wives or divorced them without cause. Despite her father wanting her to be a doctor, Santoso insisted on going into law.
  Santoso went to The Hague, in the Netherlands, in 1929 with her father, who was furthering his studies. Santoso then enrolled at Leiden University in Leiden, from which she graduated in 1933 with a Meester in de Rechten (Master of Laws) degree; this made her the first Indonesian woman to earn a law degree. During her studies, she became involved with the Indonesian nationalist movement and its leaders, including Mohammad Hatta and Sutan Sjahrir.
  In 1934, Santoso returned to Batavia and took a teaching job at the Muhammadiyah-run teacher's college there, refusing a position in the colonial government to do so. While teaching, she continued to be active in the nationalist movement, helping Adam Malik to establish the news agency Antara. On February 1938 she married R. Santoso Wirodihardjo. That same year, she led a congress dealing with marriage reform, to better protect the rights of women; the reforms passed in 1941. Santoso also worked to promote women's literacy through sewing groups; women who came to study sewing would be invited to learn to read and about marriage rights and child-rearing.
caption: Santoso as government minister, c. 1947
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