Growing up, Dewi Norytyas, also known as Nory, saw her parents and grandparent’s lives depend highly on river water. Born in a rural area in Cilacap region, she acknowledged that river is one of the main killers. People use it to wash dishes and laundry, as a toilet, and even as drinking water. As a kid, she also played a lot in the river. This childhood experience inspires her to study Masters of Science in Sustainable Water Environments at the University of Glasgow.
She first started her studies in Urban and Regional Planning Engineering for the bachelor’s degree with the Univesitas Diponegoro, where she learned mostly social science. She also learned a lot about environmental science. Then, in 2019, she got a job working as part of team to restore the Citarum Watershed, which is the longest and largest river in West Java, Indonesia. It is also known to be one of the most polluted rivers in the world. For this project, Nory got to work with many governmental sectors to figure out how to renaturalise and revitalize the river.
“Before studying in Glasgow, I never learned that Scotland really focused on naturalise their river,” explained Nory. Even though she is currently working in governmental sector where economy and industry are the main focuses, she believes that the environment sector is one of the most important sectors to support industrial and economic development more sustainable. The issues with polluted river also influenced her home. Nory said that flooding in her parent’s home is more frequent than before. From her studies, Nory wanted to learn how to find a solution that works with Indonesian environment.
As a woman working in STEM, she saw that one of the biggest struggles is living under unfair social norms. “We are also being underestimated because we are women. People still think that men have more abilities than women,” she said. In STEM industries, women are generally working for administrative works, even with the right backgrounds. “I think it is unfair because we do have the abilities.”
Thankfully, she got great support during her career. Nory’s family, namely her husband, always supports her in pursuing higher education. In addition, Nory got great support from the organisation she is working with. She also acknowledged British Council’s Women in STEM scholarship, and how being a recipient of it has helped her.
Her main goal is to create the most suitable industrial regulation and policy where environmental protection is one of the main considerations: “I want to finish the policy that my team and I have been working on.” The scholarship from the British Council has also opened up an opportunity for her to work with a British institution for her final project, where she learned how to create real-life solutions to environmental issues.
“For environmental protection, the government sometimes does not know exactly the background behind it and they need someone or people who know about the scientific reason about the environment,” explained Nory. Another challenge that she faces is being underestimated as a woman. “There is a grey area when we are making the policy because I am still a junior. As a woman working in a hierarchical institution such as governmental sector, we are also often being underestimated, because we are not in the top management and decision maker. So, it is harder to put what I’ve learned into reality if the director could not accept it.”
However, Nory has been as the policy analyst for industrial sector for over 10 years and has some message to other women in STEM:
“Never let others opinion get you down. Even though you already have family and children, they should be the pillars that support you as supposed to burden that could bring you down. There are many opportunities for women out there.” In addition, she wants girls and women to take advantage of programmes like British Council’s Women in STEM scholarship.