Her involvement in women’s movements started in 1984 where she intensely participated in discussions on labor and land eviction issues. This later influenced the establishment of a women’s organization, Kalyanamitra, in 1985, as Sita also became concerned with education about gender awareness. Sita is active both at the national and international spheres, as she was a member of Asia Pacific Women, Law and Development (1988-1996) and Global Fund for Women (1989-1996). Sita has been a speaker as well as a delegate in various meetings, such as the International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo (1994) and the 1995 UN Women’s Conference in Beijing. In 1996-1997, Sita attained her Master’s degree on gender studies from The London School of Economic and Social Science, England. When she returned to Indonesia in 1997, along with a number of colleagues, Sita established INSIST (Institute for Transformative Social Sciences) in Yogyakarta.
During the Reformation era, Sita was intensely involved in the advocacy of victims of violence, beginning with victims of sexual violence of the 1998 May Tragedy. At the beginning of the establishment of The National Commission on Violence Against Women, Sita coordinated their “Strengthening the Capacity of Service Provider Organizations for Women Victims of Violence” program. Two years later, Sita embarked on a new endeavor, as the Program Manager of “Indonesia Masa Depan”, an initiative of The National Commission on Human Rights.
Since 2001 until April 2004, Sita, who is also a mother of four children, became the program advisor for UNDP’s Partnership Program. Since 2001, Sita received many requests from various organizations, such as ILO, TIFA, dan Elsam, and also Hickling, to serve as a consultant and gender evaluator. Starting from 2002, Sita has been active atin the Women Research Institute which aims to expand into a study and research center founded on gender perspective, for the purpose of observing the impact of decentralization on the daily lives of women. ***
