Gerwani's priority by the 1960s was no longer feminism, but anti-imperialism and the "national unity of women to liquidate the remains of colonialism and feudalism.

The Lubang Buaya narrative, as described by historians, claimed that Gerwani had performed sadistic, sexual crimes before and after killing the six generals during the Thirtieth of September attempted coup.

[7] Scholars agree that in newly independent Indonesia, the short-lived democracy allowed a new space for women's organizations to flourish in their struggle for equal rights to political participation, economic opportunities and "social and cultural" spheres.

For example, Gerwani was associated with the PKI, Muslim women's organization Muslimat, was affiliated with Masjumi, and Wanita Demokrat Indonesia with the PNI.

[14] Under Kowani's directives, women's organizations often tried to work to meet the socio-economic needs as part of the "development of the young state" through initiatives that focused on education, social welfare, and health.

This shift was also part of Gerwani's strategy after 1954 to have alliances not only with the PKI, but also with trade unions in order to broaden their ability to address women's issues.

[26] Gerwani's regarded women's issues as highly intertwined with the project of nation-building, and in particular, a socialist vision of Indonesia that aimed at ameliorating the female "exploitation and discrimination because of feudalism and imperial remnants.

This focus was furthered by their 1954 shift that represented Gerwani was an "organization for education and struggle" open to Indonesian women who were sixteen years or older.

[29] Wieringa however, has argued that Gerwani's stance on gender amalgamated essentialist constructions of women as mothers with their duties as workers and citizens.

[32] A unique perspective of Gerwani has been described in Rachmi Larasati's work on dance in the New Order period and cultural construction.

Gerwani's efforts to focus on the rights, education and issues of poor, rural women in the 1950s were superseded in the 1960s by class struggle for the establishment of a socialist Indonesia.

[39] Harold Crouch, for example, traces this "sense of duty" and the increasing involvement of the army in Indonesian politics to the independence period, as "guardians of the nation" intervening where the government failed - culminating in the introduction of martial law in 1957 for Sukarno's Guided Democracy.

Scholars have described how the tale was used to discredit the PKI not simply by virtue of their involvement in a "supposed coup" – but also because of the depraved morality of communist sexuality and gender.

"[42] Army newspaper reports from Angkatan Bersendjata claimed that Gerwani women had been torturing, mutilating, "playing with and fondling the genitals of the victims while at the same time displaying their own..." before they proceeded to kill the generals.

These descriptions of mutilation, torture, and immoral sexuality further accused the "Gerwani mothers of evil" of using "Lieutenant Tendean as an obscene plaything.

[45] Autopsies performed on 4–5 October 1965, however, proved the unsubstantiated nature of these claims because the generals were not mutilated – but had in fact, died of gunshot wounds.

[46] The aftermath of official claims of sexually depraved, immoral, murderous communist women in the G30S was one aspect used by the Army to fuel hysteria and increase anti-communist sentiment.

[47] As Steven Drakeley argues, the events at Lubang Buaya "poisoned the party's name" for those in the Indonesian National Armed Forces that were previously sympathetic or ambivalent towards the PKI.

[48] In other words, the Lubang Buaya contributed to the denigration and subsequent elimination of Gerwani, the PKI, and communist sympathizers because they were presented as antithetical to Indonesian identity.

[50] Confessions of Gerwani members detailing the supposed involvement in the G30S was part of the propaganda proliferated by the Army in the aftermath of the abortive coup.

The song is about an edible plant, genjer (Limnocharis flava), that grows abundantly in Java and therefore would commonly be eaten by peasants, especially in times of hardship.

The folk song was first used in a political context during the Japanese Occupation as a way of encouraging people to lead an austere lifestyle, especially as the war created severe food shortages.

The song's subject matter, touching on the themes of hardship and perseverance in peasant life, made it popular with the PKI and many Indonesian's began to associate it with the party.

According to the Lubang Buaya story propagated by the New Order, Gerwani and PKI youth group members sang the song as they killed the generals.

In reality, however, there is little evidence to support this ; it was based on the discovery of the lyrics in a book of folk songs that belonged to a member of the PKI youth organization who had been at Halim AFB on October 1.

[54] Gerwani, one of the largest women's organizations in the 1950s, was banned in 1965 – remembered in the decades under Suharto as traitors of the Indonesian nation.