[3] With her parents' support, Sadli attended the Faculty of Pharmacy, Gadjah Mada University, with the goal of becoming an assistant pharmacist.

[4] She spoke in defence of the feminist writer Julia Suryakusuma, who had studied under Sadli in the 1970s, when the latter was detained by the State Intelligence Agency in 1988 for her gendered exploration of the New Order regime.

She was initially hesitant, as the field was widely dismissed,[2] and even through the 1990s Indonesians viewed the concepts of "feminism" and "gender" negatively.

[5] Saparinah served as the department's leader until 2000,[4] navigating between those who viewed feminism negatively and the demands of activists who proudly accepted the feminist label.

[1] On 15 July 1998, responding to several days of rioting the previous May, Sadli – together with activists and academics including Mely G. Tan, Mayling Oey-Gardiner, and Sinta Nuriyah – spoke with President B. J. Habibie regarding the need to prevent violence against women; the National Commission on Violence against Women was established later that year.

[5] During this period, the commission investigated acts of violence against women not only during the May 1998 riots, but also during military operations in East Timor, Papua, and Aceh.

She also expressed support for the women farmers of Kendeng, Central Java, who were protesting the construction of a cement factory.