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Negotiating work, family and the traffic:Care-centred narratives on married women’s
employment in Greater Jakarta
Diahhadi Setyonaluri*
Ariane Utomo**
Forum Kajian Pembangunan (FKP) ANU – Indonesia Project
Lembaga Demografi FEB UI, 29 August 2019
*Researcher at Lembaga Demografi & lecturer at FEB UI ([email protected]) **Lecturer in Demography and Population Geography, School of Geography, The University of Melbourne ([email protected])
Acknowledgement
Australian National University Indonesia Project and SMERU Institute Research Grant 2015-2016
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Women are dropping out from the labour market
21
6362
5356
53 54 54
41
19
15-19 20-24 25-29 30-34 35-39 40-44 45-49 50-54 55-59 60+
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
15-19 20-24 25-29 30-34 35-39 40-44 45-49 50-54 55-59 60-64 65+
FLFP
R (
%)
INDONESIA
Urban Rural Source: BPS Sakernas 2018
Marriage, childbearing, education and economic structure contribute to women’s employment exit.
Women are dropping out from the labour market
Marriage, childbearing, education and economic structure contribute to women’s employment exit
Risk of leaving employment is varied across occupations, sectors, and education levels
Predicted Probability of Employment Exit by Occupation, Sectors and Education, IFLS 1996-2007
Source: Setyonaluri, D (2013) Women Interrupted: Determinants of Women Employment Exit and Return in Indonesia. PhD Thesis. Australian National University.
Context & research questions
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• Narratives of contextual factors that drive variation in women’s employment outcomes in Jakarta:
1. How do women articulate reasons for their employment decision following marriage and motherhood?
2. In what ways do contextual factors of Greater Jakarta shape the decisions?
3. How do they vary across different segments of society and labour market?
Gender asymmetry in work and care
• Gender asymmetry in education, access to market jobs, and gender roles in the family (England 2010)
• Caregiving is considered the responsibility of families in Asia.
“...care work provides important resources for the development of human capabilities.Responsibilities for the care and nurturance of dependents impose significant financialand temporal constraints. Women may be reluctant to pursue gender equality if theyfear for the well-being of children and other dependents.” (Folbre, 2006: 184)
• Contextual factors in Indonesia and Greater Jakarta…
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Ideals on marriage and having children
8Source: https://nugrowhow.wordpress.com/2014/07/30/tugas-tugas-perkembangan-kapan-lulus-nikah-punya-anak/
The opportunity cost of working for women
• Work-family conflict arises from mother’s time away from child.
• Prevailing marriage norms & fertility ideals in Indonesia
• Absence of state in provision of care
• Variation in opportunity cost of working:
– Class-based resources: access & quality of childcare; occupation/sectors
– Contextual factors of Jakarta: time & money for commuting to work
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Source: Figure 2 Page 295 (Korabik, K., Lero, D. S., & Ayman, R. (2003). A Multi-Level Approach to Cross Cultural Work-Family Research: A Micro and Macro Perspective. International Journal of Cross Cultural Management, 3(3), 289-303. )
Method and Data
• Qualitative approach, semi-structured interviews and focus group discussion.
• Respondents: convenience sample of 30 married women lived in Jabodetabek, with variation in socioeconomic backgrounds.
• Average age was 33 (25-46 years); Majority have tertiary-education; one had no children, two were separated.
• All women worked before marriage/motherhood; 11 had full-time employment, the rests identified themselves as “ibu rumah tangga” despite involve in income-generating activities.
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• Separate interviews with employers and policy makers: factory manager, International HRconsultant, Ministry of Manpower, Bappenas – KPAPO, MoWECP, ILO – decent work.
Main themes from the findings
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NEGOTIATING WORK AND CARE
VARIATION ACROSS CLASSES, SECTORS, AND WORKPLACE
MOTHERING IN THE CITY
Conflicts between work and care
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I had completed my training, so if I were to just look after my children, its’ like wasting my training… One of my children is looked after by my mother, and another is looked after by mother in law. (Marissa, hairdresser)
“My husband was worried (about child’s education at home) and said, don’t work, just stay home. But deep down I want to work, well just for extra income (Devi, junior high school graduate)
“My assistant quit a day before I moved house. I got traumatized about trusting other people to take care of daughter. I decided to resign. (Sekar, tertiary educated)
“My parents are getting old, the cannot do anything anymore, so I ended up resigning” (Indri, tertiary educated)
Family’s attitude
Trust issue non-family childcare
Ageing parents
Family support
Variations in opportunity cost of working
Class “…[its] difficult to bring your child to work with you… I cannot just rely on my husband. We need to fight for our kids, so they don’t end up like us.” (Lina, boarding house sitter, primary school graduate)
"... my son was about 4 months, I needed to leave for 2 weeks for fieldwork. It wrecked my concentration. I felt sorry for leaving a child that I had wanted for so long to work." (Meidi, stay-at home mother, tertiary educated)
Sector “I started the position after I completed maternity leave. I couldn’t work on time & had to give many excuses. I felt bad to my staffs and also to my children.” (Dewi, stay at home mother, tertiary educated (S2))
“In garment factory, sometimes we need to work overtime… I want to be with my child at 6pm, but had to work until 9. On Sundays, I had to work overtime.” (FGD respondent, stay at home mother, high school graduate)
Workplace “He (husband) was in other province’s branch office and I was in Jakarta. He wrote a letter requesting transfer to follow his wife and it was granted (Opi, public servant, tertiary educated)
“Working in the same institution (for husband and wife) is not allowed so I quit. I tried to apply jobs in the bank, my husband supported it, but I felt bad to my son.” (Rina, stay-at home mom, tertiary educated).
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Mothering and working in the city
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If I worked, I’d get tired on the road, leaving home early, coming home late,
and I’d have to do housework too. I could not see where my wages went to,
because going to work itself is costly (Nila, runs a shop from home,
vocational high school graduate)
When I got an afternoon shift, I finished work at 11. Not to mention that I
have to wait for metromini and there were not many of them (Evi, stay at
home mother, high school graduate)
I moved house from Tangerang to Depok. It took 2 hours to go to the lab –
from Depok to Kebon Jeruk. I took the bus, not the train, so it took a long
time and I decided to quit working (Ari, general practitioner, bachelor
degree)
Summary
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• Conflict between work and care shapes opportunity cost of work. Availability of trusted care could offset the cost.
• Time spent commuting exacerbates opportunity cost to work;
• Variations: class-based resources, sectors, and workplace– Paid employment is important for upward mobility for low educated,
but they’re lacking of family support.
– Tertiary educated has a higher expectation of children’s development & would interrupt to allocate more time for care.
– Workplace regulations determine employment outcomes.
Implication for scholarship on women and work in Indonesia
• Key-findings shows the importance of integrating the work-care conflict, care provision, and contextual factors in analyzing women’s employment outcome after marriage and childbearing:
– Different narratives show variation of opportunity cost to work based on class-resources, sector, workplace
– Geographic-specific attributes to the opportunity cost to work.
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Reducing the opportunity cost to work for working mothers in Greater Jakarta
Promoting egalitarian roles at home
Fine-tune working policy to reduce role incompatibility: flex-work arrangement, family-friendly
Ensuring Care: Provision of childcare in poor, industrial sites; Regulating quality of familial-private childcare provider (e.g. babysitters)
Integrated, reliable transport system to cut commuting cost & time
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“Balance” is a luxury. Equality is a
necessity. When we stop talking about
work-life balance and start talking about
discrimination against care and
caregiving, we see the world differently.”
― Anne-Marie Slaughter, Unfinished Business: Women Men Work Family
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Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/27/books/review/anne-marie-slaughters-unfinished-business-women-men-work-family.html
