Balinese women breadwinners in families

Balinese women are often portrayed as beautiful dancers posed for local and international artists, but in reality the majority work very hard to make end meets.

When people visit a traditional market in Denpasar or other cities in Bali, they will see hundreds of women, young and old, working for their families around-the-clock as vegetable and fruit vendors, and carriers.

Ni Ketut Dewi is just 17 years old. While her friends of the same age are busy with school, the five-month pregnant Dewi spends nights at Badung Market in downtown Denpasar.

Dewi chases clients who are willing to use her service carrying clients’ shopping items. It was 2 a.m. on Tuesday morning and she had to work harder to earn extra money to celebrate Galungan festive, which fell last Wednesday.

“[Clients] pay me between Rp 5,000 and Rp 15,000 every time I carry their stuff from the market to their cars.”

For Dewi and thousands of other women in Bali, Galungan and religious festivities may mean working harder for money and to prepare all religious offerings at home. “Women are mostly caretakers of families in terms of generating income and spiritual guardians,” explained Ni Luh Manik, who made flower and fruit arrangements used for the praying on Galungan.

Women are known to prepare food, drinks and a large variety of offerings made of young coconut leaves filled with colorful flowers and fresh fruits and other items. “During Galungan, we always visit relatives in villages. They always ask for gifts. We are embarrassed if we do not have one for them. And all of these things need extra money,” added Manik, who took a rest in a corner of Badung Market early Tuesday morning.

The roles of women in Balinese families have been strong despite their limited rights to family possessions and husbands’ assets.

A lot of women work in rice fields, carrying heavy stones on their heads while working on construction projects.

Based on these facts, the Grand Council of Customary Villages (MUDP), a powerful body in Balinese society, made a gigantic breakthrough in the island’s centuries-old paternalistic customary laws.

It has openly acknowledged the rights of women to inherit family property, entitlement rights to children’s custody and rights to obtain marital assets.