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How do gender norms hamper working women?
Community-based childcare services and facilities can go some way to relieve the double burden of women, but cannot address the gender norms, whether religious, cultural or legislative, that create obstacles for women looking to pursue a career.
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Women workers take part in a rally protesting the omnibus law on job creation. The Job Creation Law threatens women's wellbeing as it has eliminated paid leave for menstruation, pregnancy, childbirth and miscarriages.
(KSPI/Courtesy of KSPI)
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survey we conducted in four urban areas last year caught us by surprise, as it disclosed a gloomy trend among working women. While respondents acknowledged a need to work as a means of self-actualization, they were aware of the limitations for women who pursued careers.
The survey was conducted in Jakarta, Depok, Bekasi and Bandung, involving 600 female and male respondents from various age groups and 19 informants for in-depth case studies. It aimed to ascertain their views about obstacles for women working outside the home, whether in formal or informal work outside the home.
Among the 216 young respondents, female respondents had positive aspirations about working women. They believed that work was a means for self-actualization, actualizing their education, and a way to support their parents and later, to “help” their husbands.
However, they acknowledged concerns that once they were married, they would face obstacles and restrictions concerning working hours, working at night, dress codes and workplaces located far from or outside their city of resident, which would force them to live apart from their families.
More generally, they were afraid of physical and symbolic obstacles related to gender norms, such as distant workplaces, sharing the workplace with men, lack of childcare facilities, unsupportive husbands or families who asked them to prioritize their children, or lack of jobs that suited their character as women.
It was surprising, however, that 28 percent of young male respondents aged 18-22 preferred their future wives to stay at home, work from home, or if unnecessary, do no other work than taking care of the household. This was even more surprising because in general, the respondents’ mothers were the breadwinners with either formal or non-formal jobs, but none working from home. When we explored this in depth, these youths had arguments for which solutions needed to be considered.
According to them, when women worked, like their mothers, nobody would care for the children. This was because whether their fathers worked or were unemployed, mothers (women) were still the primary carers of children. These youths believed that, according to religious norms, women were not responsible for earning a living.
