Like in many other countries around the globe, Indonesian women often find themselves in a more difficult position than men. For example, there are much more women than men who work in Indonesia's informal sector. Moreover, a significant portion of these women are unpaid workers. While 57.51 percent of Indonesia's total female workforce is employed in the informal sector, the rate is 48.81 percent for men.
But not only do women have a bigger chance to fall into the informal sector, they also have to face injustice in the form of the men-women wage gap, meaning that women usually get paid less than men for the same work.
Based on recent research of the International Labour Organization (ILO), conducted through its Better Work Indonesia program, the clothing (or garment) industry of Indonesia is among the worst cases in terms of wage gap in the country's manufacturing sector. On average, informal female workers in Indonesia's garment industry earn 20 percent less than their male counterparts for the same work and with the same (low) educational background.
Meanwhile, the ILO report states that 80 percent of workers in 200 garment factories spread across Indonesia are women aged between 15-35 years, with the majority only having completed (Senior) High School (in Indonesian: Sekolah Menengah Atas, or SMA).
Albert Bonasahat, team-member for the Better Work Indonesia program, said Indonesia's garment companies still regard women as workers that can be paid less, while their obedience (to the boss) is stronger. However, Bonasahat said this is a wrong stereotype. Meanwhile, he added that the wage gap should actually not occur anymore as the Indonesian government already ratified ILO Convention No. 111 concerning Discrimination in Respect of Employment and Occupation. Hence, gender discrimination is an illegal in Indonesia. But, problematically, law enforcement in Indonesia is weak.
The National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan) urged the Indonesian government to increase efforts to protect women's rights across the country, particularly by enacting the long-overdue bill on the elimination of sexual violence.
However, the rise in cases of violence against women last year not necessarily means that violence against women is rising in Indonesia. Mariana Amiruddin, Komnas Perempuan Commissioner, said the increase is attributed to the fact that more and more victims dare to report the violence. Still, it is feared that many violent cases remain unreported across Indonesia as victims are afraid of repercussions. The report also noted that 71 percent of reported cases of violence took place in a private or domestic setting.
Komnas Perempuan emphasized that existing local laws in Indonesia do not cover all types of violence against women, hence resulting in a legal vacuum and powerless victims. Therefore, the bill on the elimination of sexual violence needs to be passed quickly.
Another article: Women's Empowerment In Indonesia: Where To Now?
The status quo on which women seem to be less powerful compared to men associated with the historical background of Indonesia. Patriarchy has been existing among most of the Indonesian cultures, for instance, Bali and all provinces in Java. In the past, those areas used to hinder the chance of women almost in every aspects of life: women could not possess education and jobs, could not choose who to be married with, could not inherit thrones and wealth, and the other limitation women in the period were born with. Nowadays, globalization strikes and opens up society’s mind that every gender should have the same chance towards everything. Still, revolution takes time; it is not that easy to shift a mindset planted hundreds years ago. Even though Indonesia still has those unfair chances of works, a lot of harassment attempts to women, but we’re working ahead on it. I believe, once education and law enforcement gradually imposed to cover all layers of the society, time will answer the problem of gender inequality in Indonesia.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the article posted above, I realize that equality between women and men in Indonesia will always be an unsettled business. The problem is that Indonesia; it has been a culture to differentiate women and men. Although, I believe it does not mean the culture was meant to discriminate both parties. The culture was shaped in times when the society was still lacking of education with women not being able to understand intellectual studies. Therefore, they became more skillful in housing activities where they could learn without the obligation to go to specific school and they have obeyed such rule ever since. This could be one of the reasons behind the fact, as it is stated in the post, that women tend to have stronger obedience on they work rather than men. Despite the strong culture believe in Indonesia, it is now a different time. People are now allowed to use their right in getting the best education they could. Women are now getting more competitive with their ability to do the same work as men. There shouldn’t be any limit for both men and women to reach success. Nevertheless, the economic abuse to women is still a big deal. It is true that it may be illegal in doing such thing, but the local law enforcement is weak. A change in Indonesians’ mindset is needed in order to bring more prosperity to women. Hence, the culture does not need to be changed. The culture needs to be able to adapt to the current situation with the growth of globalization.
ReplyDeleteHarassment in an informal, badly regulated workforce is probably the worst kind of harassment, as most victims do not have the power to talk back or report on the perpetrators. The power structure of the setting means that victims would risk getting fired, or worse, if they complain about the treatment they received from the bosses. It is made worse by the scale of said industries and the lack of unionization among the workers, which mean that the voice of one distressed female worker is often overheard. These factors combine to discourage victims from reporting their experiences, which further exacerbates the problem with sexual harassment and creates the condition wherein perpetrators feel that there are no checks to their actions. This is also why the representative of the Komnas Perempuan said that the rise of sexual harassment cases in 2017 could be seen as a good thing, as it could mean that more cases are being reported and that more victims are now brave enough to report their cases.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, gender equality in Indonesia is not talked about enough. There is a lack of awareness here in Indonesia, when it comes to bringing justice towards women. There are a lot of women in Indonesia that are being treated poorly and unfairly. They are being treated as if they are less than men. Women aren’t less or more to men. Women and men are equal and deserve the same amount of respect. Looking at the fact that over 348,446 cases of violence against women in full-year 2017 happened, disgusts me. Violence against women is heartbreaking, and even violence against anyone in general is heartbreaking. Violence is never acceptable and violence is never the answer. As the society evolved, people should be able to educate themselves more so that they would be able to adapt to the more advanced version of society. In conclusion, women in Indonesia deserve better treatment from society and while society is advancing everyone should be able to educate themselves to be able to adapt to the current society.
ReplyDeleteGenerally, Indonesia is a conservative country where it is acceptable for men to work and women to stay at home taking care of the house and the kids. This kind of culture results in women not pursuing high education because women are not obliged to work. Also the legal constitutions regarding women's rights are not boldly enforced in our country. Wage gap between men and women that have the same educational background is so unfair. Lots of women, especially with low education are unaware of this violation against women's rights such as wage gap, physiological and physical harassment. Moreover, in the working environment, women often get treated with not only wage gap but also sexual harassment, and if they did get it, they do not know how or where they should speak up due to the lack of law's enforcement regarding women's rights. Imagine if more women get to work in formal sector, our GDP amount will be larger, which results in higher GNP. Higher GNP meaning higher welfare. So, It is important for our government to really enforce laws to protect women's rights and for women to be aware of the inequality happening surround us and be brave to speak up about it.
ReplyDeleteLooking back at the history of Indonesia as a country , it is very special in a way that the people are very attached and proud of their culture. If we pay attention to the different cultures that are present, the focus on women is always available and it puts them in a certain position. But in some cases these positions might be too rigid or not mobile enough to keep up with the era we live in now. The point of view that women should stay at home and take care of the kids, clean and then cook is a in some ways not acceptable. Honestly it is an opinion and preference of how we want to look at these things. But to lock women in that position is just plain incorrect. As the method in working and then earning money is becoming more diverse. The gap on wage, employment rate and violence should be paid more attention to. This is because in my opinion everybody should be viewed only from their effort and ability.
ReplyDeleteThe wage gap has been a very interesting topic for me because, some people like to exaggerate it most of the time. How did they even calculate the so called "wage gap"? Did they just find the average wage for female workers and compare it to the average wage for male worker? That's simply not the case, a person's wage is determined by many factors such as hours spent, productivity, or even educational background. You cannot simply compare male wage to female wage. The only true way to find out if there is a wage gap is to compare a female and a male worker that does the exact same job, comes from similar background and does the same ammount of work. Only in that context can you truly determine if there is a wage gap or not. If so, then it is wrong and it sickens me if it has happened. I cannot talk alot about violence towards female workers but, I am sure that it is a serious issue. My point is that people use the term "wage gap" so much that it just sometimes isn't true. If only the source could explain how they gathered that information then the article would be more compelling. Perhaps you could help me with an example of an incident where the female worker gets paid less for doing the same job as the male worker. This comment may seem like a sexist comment, or denying that sexism doesn't exist, it is not. I am just simply stating how the wage gap is an overused term.
ReplyDeleteI think that gender equality should be brought up in Indonesia. I found that most jobs in Indonesia are men oriented. An easy example is drivers of online transportations, as we all know; most of the drivers are men due to the job needing huge physical stamina. Even though, the company did not specify the gender of their drivers but, most of them tend to be males. Another factor of lack of women in work field is because of culture. In Indonesia, most women, especially the ones that got married already tend to stay at home and take care of the kids while men work to fulfill the family needs. Despite the fact that woman are now able to work and pursue their dreams as high as possible, in some company men are still positioned higher than women, the pay rate of woman is quite lower than man but, these pay rate doesn’t reflect work quality. There are better female workers compared to men. Government should be able to balance the pay rate of male and female worker to support the gender equality movement.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, I think women are entitled to equal wages to men. I believe that Indonesia treats women labor poorly, since they believe that women don’t deserve equal wages because men are capable of more manual labor. It discomforts me when I think that women are thought of to be weaker and incapable of heavy jobs that male workers are capable to do. I think, in Indonesia, one way to fix the poor economy is to set a minimum wage for women equal to men’s and open a freer market for women. On the other hand, that will only work on the formal sectors of employment and will have relatively no effect for the less educated women that are forced to work informally with a lower wage. I think it’s our job as the new generation to change that mindset and really appreciate women for what they can do and what they can endure.
ReplyDeleteGender’s equality is still one of our country’s main issue. Indonesia still struggles to close the gender equality gap, but that doesn’t mean that the government is not aware of it. We do have institution that supports the awareness of gender equality. We can observe that our country’s economic development won’t be sustainable without the gender equality. Indonesia’s fast economic development has given the country achievement as the largest economy in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the 16th largest GDP in the world according to world bank, but it got me questioning whether this has also good impact on the population, especially the welfare of women. Many companies only hire their employees men, especially in the engineering industries. Then what about the engineering graduates that are woman? Its time for our country to change its stigma on woman and starts appreciating them equally to men more significantly.
ReplyDeleteThe main reason why women getting violence is because men thinks they stronger than women. But we have to know that strength doesn’t exclusive for men. We have to think that woman’s purpose isn’t to serve the men in our life. I fear for those of you who put their dreams and feelings aside and instead put those of their partners as the most important ones. We have to recognize that as a women we are strong, powerfull, and vulnerable. Also don’t see ourself as inferiors. I fear for those of you who are teaching these to their daughters and sons. I fear for them because they might not be able to follow their passions because of the fear of appearing less of a man or woman. I fear that they won’t be able to recognize oppression. I fear that they will someday become the oppressor, or the one suffering from it. Being a women doesn’t make us less than a men, and don’t forget that your first home was a woman :)
ReplyDeleteGender equality has long been an issue for a lot of countries. It is not just solely a problem for Indonesia. I think that the problem we are facing right now is that, there is a social stigma on woman, which made employers believe that they’re not as capable as man, and therefore should be positioned lower than man. Regardless of the difference in capabilities between men and women, in my opinion, both men and women should be given equal minimum wage. Why? It is clear that women and men are dissimilar in traits. There are some traits which women have that men don’t. For example, women are believed to be gentler and more thorough than men when doing something. These traits are important for doing jobs that require great preciseness. While men are believed to be better in doing physical works. Despite these though, what if there are women who are more capable in doing what is considered as “men’s jobs”? What if there are women who is a very good fitness trainer? Should they be paid lower than male fitness trainer if they are a better trainer? I believe that the work of a worker should be valued based on their quality and performance and not the gender. It is our job as future leaders to break this social stigma and bring equality to the world.
ReplyDeleteWage gap between men and women has been a controversial issues not only in Indonesia but also in other countries. I think wage gap based on gender should be ended in formal and informal sector if both men and women have the same level of education, job, and working hours. Violence against women is also a big problem in Indonesia. There are so many acts of violences against women reported to The National Commission on Violence Against Women but in reality the amount of cases of violence against women is much more than it is. There are many unreported cases because of the fear of being ostracized in the society felt by the victims. There are also form of victim blaming when there is violence against women. It is usually sounds like this, “It is her fault, if she does not want to be harassed she should not dress like that” or “It is her fault to be outside late at night”. Victim blaming and the fear of being ostracized is making this problem worse.
ReplyDeleteGender equality has been a topic discussed in many countries in the world. One of the problems is the wage gap between man and woman. Personally, I think that there shouldn’t be a wage gap between genders. I also think that starting from now, people should change their mindset that man are better than woman in every case. As a man, I also realize that there are a lot of things that women are better at comparing to man. There are also a lot of women that has higher education background comparing to man. Therefore, there shouldn’t be a wage gap. We should forget about the past’s point of view that indicates that men are better than women at working. I agree if there is a minimum wage for women that is equal to men. In conclusion, I believe that women are totally entitled to have a same wage level as men.
ReplyDeleteWe still can see the significant gap between men and women in various aspects, but the predominant aspects are economic and violence. Some agreed that women are physically less powerful than men, which resulted in exploitation in household and careers. The wage gap between men and women is still visible; women tend to have a lower wage. Even though they have the same educational background and job to do, women have a tendency to be paid lower, until 20% according to the passage, than how much men gain. The possible reason for this is because men are still considered as the breadwinner of the family traditionally. In the industrial era, the role of men is to support the family economically while women take care of the children and house. Aside from job, men usually have the physical power than women, which resulted in violence. I agree that this case has been happening since before, but women are now braver to report the case instead of sitting in silence in fear of further consequences from the men when reporting.
ReplyDeleteThis issue is very hotly debated in Indonesia. Women in Indonesia tend to encounter inequality more, compared to other countries, because the background of each individual in the society supported the idea where man is believed to be more superior than women and eventually this makes many performers of sexual abuse can easily slip away. From this basic background, we can see the sources of the problem in this issue, and I personally think that in order to change this perspective will take a lot of time. Moreover, many women are still unavailable to stand up against those people who disrespect them because this performer can actually take action that can directly jeopardize the victim’s condition. However, as time goes society slowly noticing this serious issue, more and more effort has been done to encounter this problem such as now women have their own women section in the railway coach in a purpose of preventing any further sexual assault.
ReplyDeleteThough we are vastly progressing, the gender gap in Indonesia is still visible. The patriarchal culture often takes women for granted and really affects how women function within the socio economic context. One of the factor that a lot of women choose to do informal work is because of the preconception of parenting. The majority of Indonesia still think that women should play a major part in parenting. With that being said, if a women choose to have a family and a career, she is working twice as much as men. A lot of traditional Indonesian families still think that men should work and women should just stay home to take care of the children. This notion also hinders many women to pursue a professional career. Another devastating fact is that majority of men here still feel superior than women, making the women feel inferior. A lot of rape cases in Indonesia still blame women for what they are wearing. A lot of people still judge women who speaks up on gender equality matter. If this is the mindset, then education is the best hope for change.
ReplyDeleteBut the fact is that now majority of university students worldwide are women. My observation also suggest that a lot of women are putting so much effort to pursue their career. Like I said earlier, we are progressing. I believe that if we put more emphasis on gender equality and if women continue to be determined, we will have a brighter future ahead.
Gender inequality is one of those problem that even the most developed countries may come across. The reason behind this is that a lot of people tend to think that women may not be able to work or produce as much as men. In Indonesia this problem is still can be seen, even though it is slowly but surely improving. Personally, I believed that women and men should have similar amount of minimum wage. The reason behind this is because there are things that women do better than men, and there are also things that men do better than women.
ReplyDeleteOther than Gender inequality women have to deal with many acts of violence. there are more women that are brave enough to report what they went through, and because of that we need to appreciate them for doing such brave thing, and we as people should protect, support, and respect those that went through such bad things
Gender equality and discrimination has been a lot of issues in a lot of countries. Women sometimes are seen and treated differently from men, even sometimes they are rewarded differently from men, this has been a long and major issue. This gender equality problem is caused by a lot of factors. One of them is the result of men and women having different traits and personality. Women are sometimes seen to be more gentle, while men are sometimes seen to be more stronger, but in reality both men and women are capable of doing the same thing in my opinion, depending on what they are asked to do. Women sometimes, are also treated unequaly, one of the example of this is wage differences between men and women that until now still happened sometimes. In my opinion, if men and women can get the job done with the same result, why differentiate their reward? In my opinion, gender equality should be improved for women, and gender discrimination should be removed from today’s world.
ReplyDeleteIn Indonesia, the challenges to gender equality remain in the widespread discriminatory attitudes, which prevent women from exercising their economic rights, property ownership and land inheritance, access to credit, wages and workplace benefits, and livelihood opportunities. Factors such as class, race, ethnicity and the role of the state in constructing gender ideologies contribute to the perception and treatment of girls and women everywhere, these are the reasons why gender inequality still remain in Indonesia. Indonesia’s women comprise almost half of the country’s population. The majority of them (66.2 percent) belongs to the productive group of 15-64 years old. With almost as many women as men in the country, Indonesian women would have the same role as men as contributors and help drive the economic progress, If the potential of Indonesian women could be boosted then these “new women” would become the driving force of change. They would certainly become the drivers of development in the country on a scale that might well surpass expectations.
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