Women, family, and work in Indonesian transmigration
Watkins, J.F.; Leinbach, T.R.; Falconer, K.F.
Journal of Developing Areas 27(3): 377-398
1993
ISSN/ISBN: 0022-037X PMID: 12286576 DOI: 10.2307/4192231Document Number: 327545
The topic of household economic viability and the gender dimension of employment is especially critical in many settings, but none more so than in Indonesia's transmigration programme, the world's largest voluntary resettlement scheme, aiming to encourage poor landless families to move from Java and Bali to the outer less populated islands. The aim of this paper is to examine the role of women in off-farm employment (OFE) in a sample of those participating in South Sumatran transmigration schemes. After a brief review of the literature, dealing primarily with women's participation in OFE, the paper looks at a number of issues. Firstly, it examines the extent to which transmigration women take up jobs away from their home farms, and how this feature can be characterized spatially. Secondly, the paper considers the structural characteristics of the OFE associated with adult married women of transmigrant families. Thirdly, OFE behaviour among both men and women in terms of their life course influences are examined and explained, especially with regard to change in family composition, spacing and age of children. Finally, a descriptive and explanatory model that accounts for observed employment behaviour in both spatial and temporal dimensions is presented. The paper concludes that as the economy develops, women still lack significantly flexible opportunities in OFE.