Displaying Compliance
An analysis of the gender performance of women workers in the kretek- cigarette industry in Kudus, Indonesia
Atina Rosydiana MSc International Development Studies 2019 A master’s thesis
Displaying Compliance
An analysis of the Gender Performance of Women Workers in Kretek-Cigarette Industry in Kudus, Indonesia
Atina Rosydiana
920628020130
Date of submission: May 30, 2019
Thesis code: SDC – 80436
Supervisor: Dr. Elisabet D. Rasch
Examiner: Dr. Chizu Sato
Wageningen University
Sociology, Development and Change Chair Group
MSc. International Development Studies Acknowledgment
I would like to thank the following people that have contributed to this thesis: My warmest gratitude goes to my supervisor, Elisabet D. Rasch, for your enthusiasm and persistence in assisting me throughout the thesis process. With your academic excellence, you would always challenge me further, broaden my critical thinking and academic perspective. Encouraging and supporting me during the writing processes. Providing me with advice, and most importantly, for your patience to assist me and allow me with the freedom to work and write my own story. Thank you! Secondly, I would like to thank all the women participated in my research, to be friend with me. You have trusted me listening to your life stories; welcome me with hot tea and fries; allow me to sleepover at your home. I owe you bunch of thanks. Additionally, I would like to thank all the people in the factory (men and women), the local government officers, and the local historian for their kindness to support my field research. I would also like to thank my dear friends and ‘family’ in Wageningen. I am very grateful that I am surrounded with many warm-hearted people, who always supported me and made my living in Wageningen feels like a ‘home far away from home’. Certainly last but not least, an ultimate thanks dedicated to my family, especially to Ibu (mother), for her never-ending support and prayers, encouraging me to keep moving forward in pursuing my dreams. A special thanks to Zaki, for giving me excellent support in writing this thesis and life processes we’ve been through together. Can’t wait for much more adventurous to come!
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Table of contents
Acknowledgements ...... i Table of Contents ...... ii List of figures ...... iv Glossaries and abbreviations ...... v Abstract ...... vi Introduction ...... 1 1.1 Moving forward ...... 2
Gender and women working in Indonesia ...... 4 2.1 Introduction ...... 4 2.2 Gender, intersectionality and development ...... 4 2.3 Gendered division of labor ...... 7
2.4 Agency in everyday practices ...... 9
2.5 Women working in Indonesia ...... 10
2.6 Conclusion ...... 11
Methodology ...... 13 3.1 Introduction ...... 13 3.2.1 Determining and approaching ‘the field’ ...... 13 3.2.2 Research participants ...... 15 3.3 Research tools ...... 16 3.3.1 Participant observation ...... 16 3.3.2 Interviews ...... 19 3.4 Data management ...... 19 3.5 Reflection on access and positionality ...... 20 3.6 Conclusion ...... 22 The significance of kretek in Kudus ...... 24 4.1 Introduction ...... 24 4.2 Kretek in Kudus: beyond the cigarettes ...... 25
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4.3 Kretek-cigarette manufacture ...... 30 4.3.1 The family enterprise ...... 31 4.3.2 The scale of enterprise ...... 32 4.4 Women in kretek manufacture ...... 35 4.5 Conclusion ...... 37 Gender performance at a ktetek-cigarette factory ...... 38 5.1 Introduction ...... 38 5.2 Hand-rolled kretek-cigarette production: a background ...... 39 5.2.1 The cigarettes making ...... 39 5.2.2 Workers in the factory ...... 42 5.2.3 The hierarchy in the structure, architecture and communication ...... 47 5.3 Gender in career opportunities ...... 50 5.4 Performing agency in the kretek promotion ...... 52 5.5 Conclusion ...... 55 Women workers dependency and control in the household ...... 56 6.1 Introduction ...... 56 6.2 Compromise with the parental authority ...... 57 6.3 Women workers in their marriage live ...... 59 6.3.1 Gaining self-worth by having waged work ...... 60 6.3.2 The division of work in married lives ...... 61 6.3.3 The bittersweet of living with a kinship neighborhood ...... 63
6.4 Managing finance ...... 65 6.4.1 Arisan and the social network ...... 67 6.4.2 Entrepreneurship and the household strategies ...... 69 6.5 Conclusion ...... 71 Conclusion ...... 73 Reference ...... 75
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List of figures
Figure 1. Kudus kota kretek gate in the city entrance – (Komunitas Kretek, 2015) ...... 25 Figure 2. The cigarette production process in a diorama at Kretek Museum – Atina Rosydiana .. 26 Figure 3. Women workers in the market next to the factory – Atina Rosydiana ...... 28 Figure 4. The cigarette making process – Atina Rosydiana ...... 41 Figure 5. The organization structure of the factory – Atina Rosydiana ...... 44 Figure 6. Sopiatun's shop covered with cigarette brands advertisement – Atina Rosydiana ...... 71
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Glossaries and abbreviation
Alun-alun : City central usually in form of a round or square-grass field for ceremonies Batil : Worker who cut off the cigarettes/ Cutter BPS : Badan Pusat Statistik/ Central Bureau of Statistics BPJS Kesehatan : Public health insurance Dampar : Wooden table for rolling cigarettes Disnakerinkop : Dinas Perindusterian, Ketenagakerjaan, Industri dan Koperasi/ The local representative for the industry, employment, transmigration, and cooperation Contong : Worker who packs the cigarettes/ Packer Giling : Worker who rolls the cigarettes/ Roller Gilingan : A tool for rolling cigarettes made from wood Idul Fitri : Muslim’s religious day. The day is celebrated after a month of fasting. It is counted using lunar calendar Mbako : Mix of cigarette ingredients including tobacco, clove, and sauce Pasar bubar : mobile market Permendikbud : Peraturan Menteri Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan/ The regulation of Indonesian ministry for Education PPRK : Persatuan Pengusaha Rokok Kudus/ Association for cigarette enterprises in Kudus SKT : Sigaret Kretek Tangan/ Hand-rolled kretek-cigarette Warung : Food shop
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Abstract
The manufacture of kretek-cigarette, the ‘Indonesian native cigarette’ has a significant role in the national economy as well as providing job opportunities for the people, especially women. The involvement of women in the industry has been directed towards the debate of feminization of labor at which expanding the labor market yet at the same time deteriorates the working condition, including labor standard, income, and employment status. Such conception, however, pledges a deterministic gendered division of labor at which result to subordinate women. This idea leaves little room for a discussion about how the women experience and participate in the gendering process. This thesis examines the dynamic process of gender relations with regards to kretek industry in Kudus, Indonesia, where kretek was firstly invented and has been becoming a home for hundreds of kretek enterprises. Based on ethnographic field research, this thesis analyses the gender reality of women workers of the kretek cigarette factory. This thesis examines how such gendered structures are performed and to what extent the women cope with the gendered organization in their workplace and their family. To understand the gendering process of the industry-related structures and practices, this thesis uses the concept of intersectionality whilst gender becomes an identity mark that intersects and is shaped by other identities, such as class and race. This qualitative research is done using participatory observation and semi- structured interview. In analyzing gender performance, this thesis argues that women are not only affected by such gendered structure yet showing agency. Indeed, as an agent of change, the women perform agency and participate in the gendering process of structure, norms, at which resultin the continuity and change.
Keywords: gender, intersectionality, gendering process, agency
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1. Introduction
Indonesia is well-known for its ‘native cigarette’ called kretek. Indonesia receives large revenues from cigarette manufacture throughout the year. The word kretek is an onomatopoeia derived from the sound of burnt clove “keretek keretek” (Hanusz, 2000; Wibisono, 2014). Kretek is acclaimed as an authentic Indonesian cigarette by its distinctive ingredients: tobacco, clove and herb sauce. The Indonesian tobacco industry is the second largest after the government in terms of employment, providing 5.98 million jobs; 4.28 million in manufacturing, and 1.7 million in tobacco plantations (Kemenperin, 2018). From the 1.7 million people who work in manufacturing, the majority are women. Women are deemed more suitable for work in cigarette production, as many tasks are seen to require ‘female traits’ which is not possessed by men. The abundance of women within the production of hand-rolled cigarettes shows the femininity of factory labor, labeling particular tasks as ‘women’s work’ in the context of tobacco (Barraclough 1999). The women workers are stereotyped to have such ‘nimble finger’ (Pearson and Heyzer, 1986 in Saptari, 2000) to show their perseverance, docility and neatness to whom not associated to men. This female exclusivity only applies to limited task such as rolling, cutting, and packing the cigarette, while leading positions are occupied by men. This later raises questions about how the women workers experience such organization and through which practices the women respond the situation in their everyday lives. Therefore, this thesis will examine gender relations and identify women workers’ gender roles as performed through their everyday interaction. I will focus on two premises at which the women involved in their daily lives; at homes and their workplace. In investigating the women’s gender performance, this thesis focuses to look on the gendering process of an organization to which result to produce the gender regime (Walby 2002). The escalation number of female in the industry or known as the feminization of labor depicts the shift in the labor force towards female dominated employment. Most of the literature has pledged the term ‘feminization’ as a yield of globalization of production (Standing, 1999, 1989) and that has encouraged the pursuit of ‘flexible labor’ forms to increase competitiveness. It has changed job structures as it demanded relatively cheap labor and therefore escalated the number of women within industrial enterprises; provides an advantage for women as well as exposing them to being subjected, subordinated, and discriminated The feminization of labor has been noted for its dual sense: it can open opportunities for women to be part of global paid employment - to earn income, gain independence and to participate more actively in the public arenas (Barrientos., et al., 2004) - yet at the same time it has seen deteriorating working conditions (labor standard, income, and employment status). Therefore, this research aims to understand these gendered impact of the industrial development and to what extent the women workers cope with them.
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This thesis aims to be an opportunity to lift up the voice of women within such a deterministic framing of gendered division of labor. Besides, in order to identify in what form of agency the women perform within responding set of gender norms and structure they have been involved. Nevertheless, literature in gender has sought that organizations have typically been led in a masculine manner, for example by placing men at the top of the hierarchy and in key decision- making positions, with access to these roles for women is minimal (Acker 1990). This thesis is willing to contribute to a better understanding of women’s strategies in performing gender in their everyday live in order to avoid the determinism enacts on the essentialist notion of gender. This study considers on the dynamic of gender in performance as it is socially constructed and thus this thesis pledged to nuance gender role’s debate; look beyond the distinction of gender within the development of the cigarette industry. This study is expected to give contributions to the existing knowledge of the agency shown in responding the gendered order. The women as the focus of this study will not be seen as a unitary entity because by doing so, it will result to depoliticizing gender (Elmhirst 2011). Thus, this study identifies various strategies and ways practiced by the women to cope with the dominant gender norms. In the patriarchal society, whereas men occupy the major positions (Sandole- Staroste, I. 2013), women are perceived as weaker actors, while at the same time they are autonomous actors who can make choice and be able to show agency. Therefore, this study aims to bring more nuance to the discussion upon agency underpinning in the women workers’ everyday practices. In order to tackle the aforementioned task, this thesis engages in an ethnographic approach, drawing on perspectives from the dynamic transformation of gender within development discourse. It will at the long-term redefinition of the relational clause between gender and economic development. In addition to the contribution on social level, this study contributes to provide variety of responses from the women, in order not to overlook the space for participation in everyday practices in which agency is performed
1.1 Moving forward
With the aim of identifying nuanced gender performances in the women worker’s everyday practices, this thesis is structured around three separate spheres: disclosing the gendering process in the premises related to kretek industry; examining the extent to which the interrelationship between industry and the household impacts (in)equalities; and to identify the exercise of agency in everyday practices. The following research questions were formulated:
How do women workers in kretek-cigarette factories experience gender relations and negotiate gender structure at the workplace and at home?
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To operationalize the research question, I divided this thesis into three demarcations. First, it sought to understand the processes and practices that shape gender norms in the kretek- cigarette industry. Secondly, to study the women workers’ experiences with gender roles in everyday practices, I concern on the division of work across gender lines in the premises of their workplace and their home. In order to contextualize the women experiences with gender, I also focus on how the relationship between the workplace and home; to what extent the interplay between two domains to understand the position of the women between two domains. Later in the interview with the women worker, I asked them to reflect about the current gender norms and how they perceive their position within the structure, and also to describe their roles or through what practices and/ or strategies they respond that perform agency.
This thesis is structured as follows. First, I introduce the underpinning conceptual framework to develop conceptual understanding of gendering process and the potential impact within the process, and the experience of the women worker with gender at home and their workplace. Within the conceptual bundle, I also give an overview of the relevant context for this thesis, with respect to gender in Indonesia. Subsequently, I describe the methodology used in this thesis, including a reflection of my positionality and how it affects this research.
Chapter 4 is the first of three chapters in the empirical findings of the research. Here I describe the result of observation and analyze the interrelationship between the kretek industry and wider society in Kudus. I show how the entanglement of people in Kudus to kretek and its development. As an initial empirical finding, this chapter displays socioeconomic entanglement as well as gender construction of kretek in relation to the city lives; to name a few places, monument, activities.
Chapter 5 I turn to overview the gender performance in the kretek factory. I examine gender through organization structure applied the factory, including the gendered division of labor, the building, and the communication procedure. Observation from the women workplace illustrates how gender continues to decide the division of labor at work. I argue that the job is already gendered, and thus, the concept of ‘ideal worker’(Acker 1990) are persistent within the manufacturer activities. The asymmetrical power relations contribute to reproducing inequalities within the structure. Most of the women workers are not aware of the imbalance position in the organization, whilst individuals keep making a choice according to their limit illustrating the agency
Chapter 6, then, is the final empirical chapter, show how the women position in their household with regards to their employment in the factory. It examines the women’s position in their household, including their control upon the household decision making and dependence towards another member of the family. The essentialist notion of gender (Agnew, 2003) turns out to be normalized by the women through the way they make sense of the gendered division of labor; the women are expected to take responsibility for both domestic task and to earn money
3 that makes up the ‘second shift’ (Hochschild and Machung, 1990). The chapter will lead the reader to know how the household looks like; what’s roles owned by the women and how in what way the women do their jobs. The women’s everyday interaction and activities are taken into account to analyze their agency.
In the concluding chapter, I consider the implication of the research findings for gender performance as it is conceptualized by varied approaches related to agency. The dominant gender norm is, however, had potentially limit the women’s active agency (Kabeer 2005). Nevertheless, the women workers contribute to performing continuity and change of the internalized gender. I can conclude that both institution and individuals keep improving such awareness upon agency and dynamic change; to expand the space of participation
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2. Gender, agency, and working women in Indonesia
2.1 Introduction
This research draws inspiration from feminist approach within development studies. It attempts to identify how women workers in kretek cigarette factory experience their gendered lives. The loci of this study, including the gendering process of kretek cigarette industry, the position of women within such gendered organization and the women’s strategies to deal with the existing gender relations. Therefore, this chapter aims to outline the proposed conceptual framework used in this study. Feminist scholarship has consistently argued that development, specifically economic growth, has profoundly affected differently to either men or women, and somewhat oppressing women (Standing 1990; Saptari 1995; Ong, 1988). This affects not only women themselves directly, but also changes the relationship between the productive and reproductive aspects, transforming it into an interplay between the household and the workplace. Therefore, from here onwards, it is essential to grasp the theory regarding intersectionality in gender relations and the extent to which this shapes the gender norms and structure in the labor force. This chapter also looks to conceptualize the gendering process of an organization and its impact on identified actors. As the structure or so-called gender norms can affect individuals differently, an analysis of women’s responses to the existing structure through their everyday practices should be taken into account. It is followed with an overview about gender relations in Indonesia, in order to provide the empirical nuance and link it to the aforementioned concepts and theories
2.2 Gender, intersectionality and development
The concept of gender as the social distinction between men and women appeared in the 20th century and was aimed to distinguish sex and gender. Gender with its current meaning was first emerged as a criticism upon the essentialism of gender, which was mostly associated to the concept of sex. Sex is closely attributed to the biological determinism between female and male bodies; differences in chromosomes, reproductive organs, external and internal genitals, hormonal states and other sex characteristics (Scott, 1986). There is no single definition of gender, and in 1970s, the concept of gender was linked to feminist theory to serve the critique of inequality and a man-dominant society. While sex is closely to the biological determinism, gender also look on what kind of social construction enacts to the distinction upon men and women (Agnew, 2003). Gender is about “socially constructed differences between men and women and the beliefs and identities that support difference and inequality (Acker 2006:444). Societies establish a strong
5 division between acceptable behavior men and women, but this is a social construction; what it means to be ‘feminine’ or masculine and indeed is, differed time and place. Gender always involves certain power relations. More contemporary feminist discourse stresses that a system of patriarchy that subordinates ‘others’ (mostly women). In a patriarchal society, the dominant power are occupied by men, putting women always that of ‘the other’ (Butler 1988). Even if there are various definitions and debates over patriarchy, it is generally refers to a certain condition at which men and masculinity are dominant, situating women or femininity in marginal positions as ‘others’ (Johnson 2010). However, gender is more than just the only identity that affects interactions. In the concept of intersectionality, gender does not stand alone, but rather ‘intersect’ with and is shaped by other identities, such as class and race. Kimberly Crenshaw (1989) introduces intersectionality to address the fact that the experiences as well as the struggles of women of color “fell between the cracks of both feminist and anti-racist discourse”; that gender and race interact and shape what is experienced by women of color (cited in Davis 2008). As the intersectionality concept concerns itself with social divisions, I am aware that those differences (such as class, race, ethnicity, religion) can be different to every individual; the ways people experience inclusion or exclusion vary in form. Using the concept of intersectionality, women and men are not equal, and amongst women themselves can be not equal either. It was brought by the Black Feminism movement (1970s); they argued that they were facing two exclusion; first is because they were women, and secondly because they were ‘black’. Intersectionality suggest that “the confluence of one’s multiple marginalized and privileged identities is an interaction that creates a unique experience” (Museus and Griffin 2011: 8). It means that the experience within groups are different according to the extent to which identities shape it. The concept of gender is strongly related to development to which correlate to the production of inequality. The first encounter between gender inequalities with development practice was Women in Development (WID) approach. It was first evoked by Ester Boseroup (1970) who emphasized that women and men were affected differently within development and thus women need to be ‘modernized’. The WID advocates that women should be integrated ongoing development initiatives, yet it overlooks the impact and influence of class, race, and culture in the creation of subordination. WID forgets to recognize the important divisions that exist among women and the frequent exploitation that is suffered by poor women at the hands of rich ones. A second approach in analyzing women in development went through WID to Woman and Development (WAD) which is much associated to the Marxist theory. As the WID, WAD receives a lot of critique as it put “women’s struggle in the structure of capitalism” and then privileged over patriarchy (Bradshaw, 2015: 57). However, like WID, WAD tends to group women together without taking strong analytical note of class, race or ethnicity, at which may affect women’s social status.
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Gender and Development (GAD) was then emerged as a progressive approach in analyzing gender in development; as an alternative to the earlier WID focus (Rathgeber 1990). The GAD focuses not only assert women to the existing structure and processes of development but problematize the unequal power relations between man and woman within the development processes, then women become agents of change rather than as passive recipients of development (Rathgeber, 1990: 13). The GAD sought to understand the contextual reason why and how women have been systematically subordinated and thus the ‘process’ becomes a keyword in understanding gender, either in the context of norm and practices in relation to the development. Consequently, this research reckon gender as social construction, an ongoing process; something men and women learn in their lives; to which shape social interaction.
2.3 Gendered division of labor
The concept of gender has evoked some terms, as in the notion of ‘gendering’ or ‘gendered’, meaning to what extent “people, situations, objects, schemas can be given meaning, both empirically and analytically through gender and gender relations” (Hearn and Husu 2011: 6). Throughout time, women have accounted for one-third of the manufacturing labor force in developing countries, and more than one-half industrial works in Asia referring to as the notion of ‘feminization of labor’ (Barrientos and Kabeer 2004). The feminization of labor was favored by the industry upon cheap labors, and women were, deserved to be paid low for doing such productive work. The feminization of labor has been noted for its dual sense: it can open opportunities for women to be part of global paid employment - to earn income, gain independence and to participate more actively in the public arenas yet at the same time it deteriorates working conditions, namely labor standard, income, and employment status (Barrientos and Kabeer 2004). Feminization of labor has resulted employment conditions for workers (man and woman) become less secured and protected (Standing 1999). The concept of feminization of labor practically assert more women to be involved in industry, yet analytically provoke the prevailing gender division of labor referring to the notion of ‘ideal worker’ (Acker 1990); distributing task across gender lines. Acker (1990) points out that ‘a job’ already contains a gender-based division. She argues that an industrial organization has a logic that represents a ‘disembodied work’. Men are perceived to be fully focused on their full-time job, while his wife (or other women) can take care of men’s personal needs and the children. Acker acknowledges gender segregation at work allows the control of sexuality and bars women from certain types of work, and that women’s jobs are always seen in relation to the domestic context (1990: 152). Women find it more difficult to meet certain expectations because they are borne with responsibilities to manage their reproductive role, a concept called the ‘second shift’ (Hoschild and Machung, 1990). In that sense, women have access to do paid work, but they should not neglect their responsibility in the domestic context. Referring
7 again to Acker’s idea on how oppression is reproduced in the workplace, she argues that the intersection of class, gender and racial relations of inequality is reproduced in an organization through ‘inequality regimes’ (Acker, 2006). Acker points out that inequality regimes consist of “loosely interrelated practices, processes, actions and meaning that are combined to maintain class, gender, and racial inequalities within the organization” (2006: 443). The hierarchical organization of an institution comes to justify wage gaps and other differences that are legitimated through arguments that naturalize inequalities (Gabaccia and Glenn 2006). In investigating how inequality regimes are sustained, it is important to look at the intersecting social identities as social structural processes. The identity is informed by institutional, political and societal structures instead of personality traits or individualized experiences (Warner 2008) In principle, the participation of women in industry is considered to bring about improvements in respect to women’s livelihoods and well-being. Prior studies revealed that industrialization creates social transformation of the family and the position of women, freeing them (including men) from familial patriarchal control as they were exposed to a non-familial ideology and the capitalist workplace, through earning and controlling their wage (Goode, 1963; Shorter, 1977 in Wolf, 1992). The creation of this sort of impact is also echoed by gender studies in the ‘Third World’. In South East Asia, daughters attempt to enter factory work for the sake of emancipation, as they are keen to gain more autonomy (Saptari, 1995; Wolf, 1992). The daughters sought to be free from domestic tasks through their employment in the factory. It is then relevant to this study, as it aims to investigate the impact of industrialization on women workers in their everyday lives, and the extent to which this provide room for contestation. Further, the gendered lives experience is also included women worker’s household, as a part of the women’s daily lives. The household is organized along age and gender hierarchies, and thus individuals within households have differentiated power, status, and access to resources (Hart, 1995). The women’s options are potentially expanded as they gain an ability to earn income, yet simultaneously, they are burdened with an intensified workload and greater responsibilities which do not significantly increase their autonomy. In that sense, the women should earn an income to comply with their gendered household duties; their work gets heavier through the income-earning activities, but their role and status remain unchanged. Working women are generally expected to grapple with the task of balancing their familial and organizational roles and there were few changes related to the social expectations about males and females (Kim and Ling, 2001). On the other hand, men are considered primarily to take care of the production work, while domestic roles such as the responsibility for family and child-bearing are perceived as women’s (Barrientos, et.al, 2004)
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2.4 Agency in everyday practices
Despite the shortcomings affected by the feminization of labor onto treating unequally to both man and woman, according to Naila Kabeer (2016), the women’s economic activity improve their wellbeing and agency. Kabeer’s definition of agency refers to as ‘process’ which challenges the liberal concept of defining agency into personhood that sees autonomy as an inherent capacity of individuals, regardless their social location (1999). As similar to as an autonomous human being, woman is the agent of change, who must be considered to be actively participate in the gendering process of their lives. Building on this, this research looks into how women workers experience and respond to the gender constraint in the premises of their home and the workplace by examining women’s participation in the company’s structure and practices as well as ways of engaging with the gender norms in their household. This includes everyday practices that are related to coping and resisting the transformation of industrialization into gender structure. The agency of women who enter the labor force is particularly described as to the extent to which “they could control the proceeds of their own labor, rather than participation per se that determine the transformative potential of their work” (Kabeer, 2016: 313). Within exercising agency, the women realize their own interest and are able to secure their interest and agenda (Mahmood, 2006). The women perform agency in myriad ways of response within their everyday lives. It could resonate any spirit of resistance that against the hegemonic ally to which impose the gender role. But, in the meantime, the women could also cultivate virtues that are associated with feminine passivity and submissiveness which continue their subordination (2006: 37). This attempts to determine the extent to which agency is entailed not only in acts that resist norms, but also in the multiple ways in which inhabits norms (Mahmood, 2006). Although, the recent gender studies, agency is merely related to ‘active actions’ as associated to such resisting act. In respect to nuance the form of agency, this study offers the concept of ‘compliant agency’ (Kabeer, 2016) to describe another way of responding the gendered structure of constraint beyond the mainstreaming resistive actions.
The women, as the focus of this study, cannot be seen as a unitary entity. Elmhirst (2011) warns that seeing women as ‘a homogenous and undifferentiated social category’ risks depoliticizing gender. Therefore, in investigating responses to inequalities, the diversity of women’s response to the existing hierarchy are taken into account. Individuals make choices and show agency according to the limits imposed by personal circumstances, also noting the constraints of the structural distribution of rules and norms along lines of gender, class, race and inequalities of power. The aim of this research is to investigate whether women’s labor force participation contributes to creating ‘compliance’ forms of agency, as suggested by evidence that women’s activity is associated with such a transformation in values and attitudes in society (Kabeer’, 2016). Hereby, to understand gendered impacts of the industrialization to the women, we need to examine their diverse responses (i.e., women’s interaction with other individuals or
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structure, their social relations in the household or to communities. The gendered experiences found in everyday practices reveal ‘forms of inclusion and exclusion crucial’ to understand the differentiated impacts of industrialization on women as well as to bring more nuances to the debate of agency (Vos and Delabre, 2018). Relevant to this study, it examine the women’s everyday interactions and communication to identify what form of agency they perform and how it affects their role in the general gender norm. Despite the omnipresence of women’s response, the women have actively participated in the formulation of particular gender structure; they also respond to its oppressive force and have redesigned its shape. Of importance is that women’s involvement has taken many shapes not only within an active resistance such as being involved in a movement or social activities, but also covertly in their daily interaction.
2.5 Women working in Indonesia
In order to provide an empirical nuance; and in pursuance of coloring the concept with realities of gender relations, this part contextualizes the concept of working women in the industry in Indonesia. This section aims to link the aforementioned conceptual bundle with the empirical finding chapter.
The participation of women in Indonesia’s labor market raises gradually. In 2015, working women 37.78% and in 2017 been increased to 38.63% (BPS, 2017). However, men percentage is generally still higher in the statistic for 2015 and 2017, 44.89% and 45.66% respectively. The intensive labor industries are predominantly fueled by women, approximately 80 percent of the total labor force, whereas (Tjandraningsih, 2000). Women’s involvement in the industrial sector is the third biggest after cultivation (including plantation and forestry) and trade. (BPS, 2017). In 2016, the report from national statistic showed that the industrial sector employs about 7 million people, while over 14 million were in cultivation, and 10 million people worked in trade companies. The lower rate of women participation compared to women’s status as workers is subordinated to their status as home-workers and the domestic domain become invisible in the statistic (Ford & Parker, 2008). It is commonly acknowledged by Indonesians, women bear a double role, to be functioning in both productive and reproductive activities. The raised participation of women into the labor force is regarded as the transition from rural, agricultural focus into working civilization. During the process, women are expected to transform and engage in a new capitalist arrangement and leaving behind their ‘traditional’ live (Waarouw, 2016). Women in such intensive-labor industry work are mostly posited to such ‘feminine’ task, like ‘sewing,’ as they are more productive, quick, and do not need any training since the job such as sewing is generally stereotyped as an ‘innate capacities and personality traits’ of women (Waarouw, 2008: 110 )
The current situation in Indonesia is marked by societal, political, religion, and cultural change. Most of Indonesians are Muslim, and the national constitution acknowledges other five
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religions as the national religion, namely Christian, Catholic, Buddhism, and Konghucu. In that sense, different area or space with different identities (i.e., ethnic) might reflect different realm of gender norms and practices of gendered division labor. For instance, in Java island, which consists of several regions, while each region is lived by different ethnic. The majority population in Java are Javanese [people with Java ethnic] who are initially from Central Java and East Java province. Ideally, in the Javanese culture, both man and woman are actively involved in various economic activities, although specific occupations are usually gender-assigned (Rudkin, 1993). Not only gender, the class status, expectedly household-level economic affect the decision to involve women to the waged work. In a nutshell, the girl from a low-income family tends to opt factory employment to support the household (Wolf, 1990). Although factory employment become automatic for a poor Javanese girl, her decision to be involved in a waged work should have been screened under the parents’ authority, including at which factory the girl would work (1990: 54).
Moreover, in the Javanese context, marriage becomes a must-thing in every girl’s life cycle. After they got married, the girls could leave their parents’ home, and that also meant for abating parental control over the girls. But, the woman’s autonomy, including her decision making and economic dependency, is shaped and affected by the new kinship norms in their married lives (Rammohan & Johar, 2009). For the factory working society, the post-marriage residence can be either patrilocal or matrilocal, depending on whose economic condition is better between a bride or the groom’s family. The choice to work for women could be represented as (1) to work at home without pay or (2) to participate in the labor market and receive pay (Gallaway, 2002). The division of labor in the Javanese household is usually determined across the gender line. The women are generally “responsible for keeping the money (pooled by all working household members), spending the money, and distributing goods among household members” (Geertz, 1961 as cited in Rudkin, 1993: 211). It makes women in Java taking a more prominent role compared to men in the domestic context. Meanwhile, Javanese daughters keep living with their parents as long as they are not married (Wolf, 1992).
Due to the underpinning gender-based division of work, it shows that either men or women are affected differently within the socio-cultural and religious structure. Therefore, it is relevant to look further on the experience and aspiration of women in dealing and coping with the structure.
2.6 Conclusion
The theoretical framework in this research is drawn from the non-essentialist notion of gender to the extent that it recognizes gender as a social construct. Thus, sustaining gender norms requires a constant reproduction of masculinity and femininity over time and space. Indeed, the norm can change, replaced with another form that occurs and is normalized. Therefore, gender norms are strongly related to everyday practices, and albeit gender still attributed to difference attached to
11 men and women. In general gender performance, many feminists view women as linked to a secondary status, subordinated within the patriarchal system. In short, patriarchy is enacted from the hierarchies of an organization that result in the different treatment that women are subjected to at which naturalized inequalities (Glenn, 2002).
However, the engagement of women into waged work has affected to an improvement of their wellbeing and agency (Kabeer, 2016). The women’s agency is known as myriad ways to respond to the gendered organization in both their home lives and their workplace. Their agency can be seen as an ongoing struggle or as activities, but also as compliance performed in the women’s daily interaction that seemingly inhabits the norms (Mahmood, 2006). The everyday practices become the women’s site of exercising agency as what the women perform can be varied in form and that the women are not supposed to be looked as a homogenous entity. Later in the incorporated chapter on findings and analysis, the response, activities, and social relations of the factory women will be delineated through the diverse will they perform within the interactions they have with other household or community members. Furthermore, the extent the women participate and contribute to their household socio-economic struggle will be investigated, along with considerations of women’s everyday interaction in their workplace.
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3. Methodology
3.1 Introduction Aimed at understanding the conceptual and practical level of gender relations of women workers in the cigarette industry, this research investigates daily lives. It does this through a face-to-face data collection methodology, also referred to as ethnography (Madden, 2010). Ethnography documents culture and reveals in the quotidian (Ghodsee, 2016). It features the study of the everyday context of people, a range of sources of data gathering, relatively ‘unstructured’ data collection, and facilitating in-depth study by focusing on a small-scale case. The data analysis involves interpretations, product description, explanation, and theories (Atkinson and Hammersly, 2007). Since the beginning, I was driven by my curiosity toward kretek. I was born and raised in Kudus city, although since I was 15 years old, I moved to another city to study and work. I usually came back ‘home’ to visit my parents or to spend days off. The most nostalgic part was to smell the tobacco and clove flavor anytime I passed by a cigarette factory. The aromatic scent of tobacco and clove used to be my favorite and I called it as ‘the scent of home’. My background and identity indeed, allowed me to gain an in-depth understanding of the intimacies of the respondents’ point of view and assisted me to interpret the respondents’ narratives and social interactions. In this chapter, I will provide an overview of the methodological choices I used during my research and reflect on the implications of these for data collection. First, I explain how I determine ‘the field’ and specify the cigarette company and other spots in the city I ended up observing for the sake of the research. This contributes to the rationale for selecting informants and respondents. Thereafter, I describe the research tools and classify gathered data. I also provide a section for reflection upon my position of dualism, both as an insider and an outsider that has affected my interaction with the people I encountered during the fieldwork and in writing the reports.
3.2.1 Determining and approaching ‘the field’
This thesis drawn from research conducted in Kabupaten Kudus (the city of Kudus). Since the central of this study was to understand women workers’s daily experiences, thus this research was set to follow their everyday activities; capturing moments and interaction in their workplace, at homes, and other places they were present. To added nuance of empirical finding, the data also collected from other sites related to kretek, such as museum and other public spaces.
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As a resident of Kudus, I considered myself knowing more than basic understanding about the place, the culture and particular behavior of the people. However, this was not sufficient to ease me in approaching ‘the field’. I lately understood it was quite hard to approach the cigarette companies which were most likely bureaucratic or closed to outsiders. A week after I arrived in Kudus, I ‘tested the wave’ through approaching a small cigarette company around my neighborhood, and this resulted in a failure. Although my parents live in the neighborhood (in the same village as the factory) it did not make any sense to grant me access. The owner insisted that I had to give him a permission letter from the municipality to do a research there. From his words and gestures, I could certainly read that he did not allow me to conduct my research there. He said that his factory was too small and thus I better look for another one. It is quite normal in Javanese culture to not refuse an offer straightforwardly, but to complicate the process instead. At the end of the visit, he did not even allow me to have a look at the work floor conditions. Thus I learned that approaching a company would be more complicated and I should have provided documents and administrative necessities beforehand. I also learned that a strong connection and reliable gatekeepers are urgently needed to smoothen my access. Gatekeepers are the central element as these people can help or hinder research based upon their personal thoughts (Reeves, 2010).
With the least access to the cigarette enterprises, I contacted several targeted people to act as my gatekeeper. These people are mostly employees in cigarette factories. I expected them to help me cut-out off the bureaucracy procedures so I could participate in the production scheme of the factory. All of them were men who work in the office with various positions. From one of them, I was introduced to Hosin, a local artist [calligraphy] whose friend is the factory production director. Hosin introduced me as a student who wants to learn about kretek, and without waiting too long, the production director responded [through Hosin] and told that I should send a brief proposal and research plan and about a week after I was granted one month access to observe the factory as a ‘researcher’. My acceptance was confirmed as the cigarette company was also concerned about preserving kretek. The production director told me in a meeting that his company is engaged in efforts to preserve ‘kretek as a heritage’, and it was such an advantage to accommodate a ‘putra daerah’ [child of Kudus], so the research comes from within. If I look back to before I began the fieldwork, I had sent an email to the Research and Development division of the factory and told about my interest to conduct research. I never received a reply. Long story short, I should have realised that to approach an enterprise, a qualified research or collaboration plan would not be enough unless we also have a reliable intermediary or gatekeeper.
During my observation in the factory, I kept myself mingling with everybody as working with multiple gate keepers. After getting into the factory, I was no longer in touch with Hosin since he was not a part of the factory. The production director, who granted me access, does not work in the factory, but in the central office. The highest position in the factory was the production
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manager, who acknowledged me as a student who was recommended by his boss, the production director. The manager was later to become another gatekeeper as he introduced me to all of his staff, and one of the unit heads was assigned to be the person in charge anytime I needed help, as the manager is mostly busy. Afterwards, I continued the observation with the help of the unit head, especially to introduce me to many more people in the factory. More than that, I immediately built rapport on my own with many more individuals, while still keeping my relationship with the bosses. I chose to let myself encounter and talk to as many people as I could and to not depend on the gatekeeper.
3.2.2 Research participants
The focus of this research is on the women; to identify their experiences and day to day interactions in which they are engaged. Therefore, the respondents were the women who work in the cigarette factory and other actors related to their lives in the workplace and at home. The cigarette companies operate on three scales; large, medium, and small. I chose to observe one big company in order to understand the routines, the mundane goings on inside the factory, including work procedures and the system applied inside the company. In the case of kretek, a ‘big’ company or a ‘type I’ company employs more than 100 workers (Indaryani, 2013). Here I could experience more complex systems and hierarchies compared to other company scales. Due to the limited time of the fieldwork, I chose to focus on only one cigarette company so I could experience things and activities iteratively. The company decided that in the factory I could conduct participant observation. The company has 24 units of hand-rolled cigarette factory, and I was assigned to the biggest unit they have. However, I also visited a small company two times and confirmed that the work procedures or the production scheme in a different company were similar, and only differed in terms of facilities.
During my participant observation, I interacted and talked with many people. I tried to befriending with everyone in the factory, regardless the gender and position they had. In order to have an in-depth understanding of the women’s experience, I interviewed twelve women workers from various work sections. In the factory, there were three working statuses based on the way they receive payment: monthly, daily, and piece-rate. All of my interviewees were from the daily and the piece-rate sections because they work in the production section and formed the focus of the research. As this research is studying gender, I also interviewed 2 other male workers from the daily section. I looked at the interaction among workers also from the men’s perspectives. Moreover, to gain the context of the people’s working lives, I interviewed several employees such as the production director and the head manager. In addition to the working lives, I also interviewed a local historian to gain information about the development of kretek and its influence on the social lives in Kudus.
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The data collection was done within a nine week period from October 16 until December 22, 2018, while activities (participant observation and interviews) were not time determined. By this I mean that I did not finish my participant observation first and later began with the interviews, but both were done simultaneously. I had already begun interviewing several participants and collecting narratives after a week of participating in the factory. To conduct the participant observation in the factory became a magnifying glass for this research, as I could get a broader overview of the labor force structure, targeted narratives that led me to achieve a rapid participatory assessment (Bernard, 2011). I was aware of the time constraints since the beginning of the fieldwork, and the rapid assessment helped me to organize the data collection strategies and map participants of the research. In summary, participation in the factory enabled me to build rapport with people and put me in a stronger position to be able to address my research questions.
3.3 Research tools
In this part, I describe the research tools that I have used to gather the data: participant observation and interviews. I begin with an overview of participant observation, describing sites I had observed, including activities and the extent to which data were gathered. This is followed with a section about interviews, explaining their significance to my research and identifying types of interview I conducted during the data collection. During the data collection phase, I carried out twenty four semi-structured in-depth interviews, with many more informal talks.
3.3.1 Participant observation
My main focus is to know how the women workers experience their day-to-day activities in their workplace and home which is mostly drawn from participant observation method. Within the participant observation, I, as the researcher have direct interaction with people in everyday life and important for investigating complex, conflictual, problematic and diverse experiences, thoughts, and activities in the field (Jorgensen, 2015). I had expected to both observe and participate in the activities that link kretek to individuals in this research. I began to observe the impact of the cigarette companies on social-structures, in providing economic benefits, as well as influencing the social [gender] norms to the inhabitants of Kudus. Thus, I observed city life, including the roads, the market and public arenas. I also interacted with specific people who have relations to the cigarette in the context of consumption and production. I traveled to the city in the early morning and witnessed an abundance of cigarette workers leaving to work, also in the afternoon when they finished their shift. In addition, to get a grasp of the women’s activities, I frequently shop in the traditional market that is located around the factory to get primary contact with the women during a bargaining session in the market. These little pieces helped me figure
16 out how the women interact with diverse people and what kind of topic they usually had in conversation. From this activity I also learnt that the market nearby the factory is not only preferred by laborers, but also ‘common’ people as it sold stuff cheaper than other markets, and therefore this locus gave more insight to my findings.
After I gained access to the factory I began with observing the women’s working environment; how jobs are divided and to what extent it creates a particular hierarchical working structure; and how the factory’s architecture and design also accommodate the hierarchies in the workplace. I practiced all steps within the process of making cigarettes on the vacant desk due to the absence of the workers (i.e. sick or leave). But my cigarettes were not submitted to the supervisor as they did not meet the standard. I also observed how the women interacted with others in the same position or with those in higher positions. The tag ‘researcher’ that was given to me implied a different treatment that I received during my stay in the factory. I was given a desk in the office and served with a cup of hot tea on my table every morning. As a ‘researcher’, I was allowed to use a staff-only toilet and was also offered lunch like other ‘office-staff’, while the workers on the work floor were not. The different treatment that I received allowed me to understand to which power was differentiated at the workplace. The participant observation allowed me to build up ‘embodied knowledge’ related to the hierarchy of the factory (Madden, 2010). This opportunity allowed me to connect to respondents; referring to the practice I saw in the factory drove me to have a specific conversation.
In addition to the site of participation observation, I also visited the women’s homes. I visited ten women’s homes to see how they undergo activities at home; how the household task is divided along gender lines, including how each member of household interacted to one another. I even slept over in three women’s homes to experience directly how they manage their household. One of the three was a coincidence because the time I visited her house to have an interview was in the evening. She later asked me to sleep over there as the distance to go back home is quite far. Indeed, it gave me a broader understanding and stories of the women before they enter the factory and how their employment impacts their social lives. During the home visits, I was usually introduced to other members of the household (husband, kids, parents, siblings). In this part, I was mostly introduced as a Kudus resident who is currently studying in kumpeni [colonial] country. Thus many of the women’s families usually expressed their curiosities about the Netherlands and the experiences of living in the country that had colonized them [Indonesia] for centuries. Their curiosities related to my status usually made our interaction became more casual.
As I used Javanese to interact during the home visits, it takes me further than what an ‘observing participant’ could do (Bernard, 2011). I took a role in several activities the women conduct, like having conversations while watching television with members of the family instead of sitting in the living room like a guest. I also participated to serve the customers of a woman who
17 has a shop in her home. I also got to see the women’s neighborhood and was introduced to their neighbors [who usually are their extended families]. In addition to the domain of the workplace, I also participated in certain activities aligned to the women outside their home, such as shopping in the market. I found out how the women communicate with vendor sellers whom they have made ‘friends’ with. Not to mention, the women would introduce me to anyone we encounter and ‘show off’ over my status as a foreign university student. In the beginning, I had no problem with catering for their curiosities over living abroad, but afterwards it became rather overwhelming. However, I was aware that this was necessary to endure to keep respondents and informants comfortable with my presence.
Beyond observing the premises where the women workers were performing their social interaction, I also talked to the people I encountered in the field. This is what ethnographers refer to as informal talks, which is a central form of data. Since I had a month access to the factory, I could interact with the people in their workplace. I got to see how the workers start the day, and their daily routine right through until they finish working. During the working hours, I was allowed to approach anyone [the women laborers] and made conversation with them while they were working. The working environment was less serious than I had expected. The workers were talking with each other while doing their jobs, although different sections performed a different level of looseness. It seems that workers in the rolling section were noisier rather than those in the packing section, although workers in both sections were willing to be questioned by me. In approaching the women workers at their workplace, the informal talks were preferable since they would be in a hurry after they finished their shift. During my presence in the factory, the unit head was acting as my guide. I usually accompanied him during his regular control on the work floor. In a day he could walk around the workers two to three times. These moments I used to gather information related to the work setting in the factory. In reverse, he also asked me many things related to my study. I used the same method to approach other people in the factory. The conversation often overlapped into personal issues such as personal lives, social trends, and even politics.
In addition to observing the factory and the women's home, I hung out with informants that had potential information related to kretek in Kudus. I spent some time in the public spaces like cafés, food stalls, City Park, museums, and art studios to have a conversation with cigarette company staff, local activists and kretek enthusiasts. I found these ways were key as it allowed me to build rapport and helped in gaining access to broader information. Through this type of socializing, I finally got a chance to enter the factory and encounter multiple backgrounds of cigarette factory workers which contribute to assessing gender relations. They gave me information related to the historical and social context related to kretek development.
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3.3.2 Interviews
Interviews for my research were meant to reconfirm data and information I have gathered from everyday conversations and things I had seen during the observations. Indeed, interviewing was important in this research in order to get an in-depth knowledge of the women workers; to have them reflect on their lives in the workplace and at home. I conducted the semi-structured method for all interviews as it has much freewheeling quality of unstructured interviewing, whilst yet based on the interview guide (Bernard, 2011: 212). Two out of twelve women workers were interviewed at the time I was waiting for access to enter the factory. They were workers of the same company but in a different factory [unit], which conducted the same working system or standard, which made them relevant for this research.
Most of my interviews were done casually, except the people with a specific position that I met in their office. They were the factory production director, the manager, government representatives, and other stakeholders. Some of the interviews with the women were done in the factory while the rest were at their home. Those I interviewed in the factory were the daily workers. I could not do the same method for the piece-rate workers because their shift ended differently every day. They also rushed to queue for their paycheck, so I should not bother them with another activity at the workplace. Thus I decided to visit their homes and did the interviews in the afternoon in the range of 4 – 6 pm. I made initial contact in the factory, and then I came to their home to have further talks about their lives. At their home, the interviews were mostly drawn into life history. The women usually liked to recall their memories to the moment they have not worked in the factory. During the home visit, most of the women had prepared snacks and drinks, while some of them even provide meals. It was common for the local to serve foods for the guests even if we had no appointment beforehand. At the moment I made the second visit to woman’s home, she would immediately make such snacks or buy them from the nearest warung [food stall]. Meanwhile, questions for the interview were formulated following the thesis research questions. The main interview topic attempts to know how the gender relations performed in the everyday lives of women workers of the cigarette factory. In details, there were four topics in the interviews namely (1) the story how the women involved in the factory waged work; (2) the women’s opinion about gender relations in the factory; (3) the women’s perceive upon their roles in their household; and (4) to what extent they their household support her roles as a factory worker and as member of the family. Table of respondents can be found in the appendix A.
3.4 Data management
All interviews were recorded while informal talks were written in the same book as the field notes. I sometimes only pointed out the talks and field notes, although some of them were elaborated in
19 such narratives. I also took some pictures and videos during the observation or made some ‘selfies’ with the women. These visualizations were used to remind me of specific moments or events in the fieldwork. I sometimes use the photo to remember people’s names. All recordings were transferred to verbatim transcripts. In the early stage of the fieldwork, I began to code the data gathered. The first coding was written roughly and unstructured. During the transcription, I did the second coding phase, during which I added points to the first coding and combined it with those I later drew from observation, informal talks and interviews. The coding identified was used to build the structure of the thesis.
3.5 Reflection on access and positionality
“I was standing on the factory ground floor among thousands of women who were working to make cigarettes. The smell of shredded tobacco and clove from the warehouse building greeted and overwhelmed me. That day I came to visit, I could barely breathe and kept on checking my watch, thinking of when I can go home and leave this place” (fieldnotes, November 9, 2018)
In the vignette above, I experienced the first dilemma of approaching the field, in this case the factory. The smell of tobacco and clove used to be a nostalgic scent, giving a calm feeling when I was outside the factory. But when I entered the gate and certainly inside the factory, the aroma becomes too strong and made me nauseous. This allowed me to live and enact the experience of the women, leading me to conduct a ‘reflexive ethnography’ (Butz & Besio, 2009). As a resident of Kudus and as a researcher I was aware that I hold a dual status as ‘insider’ and ‘outsider’. I did not have a barrier in language as I spoke the same language as everybody in the field. I could immediately approach the women workers as I got used to a certain culture and behavior applied in the field that took me to be an ‘insider’. But, it did not necessarily mean I was not considered as an ‘outsider’, at which I reflected most on the hardship to approach the ‘field’. I found it was complicated to get access to do the observation inside the factory. Having the women as my respondents, and myself as a woman researcher, I acknowledged a vague distinction between ‘self’ and ‘other’ and how it will assert the production of knowledge (Pillow, 2003). Following Reed and (Danahay,1997 as cited in Ali, 2005) by their ‘who speaks and on behalf of whom and how’ this research carefully put attention to the representation of women’s voices. My first attempt through email to have a direct encounter with the stakeholder of the factory did not result in access (mentioned earlier in this section). I was aware of the role of gatekeepers in smoothening the data collection process. Even while I could directly approach the women workers, but, to finally get a contact to the women where the observation was done could have been done after I enter the factory. The interaction and interviews were conducted in Bahasa Indonesia and the local language [Javanese].
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Being seen as a ‘local’ does not necessarily omit the gap of communication. Thus, my positionality is somewhere between ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ with regards to the field. I recognized myself as outsider when the people were suspicious upon my independence in this research. For instance anytime I met a new person in the factory, I was always asked if I work for the university or another organization. This was reflected from the moment I asked for access to enter the factory; the officers asked me to explain the reason why I wanted to research the factory’s everyday practices. To say that I was passionate about the kretek workers sometimes was not clear enough for them. The only reason many people could make sense of it was if I explained I had to take up this topic in order to return home while studying my master abroad.
However, my insider identity eased me a lot in approaching and to talk with the respondent. Women and men communicate fluently almost without a barrier. I found sometimes, the male supervisor put their hand on the women workers’ shoulder while they were in talks during the working time. I ever asked the women about that but they said it was normal as they have been working together for long time, so they become close to each other’s. It was surprising to me because people who live in my surrounding are not used to physical interaction across gender outside the kinship relationship. The limit could be just shaking hands. It indicates that a certain knowledge that I have set in my mind is not empirically correct to certain conditions. Thus I was aware that the thing I knew about the field was still partial and that I should not draw a conclusion based on my prior knowledge.
To the extent my positionality influences the findings is also important to be analyzed. As Warren (2001) argues, that the fieldworker is the [embodied] ‘research instrument’ who negotiates but cannot fully control his social placement within the field. It that sense, the status or ‘position’ of a researcher is dynamic instead of static or fixed, and if the researcher and participant are ‘comfortable’ then they can interact smoothly, including sharing and exchanging information. I acknowledge the fact that I am a female researcher who studied women’s perspectives could be seen as biased at the beginning, especially since my topic is related to [un]equality reproduction, and because ‘these women’ were mostly portrayed as the subject and even as ‘victims’ of such gender norms. I was conscious while building rapport with ‘everybody’ that I also had to ‘keep a distance’ with them. I explicitly chose not to dichotomize people into opposing parties during the fieldwork. Instead of putting women workers as the opponent of the factory employers, this research was mainly draw upon data collection from diverse narratives and perspective to look at the nuances that exist.
Indeed, I felt that I was partially an insider and yet still an outsider. This dualism provided challenges in the data collection. I never had problems approaching and having conversations with individuals due to the language and shared culture we had. But my position as an insider did not allow me to bypass company bureaucracy. For instance, the manager freed me to talk with anyone, but it did not mean that he was completely open. He was the one who said that I was free
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to talk with anyone, yet he also stipulated that I could not see any written document related to the production. This included the number of workers in detail, production targets and reports. All of the written data was deemed confidential, and only limited people in the factory had access to this.
The same challenge was also felt in talking to individuals. I had known that there were several questions that would be sensitive and sometimes taboo. For example around the personal issues, which I never tried to ask until they let me know themselves usually after talking to me several times. Another taboo is to ask about ‘salary’. I was impressed that most of the people I talk with (usually the daily workers) would answer that their salary was ‘di atas UMR’ above the regional minimum wage. They did not give further explanation about the amount and once I asked whether they know how much their colleagues received, or was there any differentiation for male and female in wage for the same position, each of them replied ‘NO’, although it was remained unanswered whether NO meant for ‘there is no difference’, or ‘they do not know precisely’.
Last but not least, as a researcher I should ensure that the research does not harm either respondents or informants. Although the factory freed me to ask any worker without limitation, I still do not want to put them in possible trouble in the future. Thus, I used pseudonyms for all names used in this research. The job positions were real although I left it anonymous (i.e. the unit head, the production manager). The life stories of the women workers were used after I got permission from the respondents. I only used those which are relevant to my arguments.
3.6 Conclusion
I have elaborated the methodology that I used to conduct this research. I firstly explain how I approach the field and select the respondents. The data collection was taken through three activities (participant observation, informal talks, and interviews). The interviews also utilized different techniques such as informal, semi-structured, and life history. I met and talked to an abundance of women workers in the factory and I made twelve in-depth and life history interviews with them. Besides that, I also interviewed some male workers to confirm information related to gender interaction from the male perspective. Furthermore, I had talks with other stakeholders such as the factory employees and government representatives in order to understand the context in greater depth. Besides the lives inside the factory, I tried to mingle with the women’s activities such as shopping at the market before or after their shift. At their homes, I met the women’s families and interacted with them. This opportunity led me understand the positionality of the women in their household, while also building rapport. My positionality as a researcher reflects in the dualism of being both an insider and outsider, both helping and hindering me to oversee things
22 in the field. In the next chapter, I identify the findings yielded by the methodology and link it to the theories depicted in the earlier chapter.
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4. The significance of kretek in Kudus
4.1 Introduction
Aiming to understand the city life and how kretek has been contributing to the development of society, including gender constraint, this chapter came to the fore. This primarily works to overview how the kretek cigarette industry takes a role in shaping the social context, both economic and financial aspects also affecting other socially relevant factors such as gender norms that later affect behavior and practices among individuals and communities. Included in this chapter is literature on the history related to kretek, Kudus and women to build a narrative on how the gendered development process encounters and intersects within the anthropological trajectory.
This chapter begins with an empirical exploration about the city and Kudus people’s activities in relation to the presence of the kretek industry. This is drawn from observation on locations, attributes as well as activities which are the impact of the kretek-cigarette industry development. I decided to write this part to accentuate my ‘helicopter view’ upon the relational impact between kretek developments to the different realm of daily lives in Kudus. Following this, I changed my viewing tool by using a ‘magnifying glass’ to go in-depth on the kretek-cigarette enterprises in Kudus. This overviews the form of the cigarette enterprises, how they were established and connected to other institutions (including other enterprises) and the way the industry develops to affect the living of the people with little sense of the historical and development context. The third part goes on to analyze the position of women within the development of the kretek-cigarette industry, forming the anchor of the following chapters.
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4.2. Kretek in Kudus: beyond the cigarette
Figure 1. 'Kudus Kota Kretek' statue in the city entrance – Komunitas Kretek, 2015
The sign ‘Kudus Kota Kretek’ is displayed in the bulk of public spaces and widespread from the centre to the countryside area of Kudus; The city square, alun-alun, a round-grass field in front of the municipality located close to shops, government offices, and the central mosque. There is a clove stainless steel statue located nearby alun-alun Kudus, and many other signs imply that Kudus and kretek are inextricable. There are many more signs, statues, reclames of kretek in Kudus which are mostly built through cooperation between the local government and cigarette companies1.
This section will explain how kretek is embedded within Kudus. This covers societal relevant aspects including signs, places, and other characteristics that indicate the interrelationship between the kretek industry and the economic and social construction of Kudus. This part elaborates that the kretek industry’s economic strength in Kudus does not only empower their labor force but is also publicly disseminated to people who do not work in the cigarette companies. In addition to the role of kretek, an example of specific government regulation is also taken into account to portray how the industry also affects public policy in Kudus.
Besides statues and the abundance of cigarette-brand advertisements widespread in the city, a kretek museum was built in Kudus. This is the only museum of kretek in Indonesia which makes it iconic to the city. The museum was built by the Association of Cigarette Entrepreneurs in Kudus (PPRK) in 1986 on a 2.5-hectare area in Jati sub-district. In 2006, the association handed
1 The head of Disnakerperinkop (local representative for the industry, employment, transmigration, and cooperation of Kudus) explains that the government and cigarette companies
25 over the museum to the local government to be authorized and regulated.2 The museum consists of 1.195 collections related to the historical trajectory of kretek. To name a few documents and visualizations of the first kretek manufacture in Kudus: Bal Tiga; photos of the founding fathers of several cigarette companies; and a diorama of the cigarette production process. The museum has never been crowded with visitors because Kudus itself is not a tourist destination. More than that, the museum’s appearance is far from ‘attractive.’ The main building is built in the style of Javanese- prism architecture. It is a loose room without partition and collections are put in every corner. The collections are kept in glass cabinets with minimum lighting. The scent of an old building greeted me once I entered the lobby — a lady with a public servant uniform is sat on the front desk, welcoming every visitor3.
Figure 2. Diorama of cigarette production process at Kretek Museum – Atina Rosydiana
Besides symbolizing Kudus with myriad attributes and architectural building, kretek has significant roles in the economic structure and livelihood. The local representative for the industry, employment, transmigration, and cooperation of Kudus (Disnakerperinkop), records that in total 857 cigarettes companies are located in Kudus in nine sub-districts which employ up to 70.000 people4. The percentage of women workers is 84% of the total employment in the cigarette industry (Disnakerperinkop, 2013). The Head of Disnakerperinkop Kudus, noted in an interview
2 Interview with Novita, staff of the museum, December 8, 2018 3 Field notes December 8, 2018 4 Interview November 27, 2018
26 that his database is not yet updated, so it is possible that currently the amount of cigarette companies is fewer although the decline is not that significant from what is currently on the list5
Every cigarette company may have more than one production location (factory). Interestingly, there always exists a traditional market located nearby the factory. The placement of the market is not just within a certain radius but most of the time attached to the wall of the factory. The ‘traditional’ refers to the fact that the transaction is done in cash. The vendors sell basic needs such as staple food, vegetables, meats, and fish like in a common traditional market. In the big factory or where there are a lot of workers, the market is built permanently. Some of them have been authorized by the local government, so the buildings are in better condition than those which are not. In a smaller factory, with fewer workers, the market is built temporarily. The vendor provides their own stalls, usually using a folded tent. They open in the morning and close in the afternoon after the workers leave from the factory. In a very small factory, there are fewer vendors who sell their stuff only in the time when the factory workers finish their shift. After that, the vendors usually move to another factory whose shift is not yet finished. This type of market is known as the mobile market or Pasar Bubar. In a visit, I talked to a male vendor who was packing watermelon and seemed ready to go. I immediately bought one of his goods and asked him where he was going. He replied: “the shift (of the factory) had already ended so I will go first to Djarum Garung and later will be here again at 3 pm as the packing shift ends at that time.”6
In line with the reason the market exists, the market becomes crowded every time the factory shift ends. The workers who are predominantly women stop by the market for groceries before they go home. Most of the workers are riding a motorcycle which is parked in the private parking near the market. In an afternoon, I randomly visited one of the markets and found so many women workers in the market having just finished their work shift. I came to a snack vendor who also sells drinks. I sat on the wooden bench, and a factory woman was sitting next to me, was also buying a drink. She was Gina, a roller, who has just finished her shift in the factory. We spontaneously had a chat:
A : Do you come here [the market] often? G : Everyday, mostly after my shift ends. A : But, why? Do you need to buy stuff every day in the market? G : I come to buy stuff, that’s true. But the market is more about buying vegetables or fish. This is the cheapest entertainment. I met [Bu] Solikah (the seller). All here are friends […] bargaining is also entertaining. A : the price is already very cheap and you want to bargain it more. How come? G : that’s the art of bargaining, to get as cheap as I can. I enjoy it!7
5 Ibid 6 Informal talk, October 11, 2018 7 The chat is emphasized from the Field notes October 16, 2018 (A refers to author, G for Gina)
27
Figure 2. Women workers were having activities in the market (next to the factory) while waiting for their work shift starts
From the illustration, I know that the market is the place where the transaction of selling and
buying are done. More than that, this is the premises where a broader social interaction and construction is dynamically made in Kudus. The market is established by the existence of kretek- cigarette factory. Moreover, ‘providing food’ has been pledged as women’s work and since the cigarette factory mostly employs women, the existence of the market was encouraged. The fact is that most buyers in the market are women. About the factory market, Edy Supratno a local historian who wrote a book entitled ‘Djamhari’: the inventor of kretek, gave a comment:
“There is little concern about how the kretek-cigarette industry has a profound contribution to the social construction in Kudus, as scholars preferably focus on macro-economic relation of the cigarette industry. For instance the existence of the traditional market which is located nearby the cigarette factory. It is not only laborers who are benefited from cheaper stuff they sell, but also people in general. When I first moved to live in Kudus, I was impressed with how food stalls already
28 served a customer even before the sun rises, because they provide food for the factory workers. This condition I saw in the countryside in Sumatera, the place where I am originally from.”8
Echoing what Edy said, besides the factory workers, the market is benefited by other people as it provides stuff with lower price compared to the other traditional market which is not located nearby the factory. On another afternoon, I came to the market to buy vegetables and met Sinta, a woman who was dressed in public servant uniform also buying vegetables. From her name tag, I could read that she works in the municipal office (Kabupaten) and immediately asked her why she prefers to go to the factory market instead of the public market. “I can get cheaper stuff here compared to those in another market. The stuff here is not always bad, because sometimes I get many things fresh.”9
Besides the market, there are many ad boards on the roads advertising school events in sport or music at which promote a brand of cigarette. It means that the event receives financial support from a specific cigarette company. Indeed, cigarette companies significantly contribute to the improvement of educational institutions in Kudus. Through the Corporate Social Responsibility program (CSR), the companies actively support the development of the school’s infrastructure, events, and programs, including the education system.
Interestingly, under the regulation of Indonesian ministry for Education No 75, Year 2016 paragraph 11 (Permendikbud 75/2016) about School Committees, it states that education institutions (including the primary school to high school) is not allowed to raise funds or receive financial support which is sourced from:
“The cigarette company and/or a body which uses brand, logo, motto and/or color that is associated with the character of a cigarette company.”10
To be clear, the kretek-cigarette industry is present in different realm of daily life in Kudus. It shows from many school’s events are funded by the cigarette company. The cigarette brand is present on the school’s advertisement, such in sport or art events. Kurniawan (a man), employee in the marketing division of Djarum Company, one of the biggest cigarette companies in Kudus, explains that his company’s CSR program entitled ‘Djarum Foundation’ concerns developing the nation and one of the ways they aim to do this is through improving national education. Legally the foundation is a separate body from the cigarette company; thus it can provide funding for schools. “But most of the time, schools in Kudus do not strictly obey the rules; they allow their
8 Interview November 12, 2018 with emphasis 9 Informal talk October 16, 2018 10 Under the Permendikbud 75/2016 the government regulates that an education institution (from primary school, junior high, senior high, and vocational school) are not allowed to receive funding from the cigarette company or institutions related to cigarette
29 students to send funding proposals to cigarette companies, and later they put the brand on the reclame. The government will not give any sanction. It’s like a privilege for Kudus, I guess.”11
However, the information given by Kurniawan is also affirmed by Dedi, a teacher in a private vocational high school in Kudus. Dedi’s school along with fifteen other vocational high schools receive support from the Djarum foundation. He explains that the foundation gives financial support including building infrastructure, providing educational facilities and curriculums, especially for the subject of animation, with his school receiving an award for the best animation vocational high school in Indonesia. He adds that the funding used by the foundation does not only come from other enterprises who collect their CSR funds in the foundation. Then the foundation is in charge of distributing the funds and supervising the usage.12
Interestingly, Dedi’s school does not only receive support from one foundation that is related to the cigarette industry. They receive double support as several subjects are supported by Sukun, another cigarette company in Kudus. Unlike Djarum foundation, Sukun gives less support since the company not as big as Djarum. He notices that so far it is only his school that has two foundations (which is related to Cigarette Company) as permanent donors. Besides the institutional support, the cigarette company actively provides scholarship for students and youth in Kudus. According to Dedi, “it is impossible for people in Kudus to be anti-cigarette because much support have been given by the companies for the lives of Kudus people.”13
4.3 The kretek-cigarette manufacture
After having a look at the contribution of the kretek-cigarette industry to the socio-economic condition of Kudus, this part aims to look closer at the industry, overviewing the characteristic of kretek enterprises, including how they operate. I elaborate on the form of the enterprise to give insights into what and how the relationship is like between different kretek enterprises. Also in this part, an overview related to the labor force will be given to explain the tenet of the general work system of kretek manufacture, although a detailed explanation about the working system and work environment will be depicted and analyzed later in the following chapter.
11 Interview 12 October 2018 12 Interview December 20, 2018 13 Interview December 20, 2018
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4.3.1 The family enterprise: ethnic competition
I have mentioned earlier that the kretek museum exhibits photos of several cigarette companies founder’ in Kudus. Apart from informing the historical realm through visualizing the first owner of several impactful cigarette companies in Kudus, the photo exhibition implicitly explains that cigarette companies are typically built as a family industry. Since the emergence of the first kretek manufacture by a local (Javanese), Nitisemito in 1918¸ many more locals were inspired to establish their own factory, to name a few: Atmowidjojo bin Troenodiwongso (1930), HM. Ashadie Atmo (1914), Moechtadi (1926), H. Ali Asikin (1926). HM. Moeslich (1927), Rusdi Atmo (1927), H. Ma’roef Roejdi (1937), Mc. Wartono (1949). Besides local entrepreneurs, Chinese immigrants also aspired to participate in the market share. There were several names whose photos were also shown in the museum such as NV Trio Moeria (1918), NV Nojorono (1932), and Djarum (1951).14
The above-mentioned names built the kretek-factory and produced their own cigarette brands. As family firms, the ownership is inherited by the kids or closest relatives of the founding father. The corporate can be registered as a public [limited] company but its shares are not accessible to the public, so anyone outside the family cannot be the shareholder or known as ‘generic non-tradable’ (Gedaljovic and Carney, 2010). The family members exclusively fill the position of president director (and some leading positions). Strategic positions in the organization are preferred to be allocated to those with kinship ties or those with similar identities such as ethnicity or religion. It implies that the workers who do not share the same identity might have difficulties in leveling up their position. There is a widespread perception among ordinary people in Kudus that ethnicity and religion become a prominent factor on a career in a cigarette company.
Within a hangout session with several guys from the marketing division of a cigarette company in Kudus, my friend David (a guy) raised a statement regarding to the ethnic-based character of Cigarette Company;
“A Chinese owned factory would prefer to put Chinese in the top positions. Also, a Javanese owned factory would exclude Chinese within their organization”15.
David’s statement was replied by a laughter of all people present in the meeting. All of them are Javanese who admit that they would not reach the top position simply because they are not Chinese. The factory I was later doing my participant observation was owned by Chinese and several leading positions such as the production director, production manager and two unit heads
14 The founder names and year of establishment are found in the kretek museum (Field notes) in the visit on December 8, 2018 15 Field notes on hangout with cigarette company employees November 1, 2018
31 were all Chinese, while the rest [lower] positions are non-Chinese.16 In that sense, ethnicity, as it is integrated into the class hierarchy, contributing on creating inequality in the workplace.
An ethnographic study written by Lance Castle (1967) wrote that cigarette companies in Kudus are owned and ruled in the familial ownership. He also notes the fact that industrial competition was shaped into family and ethnic fights. Kretek enterprises were initially built by locals17 [Javanese] until the Chinese began to participate in the same business and came to dominate the kretek industry. Castles also portrays that the domination of Chinese in the market share triggered a riot and revolution between 1918 and the 1930s with “its root cause in economic competition” that saw both local and Chinese industries decline (1967: 86). He did not clearly expose in details about how the riot was happening, but when the war finished, the revival of the kretek industry was dominated by Chinese enterprises (Ibid). What is explained by Castles seems not to have significantly changed up to present, the dominant kretek enterprises are still mainly operated by a Chinese owner. The leading Chinese-cigarette business is acknowledged by Bambang, the head of Dinakerperinkop Kudus. In an interview, he explains that “Big scale [type I] cigarette companies in Kudus; Djarum and Nojorono, are both owned by a Chinese family. Sukun, the most prominent ‘Javanese’ cigarette company, is categorized as a medium scale company [type II] (Disnakerperinkop, 2018)”18
4.3.2 The scale of enterprise The cigarette enterprise is distinguished into three classifications (I, II, III) based on the total annual production. The type I is an enterprise which can produce a minimum of 2 billion units of cigarette in a year, without a maximum limit. The type II are those that produce 500 million to 2 billion pieces per year, and type III are those who produce at maximum 500 million per year19 (Indaryani, 2013). This taxation regulation later determines the amount of revenue received by the national government from the cigarette industry. Different scales of cigarette enterprises are gathered in an association, called PPRK (Persatuan Pengusaha Rokok Kudus). PPRK is a non-government association, but it was established with the motivation to build such a coalition to bridge the company and workers in a bipartite system. Therefore, PPRK takes a role in processing a mutual agreement, specifically for those who have relations to the employment to be used in the member enterprises. In an interview, Agus, a male, the leader of PPRK, explains that in the PPRK, the member enterprises agree upon the
16 Field notes on a factory observation November 16, 2018 17 Lance Castle used term ‘santri’ instead of locals. Santri is usually used to call group of people or entities who has closed religious tenets (Islam), while not all the kretek entrepreneurs are all religious. This critic is given by Mamik Indaryani in her dissertation (2013) 18 Interview on November 27, 2018 19 The regulation is under The Ministry of Finance No 167/PMK.011/2011 about the excise tape rate.
32 standard wage (consulted with the government regulation) and other workers’ rights. For instance, member enterprises set several cultural holidays for workers which is usually not applied in other non-member enterprises.20 In the PPRK the membership is open to any type of enterprises, but empirically, the memberships are only formed of big and medium scale companies, to name a few: PT Djarum , PT Nojorono, PR Jambu, and PR Sukun. So far, there is no small scale company that has become a member of PPRK (Indaryani, 2013: 81). Besides the tax and the membership in the association, the empirical classification of the cigarette enterprises can be seen from the infrastructure of the factory. I came to visit two different scales of cigarette company in Kudus, which are named ‘Factory A’ which operates as a type I (big) company and ‘Factory B’ that is operated under the type III (small) company. These factories are SKT, which produce hand-rolled kretek cigarette. The overview includes a description of infrastructure, working facilities, and the appearance of workers.
Example 1: Factory A The factory is located in outskirts of Kudus and closed to people’s residences. The factory consists of several warehouses with the vast gate and wall separating the area of the factory with its neighborhood. Since it is a hand-rolled kretek manufacturer, it means that the production of kretek uses the manual tool, hereafter referred to as gilingan21. There are five buildings in the factory area; three of them are the production workfloors. The production tools (gilingan and scissor) are provided by the factory. The gilingan is placed on a long wooden table. The workers sit on the long wooden bench and work with gilingan which is already tagged with each name of the worker. The worker cannot sit anywhere but on their own seat. The production area is in the warehouse whose control room is in the same location but slightly higher than the work floor. The factory works are gendered to women’s work, as they only employ women for the production tasks. Each worker is equipped with a uniform which is provided by the factory. The head to toe uniform consists of a cap, plastic mask, batik22 shirt, and shoes. The factory works five days (Monday to Friday) but can also work on Saturday if it's necessary. The work hour is divided into overlapped shifts, with the earliest starting at 6.15 am, and the latest ending at 15.00 pm. There is no break for the production section, but workers are allowed to take a break either to drink or to go to the toilet. The factory provides water and tea near the work floor, although workers cannot drink or eat at the workplace. The workers should leave their seat to go to the drink desk and have their drink at that spot. Since the work facilities are all equipped by the factory, each worker should pass the security check anytime they are entering the workplace and before they leave the factory. The factory forbids the workers to bring their own tools.
20 Interview December 15, 2018 21 The cigarette rolling machine made by wood 22 Javanese pattern sewn onto fabric
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In the production section, workers are classified into layered positions. The production workers (who make the cigarettes) are overseen by supervisors and with several other levels of supervision above. The production workers are paid daily, based on the total cigarettes they produce. Thus they are called the ‘piece-rate’ workers. The production target differs per individual, so each worker does not produce cigarettes in the same amount. They are paid IDR 30.200 for a thousand pieces of cigarettes. There is a counter cashier located nearby the main gate. The workers make a queue in front of the counter to receive their payment after they finish their shift. In this big company, the workers are provided with insurance and another kinds of salary components.23
Example 2: Factory B As with factory A, factory B is also located in the suburb area of Kudus. The factory is also located in a village and nearby people’s housing. There are five building in the factory, and only one building is used for hand-rolled cigarette production. The rest is used for the machined-rolled cigarette, office, and storage. The factory provides gilingan, but the workers need to bring their own scissors. The factory do not provide tables and chairs, so the workers sit on the ground24. According to one of the supervisors, the factory used to put a chair and table, but the workers themselves preferred to work on the floor. The monitor room is not placed in the warehouse, but they have a desk and chair in the corner of the building, so anytime the supervisor has a routine inspection, he/she will sit there. The same desk is also used by the cashier to distribute the daily payment for the production workers. Similar to the previous factory, the work shifts overlap depending on the different work sections. The earliest shift begins at 7 am and the latest finishes at 2 pm. The factory works four to five days a week; it depends on the production demand. As similar to the factory A, the production tasks in factory B are also gendered as women’s work. The factory employs 60 women in the production section. Most of them live in the neighborhood. They do not wear a uniform, not even shoes. All of them go to work wearing flip- flops and take them off as they work on the floor. There is no break during work time, but the workers can anytime take a break to drink or go to pee. The factory provides a container of water in the corner of the work floor, anytime the workers got thirsty they can go to the corner to drink. It is also not allowed to drink and eat while working. To enter and to leave from the factory, the workers are not checked by the security. The production workers are also paid in the ‘piece-rate’ scheme, and per 1000 pieces of cigarettes they receive IDR 25.000. The production workers work under supervisors who report directly to the production manager, unlike the big factory, the supervisory system in the small factory is less-layered. There is no health insurance provided by
23 Field notes November 12, 2018 24 The floor is semen-plaster with no carpet or cover
34 the company to the workers, so for any accident or sickness, they usually pool the money on a voluntary basis.25 From the two field notes, there are several things that differ between the scales. Besides the infrastructure and working facilities, the two different scales of the company described have contributed differently to the facilities earned by the workers, including the amount of salary. The description also shows that in the two types of the company there are similarities in relation to the working shift, the work system and the supervisory and the payment system. Something that also becomes apparent is that hand-rolled cigarette production employs women only. It gives an understanding that no matter the scale of the kretek-industry, the hand-rolled production is gendered to women, and this is central to grasp for the following part.
4.4 Women in kretek manufacture
From the visit to the factories, regardless of the company scale, workers in the production section, specifically in hand-rolled production, are all women. This raises a query onto how the gendering process of the manufacture institution therefore certain type of jobs are adjusted to women. This section looks back to the historical trajectory of the [dis]connection process between women and the kretek production. A small part of an interview with a company employee about the transformation process of the sex-segregation in the production is shown to overview the development process of kretek manufacture.
The first encounter of kretek in relation to trade can be seen in the tale of Roro Mendut. Roro Mendut, is a figure of a beautiful princess whose sensuality has shaped gender role of kretek, in the sector of both consumption and production. Long time in an ancient Java history, Sultan Agung from Mataram, an enormous kingdom in Java in the 17th century defeated the uprising led by Adipati Pati. From the loss, a lot of things and slaves were detained, including a beautiful princess, Roro Mendut. Roro Mendut was known as beautiful and smart, and thus Tumenggung Wiraguna, the commander of Mataram, wanted to take her as his mistress, but she refused it. To inconvenience her, Tumenggung Wiraguna gives a prerequisite as she had to pay high tax to him of three real every day. Roro Mendut accepted the challenge and was given ten real to begin her business. Afterward, she began selling rolled cigarettes. Knowing that she was beautiful and attractive, and to accomplish the amount of money required by Tumenggung Wiraguna, Roro Mendut played a game. In the story, her stall was covered with light fabric so her custumer could only smell the scent of cigarette but could not see her. This trick increased people’s curiosity to buy her stuff. Moreover, Roro Mendut also sold smoked cigarette (cigarette which is half smoked by herself) with a higher price because it contains her saliva. By using that trick, all her cigarettes
25 Field notes November 22, 2018
35 were sold, and she could afford to pay tax to Tumenggung Wiraguna. Indeed, Roro Mendut did not only sell cigarettes but added a sense of sensuality by selling half-smoked cigarettes (Ongokham and Budiman, 2016)
From the story of Roro Mendut, there are two significance related to gendered kretek. First, women and marketing are linked, as Roro Mendut became a woman who sold kretek cigarette for living, although in Roro Mendut case, the transaction was done through featuring her sensuality. Second, in relation to kretek, women were perceived as useful to produce; to sell, but not to smoke. Otherwise, the women were ready to be seen as naughty as Roro Mendut. The story continued on to the emergence of the first kretek manufacture in Kudus, owned by Nitisemito. Before Nitisemito began his factory, he worked in many kinds of occupation and had opened several kinds of business. But his wife, Nasilah was a cigarette roller. At the moment (ca. the 1880s) Nasilah and many other girls rolled klobot (corn husk) cigarette and sold it in retail. Nitisemito, who as a horse rider was one of his customers. Nitisemito and Nasilah later got married, and Nitisemito was eager to expand the cigarette business, inspired by Nasilah (Indaryani, 2013: 82- 83).
A further gender relation in kretek manufacture was found while this industry applied the abon system or ‘cottage industry’. The kretek was produced at home (the home producer is called ‘abon’) and later it was collected and pooled in the boss’ home, to be labeled with a brand and ready to be marketed. In the abon system, women manifest a big role, as they adjust to working in the production. Men usually help to bring home raw materials and deliver the finished cigarette to the collector or the boss (Hanusz, 2000). In an interview with a production director of a cigarette company, Riwayat, explaining that the abon system was later banned and the production of kretek was centralized in the factory. The kretek factory begins in the dawn when the sky is still dark. It was early 1950 when the access to electricity was still minimal, only men could go outside the home to work in the factory. Women were seen as weak and vulnerable to be raped or victimized by other criminal acts, while men were seen as being able to defend themselves better than women26
Lately, men were evaluated as not suitable to the job. Producing kretek (rolling cigarette) is a job requiring neatness, perseverance, and patience. Those categories are mostly associated with women, not men. Riwayat affirms that in ca. the 1950s there were still a lot of men in the production section. But gradually, it transformed into women until no men were left. He explains that the job such as rolling and cutting cigarettes are too feminine for men. Not to mention women are more patient compared to men, so if the supervisor (who used to be men) reject the cigarette, men workers would get angry easily compared to women. “If the workers are men while the
26 Interview November 14, 2018
36 supervisor are also men, they could easily fight to each other”27 Moreover, only men can smoke. Riwayat explains that workers (men) are all allowed to take some rolled cigarettes and smoke them eventually as long as they do not bring them out of the factory due to the tax obligation. However, only men can do that, “[it is] not appropriate for women to smoke.”28
Saptari (1995) acknowledges that men were no longer preferred by the industry as they smoke too much, and took out pieces from the production. This condition led women to be preferable for the industry. Men are more active, including their spirit for resistance. There were more men compared to women joining the union, protesting to the factory (Saptari, 2000). The number of men in the kretek factory was gradually reduced until the whole production section was occupied by women. In addition to sex segregation in kretek production, the global feminization contributes to assert women to the principal labor force in production. The supply and demand later generated women to fit such a ‘women’s job’ for having docility and a ‘nimble finger’ that indicates their ‘feminine character.’
4.5 Conclusion
I have portrayed in a nutshell how the city looks like, and in what way kretek has a prominent position for the people and their daily activities. This part has shown as well the general characteristics of the kretek-cigarette company, including the forms of enterprises, the scale, and the policy or obligations of each company scale. It is followed with the socio-relation of women within the trajectory of kretek, before and after the industrial period is introduced. Women played a significant role in introducing kretek to industry.
To sum up, kretek embodies to not only as a symbol associated in many public signs, statues, or other objects but also has a significant role within the development of the city, including the economic and social context. Another significance is the position of women in the kretek, both in its production and consumption level. The kretek production is shaped as ‘women’s work’ while in contrary, kretek itself is a ‘man’s product’. The gendered deterministic framing upon kretek production significantly affect to positioning women in the factory which will be further analyzed in the next chapter.
27 Interview November 14, 2018 28 Interview November 14, 2018
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5. Gender performance at a kretek-cigarette factory
5.1. Introduction
This chapter is meant to describe and to analyze gender performance in the hand-rolled kretek cigarette production that reflects in the organization structure and daily work practices. I work to examine to what extent the gendered division of labor in the factory performed and impacting the women workers. According to Joan Acker’s gendered organization theory, recognizing that an organization cannot be any longer identified as gender-neutral. Acker’s (1990: 146) idea of a gendered organization is often quoted as “that advantage and disadvantage, exploitation and control, action and emotion, meaning and identity are patterned through the distinction between male and female, masculine and feminine.” Occupations in an organization are said to be gendered (Britton and Laura, 2008). Gender is a constitutive element of every social relationship and signifies relationships of power, which are significant in understanding how the organization keeps reproducing inequalities underlying its labor division, hierarchical organization structure, work procedures, and job evaluations. I will use the gendered organization theory of Acker to critically analyze the gender performance including the division of labor within kretek cigarette production unit. This chapter is organized as follows; first, I will overview the hand-rolled cigarette factory, outlining the scheme and procedures including interactions among occupations in the workplace. This illustrates the cigarette making process and unleashes differentiation of workers that continuously reproduce inequalities for both men and women. Second, I outline structures used in the company and underlying hierarchies, as gender must be studied in the context of embedded power relations. This part also looks at how the family-driven business and familial entanglement reinforces the matrix of domination that is embedded in the organizational hierarchy, the factory architecture, and the dynamic interaction between workers and employers. Third, I analyze how gender is performed in career opportunities. This section also looks at how the factory reflects the public patriarchy at which simultaneously provides opportunities and subordinates the women (Walby, 2000). This is followed with a section that elaborates on women’s responses toward the hierarchy system at which showing their agency.
38
5.2. Hand-rolled kretek cigarette production: a background
In this part, I elaborate processes and actors involved in the production of cigarettes. The process includes materials, tools, and all the other necessities of production. The processes also mention diverse tasks and steps conducted in cigarette manufacturing. It includes portrayals of the premises such as the physical condition of the building and working ambiance I experienced during my observation and from the talks I made with the people in the field. The analysis includes an overview of the factory, including the way they communicate to whom in the same section of a task or from employers to employees. The explanation about the actors in the factory illustrates the differentiation of workers in terms of duties and rights over varying occupations in the hierarchy. The production manager (around 40-years-old man), states that the factory do not put gender into consideration in determining the person to do a specific type of job. On the first day I came to the factory, the production manager (the highest position in the factory) asked me curiously how I stumbled upon factory life as a topic and was quite suspicious of the purpose of my research agenda. At that moment, he seemed to state clearly that the factory allocates employees to a particular position mainly by seeing their competence. “[…] each occupation is filled by people whose competencies fit the needs, not the gender they have.”29 His statement makes clearer that gender is a constitutive element in an organization substructure and is often perceived as invisible in the ordinary lives which reflect in the segregation of work between women and men. I also examine Acker’s (1990) idea of ‘ideal worker’ defining that an organizational logic demands to put people across the gender line to reach the capitalist vision of high productivity. Here I present my understanding of this concept, aligned to working circumstances in the factory, communication patterns among workers, and in prescribed duties and tasks followed in the production of cigarettes.
5.2.1 The cigarette making
The gate is closed when I arrive. It is 05.15 am, and the sky is still dark. Just next to the factory, a traditional market called Pasar Karangbener is crowded with people. Countless women are dressed in the same pattern batik30 and hat are busy bargaining vegetables and stuff before starting work. It is 05.30 am, and one by one women enter the factory by previously passing through the checking guard. Five women dressed in security uniform are sitting on a chair at every line groping each passing woman to check if anyone is bringing forbidden items to the factory. Only a phone and a small purse are allowed, while food and drinks are prohibited. I
29 Informal talk November 9, 2018 30 Java’s patterned textile sewn into shirt
39 cannot count how many women enter the gate but there must be more than 500 people. They are all coming with a smile, greeting everyone as if they already knew each other. [Fieldnotes, November 8, 2018]
This vignette portrays routine morning activities right before the production starts in the Sigaret Kretek Tangan (lit. the unit for hand-rolled kretek cigarette). From 24 units that the company has, this one is the biggest. The factory employs 4.300 workers, and 90% of the total employees are women, meaning there are roughly 3780 women and 430 men31. The factory conducts two duties, namely the production work and the non-production work. The production work includes every task done in the cigarette making process including cigarette rolling, packing, material procurement, as well as supervising and controlling duties. The non-production work includes the supporting duties outside the manufacture process such as administrative work, finance, technical jobs, distribution, and security. The presence of abundance of women in the factory employment shows that the factory is feminized. Along with the feminization of labor, the work system in the factory is also created to support the role of women in their home, as to take care of their family. The unit head (a man) shows that the demand for hand-rolled cigarettes has been decreasing during the last ten years and thus the factory’s production target has reduced. The decline means piece-rate workers receive a smaller wage because they are paid based on how many cigarettes they make in a day. Therefore, working days in the factory are maintained following the ‘compressed workweek’32 regulation. It means that they used to work six days but this was compressed to five days. The reduction occurs due to the production target decline. The unit head of the central warehouse (a man) explains that a roller used to make up to 11.000 cigarettes in a day, while the recent maximum load is 4.000 cigarettes. He argues that the compressed workweek is advantageous for the workers.
“They [the piece-rate workers]33, who are predominantly mothers have to take care of their family. They can stay at home and maintain their household. They can save money that was initially allocated to transportation or daycare”34
31 The factory only give the total employee in rough amount (4.300 people) and the percentage between men and women but refuses to give data about the worker’s detail 32 International Labor Organisation defines that compressed workweek system involves “hours being scheduled over fewer than normal working days and result in a longer working system […]” (ILO, n.d) 33 Piece-rate workers refers to workers who are paid in daily basis according to the work target they could achieve in a day 34 Informal talk November 8, 2018
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Figure 4. The cigarettes making process
Source: illustrated by author
The figure shows steps in cigarette production. The above-left circle is the output from the primary production, so it is not included in the cigarette production unit. The primary production provides materials and ingredients such as tobacco, clove, sauce, paper, and glue which are done in a machinery basis. The secondary production plays a role in cigarette making and distribution. In the figure, the compound of tobacco, clove, and sauce are shredded and blend as one, hereafter called mbako. Mbako is stored in tanks and located in the warehouse, where the cigarettes are rolled and packed. In secondary production, the factory deploys rolling and packing activities. Female laborers do both processes. They work on a long wooden table (dampar), sit alongside and face each other on a long wooden bench on each side of the table. As a safety procedure, workers are equipped with cap and plastic mask, although most of them were wearing hijab35. Both the rolling and packing section work in the team. Rolling section (giling) employs two persons to roll the cigarette and another one help to trim the excess, so the cigarette is shaped based on the standard. They are equipped with a metal plate of two holes with a different diameter. A good cigarette should be shaped like a horn (diameter of head slightly bigger than bottom). Metal is used to do ‘self-checking’ onto cigarettes, although there are two supervisors that will work to sort out defect cigarettes. Good quality cigarettes are continued to the packing section to be packed until cigarettes are ready to distribute. Defect cigarettes are peeled off, and the tobacco blend will be re-rolled.
35 Veil or scarf wore by Muslim women
41
In the packing section, the group is enlarged to four to six persons known as the contong team. Each person in the group is given a different task as already shown in the figure. Similar to the rolling section, workers of packing sections also work on wooden tables (dampar). A dampar fits either five giling pairs or a group of contong. Two or three table sequences are called a ‘block’ with two supervisors to keep on eye on the working process and sort out defect cigarettes. The supervisors move around their block every hour. They do not have a personal chair or desk, so if they are not on duty, they usually sit on the bench close to the toilet area. Furthermore, the tasks inside the cigarette making are prescribed and segregated into a small yet distinctive unit. An individual is assigned to work on a specific job without any space to improve due to the standard of procedure. The job design urges workers to do the same thing repetitively not only in a day but in a lifetime. The workers in cigarette making sections work harder than the others because of the multi-layered supervision. The supervisors allow to sort out defect cigarette or packages; workers have to keep producing, therefore the target is reached.
5.2.2. Workers at the factory
The cigarette factory is an intensive labor unit as it requires thousands of workers within its production processes. The gender composition between female and male workers are 90:10 percent. The gendered employment structure, at which posit many more women compared to men reflects the feminization of labor. Since the labor market is following the law of supply and demand, women’s productivity is seen as strategically advantageous to sustain the industry. It is reflected in the presence of several ‘women’s works’ in the factory. Moreover, these female works are placed on the lowest level of the workforce structure that reflects ‘gendered substructure’ (Acker, 2012). The factory divides tasks to various divisions and demarcations so an individual works on a specific yet tedious task every day. In the previous part, I already mentioned that the factory divides processes into two parts: the production and the non-production task, so I want to start explaining the actors involved in the two processes. In this part, I show how gender is the basis of creating the division of labor. Occupations in the factory are determined to whom with the specification, including gender representing the ‘ideal worker’ concept. For instance, the current piece-rate works only require women and technicians are all men. Thus, the organization logic takes both female and male workers as the subject of change to reach capitalist productivity. The women’s work requires ‘feminine factors’ such as patience, accuracy, and neatness that only women are deemed to provide. The same logic works to the men’s job as it necessitates men’s craftsmanship. The logic is shown up to the general division of labor that somewhat normalize the reproduction of inequalities between men and women. Both the production and the non-production are interplayed within the production process. If a section does not run well, then the whole processes will be affected. For instance, if
42 materials are not prepared, then cigarette making will not work, or if the technician does not fix a blunt scissor, then a great and neat cigarette cannot be produced. Therefore, in the factory, both production and non-production workers are employed in permanent status and receive the same facilities such as sick-day permissions, medical insurance, premiums, pensions, and other supports. The pension age for permanent status is 55 years old. However, beyond the two classifications, there are ten persons who hold temporarily working status. They are male security who are employed from a third party, an outsourcing institution36. Oktovi, an outsourced security employee, informs me that he has been working for one and a half years in the factory. He was recruited by the outsource party for a two year contract. His task is as same as other permanent securities. He also receives the same basic wage, but it does not cover supporting allowance like for meals, occupational insurance, or severance pay. In the middle of his contract, he was informed that he should sign a renewal and found that the new contract reduced the service period to one year. He regards being an outsourced employee as somewhat precarious as it would not be a lifetime job. Anytime the contract ends, the [host] company owns authority to either prolong or stop using his service. He dreams of someday being a permanent status worker.37 Apart from the outsourced workers, the factory differentiates permanent status employees into three categories based on the pattern they receive wage as shown in the following figure:
36 Under Indonesia’s Ministry of Manpower, a corporation is allowed to recruit employees through outsourcing scheme for the sector of security, operators, and cleaning services. The outsourced employee work in one year contract with the possibility to get an extension 37 Informal talk November 22, 2018
43
Figure 5. The organization structure of the factory
From the top of the figure, the monthly waged workers are on the leading position as such production manager, unit head and administrative staffs, including finance. Monthly waged refers to the people who receive a monthly salary. Only eight people from 4.300 workers are monthly waged with only one female, who works in administration. They work at the office with air- conditioner inside the warehouse and are equipped with a personal desk. Every morning, a glass of hot tea and water are served on each table, and lunch is also provided. Moreover, monthly waged workers get entrepreneurship training in the last year before retiring called ‘Wonderful Life’38 which equips them with entrepreneurial skills and networks. Two other workers status (the daily and the piece-rate) do not receive the program as the company argues that the local government (Disnakerinkop Kudus) conducts entrepreneurship training (pelatihan kewirausahaan) which is made for workers. Therefore, if the workers are in favor of joining the training, the company will give them day-off, in case the training is held during workdays.39
38 Corporate affair’s staff in company visit tells that monthly workers receive entrepreneurship training and coaching to prepare their retiring life once they are no longer work in the company. This program is exclusively made for monthly workers and not applicable to daily or piece-rate workers. The company assumes that Local government annually such program, therefore company claims that either daily or piece-rate workers are allowed and encouraged to join. 39 Informal talk November 27, 2018
44
The next working status is daily waged workers who employ both women and men. They receive basic income with additional allowance based on the position per week40. Daily workers require both male and female, and unlike monthly workers, daily workers are placed in the warehouse along with piece-rate workers, except the security section whose office is on the gate of the factory. Technicians are placed in some locations in each warehouse only with a desk and chair. They are not served tea or lunch on the desk, but there is a big container of tea and water in each location for both daily workers and piece-rate workers. They begin to work at 06.00 am and finish at 13.00 with an hour break (11.00 – 12.00). If production gets higher and gets overtime, they will receive an amount of money for this. About the overtime system, Kaf (male supervisor) explains that it can be either an advantage or disadvantage. For daily workers, overtime means they get a stipend, but it also means reducing the company’s profit to pay workers. Thus, the factory tries to avoid overtime. To do this, the unit head (a monthly waged position) requires supervisors to keep maintaining the speed of piece-rate workers, so the daily target is reached on time because overtime applies to the non-production roles like a technician, procurement, security, and other supporting staffs. “For us, overtime is such an advantage, as we receive more money to bring home. However, I know they (with finger pointing on office) hate it as they have to reduce the company’s income to pay us more. Thus, they force us to work fast, and we should have made them [piece-rate workers] work fast too.”41 Apart from the overtime, the work system in general follows a hierarchical procedure. Two supervisors lead several pairs of rolling sections or packing teams and are responsible for reporting to the group leader. A group leader leads several supervisors in a block, and have to report and consult to the foreman regarding anything relating to the production process. The foreman merely act as an intermediary between the unit head and lower positions. Thus, instruction and command from the top go down in a directive way without any space for discussion. Another working is the ‘piece-rate’ workers who are posited on the lowest level of the factory organization since they do not receive report from anyone else. Referring to the work system, the piece-rate workers are those who can only receive command but no opportunity to give feedback. The piece-rate works are fueled by women and exclude men. Their tasks consist of the cigarette making and packing section. They receive payment from the amount of cigarettes or packs they produce in a day. For them, every workday is a payday, so if they are absent, they would not receive payment unless they can provide a sick letter signed by the factory doctor. Piece-rate workers are approximately 90% of the factory’s total employment. Their roles are either cigarette making (giling) or packing (contong) sections. In the cigarette making, rollers and cutters work as a pair, while a packing team is fueled by 4-6 workers. Either giling or contong is placed in the
40 Kudus monthly basic income IDR 1.892.500 = EUR 119.4 (http://www.semarangkab.go.id/utama/images/stories/data/UMK-Jateng-2018.pdf) 41 Informal talk on November 14, 2018
45 warehouse and sit on a long wooden bench side by side. Both cigarette making and packing do not have break time, but they can freely pause working and go to the toilet or to sip tea from the same container provided for the daily workers. Once they start to work, they would instead finish the target as soon as possible so they can go home earlier. I talked to Riya, a female roller who has been working since 1994, regarding the flexible break. “The point is to get my work done earlier, receive money and go home. I get used not to drink or pee during work”.42 Her preference to not take a break can be understood for several reasons. Riya has been working for twenty years so it has made her ‘get used to’ the task, as she does it repetitively. The decline of the daily target from 11.000 to 4.000 cigarettes per day also eases her job. On the other hand, Riya’s preference also incorporates the competitive work environment that is intentionally created in the factory. It is in line with factory custom of differentiating workers (in the piece-rate works) by their work speed: fast, medium and slow. Workers will be given sticker (on the table) indicating the rank of worker: green for the fast, yellow for medium, and red is slow. Fast rollers are those deserved to be borne with target 4.000 cigarettes a day; medium gets 3.000; and slow rollers, 2.000 cigarettes. The rank is accessed from both the speed and quality of the product and applies to the team. Thus, if for example, a team of cigarette maker (roller and cutter) produces cigarette fast and less defect, they can be granted with a green sticker.
A male unit head explained the purpose of the sticker method while accompanied me walking around the warehouse.
“The sticker is effective to motivate workers […], and speed is not the only element. If they roll fast, but they produce many defects, they will not get a ‘green sticker.’ Stickering is complex, as workers have to balance both speed and accuracy, tenacity and persistence. Also, it encourages them all to work well, because if one of them get ‘green,’ her surrounding will be motivated too, right?”43
The statement indicates that ‘stickering’ increases aggregate productivity. Workers are motivated to work to their fullest as they will be ashamed of seeing they cannot achieve what their neighbors achieve. This condition imposes double burdens on the workers. Logically, by being piece-rate waged, they are conditioned to produce as many as they can to be highly paid. During work time, supervisors correct their work and demand them to work fast. This is exacerbated with the sticker which will create a peer pressure as well as a reproducing class inequality among the piece-rate workers.
42 Informal talk, November 9, 2018 43 Interview, November 12, 2018
46
Interestingly, the piece-rate jobs were previously done by men. The production director once told me that if men used to roll cigarettes when electricity was not as public as today. It was still dark when the factory started producing, and there was no lighting on the road, and therefore, men were preferred, as they were seen to be brave enough to travel in the dark44 Later men are evaluated as not fir for piece-rate work. Men are impatient and do not have femininity alike women
The women in the production unit also agree with the transformation from men to women. The women perceive that the job supposedly excludes men as men would not fit the job. Rikanah, a roller in the factory claims that no men could persist in working on the task she is doing. “It needs high concentration and tenacity which only women have. Men are impatient. They will not survive in this job”45. Said Rikanah (roller)
Then, the feminization of the piece-rate works is somewhat normalized by the factory. Either male or female is subject to change within the gendering process. The women’s productivity is seen as more economically engaged, and therefore justifies the exclusion of men in that sector. The differentiation of workers perpetuates a structure that reflects a system of hierarchy. This hierarchy leads to further differentiation such as facilities and treatment that simultaneously normalize inequalities.
5.2.3 The hierarchy in structure, architecture and communication
Now I move on to describe the form of hierarchy established in the production unit. This part examines how the organization is shaped in a bureaucratic form affecting the way the factory works in a top-down instructional manner, instead of a loose interaction among divisions of work and positions in the structure. The gap occurs not only between different levels in the structure but also in the architecture of the factory. The factory is ruled under a masculine leadership reflects from there only men in the leading positions. The monthly workers whose positions are in the top of hierarchy are occupied mainly by men. There is only female staff member, a clerical employee, whose power and bargaining is lesser than her seven male counterparts. She is Mukira, whose expertise is midwifery. She used to work in the company clinic, but when it is finally closed due to BPJS Kesehatan program46, the company relocated her to the factory. She has asked to retire early, but the company never allowed it and responded that she was still needed. During my participation in the factory, my desk was next to Mukira and I witnessed that all she does is supplying stationery. Every
44 Informal talk, November 10, 2018 45 Informal talk, November 9, 2018 46 BPJS Kesehatan is a public health insurance
47 time someone needs a pencil, pen, or help to pinch paper they come to her. She is called ‘mother’ as she frequently brings food for everybody in the office. “…..the factory does not grant me early retirement because they should pay for my pension earlier, and it [early retirement] is a loss.”47 The factory, which is authorized under a family-form enterprise, also performing that ‘the familial’ atmosphere within the production process. Employers, who are mainly men, take role as ‘father’ in ruling the factory. In an interview, the production manager explains that the company own ‘company values, which become such grounded common sense so every worker is expected to devote. The values consist of five points, namely 1) Focus to the customer; 2) Professionalism; 3) An organization that keeps learning; 4) As one family, and 5) Social responsibility. The number four value as ‘one family’ according to him reflects the familial circumstance at the workplace. The barrier among workers, including between employers and employees shall be diminished. He also refers that the familial atmosphere applies in the punishment process. “if the worker does wrong, we tell him what is wrong in person, help him to be better, like family.”48 The family-ruled factory performs hierarchies in the organization structure By seeing this from an instrumentalist approach, the familial kinship can be perceived as a tool or an instrument to reach a specific goal: to increase the workers' productivity. The goal is not written on the contract, but the way workers are situated in their comfort zone or similar to ‘at home’ then it robust strengthens their performance at work. In the meantime, the family-like factory accommodates a controlling system as it puts women or other entities in the lower positions of the hierarchy to be directed and controlled for the sake of the family’s improvement. The explanation asserts that the familial atmosphere goes beyond just diminishing the communication barrier between employer and employees but also sets a pattern to discipline workers. Taking the position as a leading father, it justifies the management to control and ‘fix the problem’ in order to achieve the goal of being better. To be better reflects more on to the capitalist discipline in which every motion allowed should proceed to profit of the factory. This condition is In portraying more about the familial relationship in the factory, the production manager refuses to see the workers [piece-rate] as a machine, instead as a partner, like a family member. He portrays how he can easily come to the warehouse, talk to his employees, and somewhat directly listen to their complaints. It is not concretely explained what type of complaint he mostly receives from workers. He adds that music is provided during work time to create a relaxing ambiance. He notices that his subordinates do not merely talk about work while in the warehouse. They communicate and care for one another as they care about the worker’s family and kids49. Acting as the head of the family (management) control and power are on the father’s shoulder. The family commits to adhere on the values and norm they are embedded in (refer to the company core values). In executing the mandate, the family head delegates’ specific people to act as the
47 Informal talk November 12, 2018 48 Notes on presentation session December 9, 2018 49 Interview on November 13, 2018
48 law enforcer, ensuring that the rest of the family members are obedient. Thus, positions under the production manager attempt to supervise and control the quality of the tasks done by those in lower positions. In addition to the hierarchy, the factory architecture perpetuates the workplace hierarchy. There are three warehouses inside the factory. The design put the production on the ground floor, while the ‘managers’ office is placed one-half level higher than the ground. The distance between workers and employers emphasizes the gap and class among them. It is similar to the panopticon argued by Foucault (1979), the ‘seeing machine’ arranges that the supervisor may observe, at a glance, so many different individuals to exercise power. The power is meant not to threaten society, but is aimed at the social forces, to increase production or to spread education (1979: 208). Thus, the manager's power is delivered through the factory architecture. As its hierarchical work system, the command should not be argued by a lower position. There is little feedback flow from the bottom up. For instance, the piece-rate workers cannot argue every time their cigarettes are classified as ‘defect’ by a supervisor or quality controller. The worker should provide new cigarettes to reach her daily target. In this sense, a supervisor can easily play his/her position if a personal tension occurs, as the assessment is made subjectively. There is no such negotiation within the work instruction, and that is how it is experienced by Lika, a female cutter. Lika argues that in a day she already made many cigarettes, but the supervisor sorts out many defects. The cutter or roller cannot argue as a supervisor has the authority to determine whether a cigarette passes or is a defect. Despite the self-checking, the supervisor has full authority to determine that cigarette is below standard. “Sengsoro banget yen wis awan malah rokok e akeh sing dibuwak mandore, kudu nangis rasane” (It's horrible when its already noon and the supervisor threw away many cigarettes (defect). I would rather cry).”50 The experience of Lika shows that the workplace strives as ‘one-way’ communication. The inequality regime aligns with the interaction between supervisors and workers. Within the work assessment system, the supervisor acts as ‘the one who knows everything’ towards things done by the piece-rate workers. There is no way to discuss or feedback from the workers upon the work of the supervisors. The supervisor could only be assessed by a higher supervisor, and consecutively a higher position would only receive comment from another with a higher position. In sum, from the narrative above, I have demonstrated that the design in structure architecture and communication way of the factory represents a kind of ‘inequality regime’ that is “interlocked in practices and processes that result in continuing inequalities.” The form of a family firm provides a paradox in which workers are given a convenient workplace setting, a loose situation in which they can still joke around with friends during work time. However, at the same time, the system justifies the management to normalize inequalities through hierarchies at the workplace.
50 Informal talks November 12, 2018
49
5.3. Gender in career opportunities
To fully understand the workers in the factory, the way they enter the factory is important to take into account. In this section, I will narrate how women workers entered the factory and how they experienced particular recruitment process. I will also demonstrate how several women workers attain opportunities to elevate their positions. Even when women are predominantly employed in the factory, the controlling positions are still occupied by men. The retrenchment of the male is argued as a response to the expansion or contraction of the market (Tjandraningsih, 2000). I understand that the position of all women could not be generally seen as a single unitary entity. Thus, every woman may experience the process differently. The career path of the women could explain the way women are given access to paid employment and public arenas but yet subordinated within them as defined to ‘public patriarchy’ (Walby, 2000). In my findings, positions are unequally divided following gender segregation that relates to the inequality regime (Acker, 2006)
There are three ways in which women workers enter the factory; through kin relationship; through being pulled in by neighbors or friends and through the family legacy. I depict the way women workers enter the factory within different work divisions and analyze the recreation of inequality regimes during the process. There are two ways of entering the factory as direct and non-direct recruitment. The direct recruitment means that recruitment is conducted by the factory itself, while the non-direct refers as workers can apply for a vacancy in any production unit or apply to the Human Resource Development (HRD) office of the company. Those who apply to HRD are the monthly workers whom later receive a placement in the factory. The non-direct recruitment occurs to the daily workers (e.g., supervisor, quality controller) who were recruited in a different unit of the company but then rotated or promoted (to fill the higher position) in the factory.
Direct recruitment is for either daily or piece-rate workers. The latest recruitment occurred in 2003, and therefore most of the workers were joining the factory for at least 15 years. This recruitment used traditional way as vacancies were announced through ‘word of mouth’ especially for the piece-rate positions. The news spread out to the people via social relations. To whom already work in the factory, usually, as the supervisor informs their friends, neighbors, and relatives about the vacancy. Kin-connection, however, dominates the entry modes, especially for piece-rate and daily waged workers. Five piece-rate workers [women, three rollers and two cutters] lived in Karangbener51 and entered the factory after being invited by neighbors [who already work in factory] to join. Many times, the influencer is not a stranger, but coming from the
51 The same village where the factory is located
50 closest circle, as their core family like a mother or father [who works as supervisor], and extended families like aunts or uncles.
Inu [female, a cutter] is a daughter of Mus [a roller] and both work as a pair. Mus has been joining the factory since the factory was established in 1994. She was recruited as a cutter and once her roller is retired (she forgets the year), she invited Inu to work as her cutter until today. Inu is an example of how working in the factory is an inheritance. She is the first daughter from four and decided to join the factory after finishing junior high school. She realized that her family did not have money to send her to school and as the eldest at home, she had to help their parents. She mentions that it is only her working in the factory since all of her siblings can continue studying. She is now a mother of two kids and lives separately in the neighboring village. For more than 15 years, Inu works as a cutter (helper) of her mother. The reason she keeps working on the factory is that she thinks that her lower education background will not make her suitable for other jobs, hence she withstands up to present52.
Being female is the only requirement for piece-rate works. Once new labor was accepted, she followed one-month training and received payment during the training. The academic background cannot justify the position of the worker, but the rolling section can be seen as the oldest with the lowest education degree. They usually are primary school (SD) graduates, and some of them did not have any qualifications. It happens because they are all the first labor force generation who have been joining since the early years of the factory. Due to the retirement of many rollers, the current rollers previously acted as cutter. So the career path usually begins being a cutter, and until there is a vacancy in the rolling section, when a cutter will be upgraded to be a roller. This path is not mutually exclusive to all piece-rate workers. In Inu’s case, if her mother is retired, she will automatically shift to the rolling section. If the pair is not balanced, such as if the number of the rollers is more than that of the cutters, a cutter can serve two rollers.
Different from Inu, Munisah has another career path. Munisah currently acts as the group leader. She is an primary school graduate (SD) and been working since 1995. In 2005, she was upgraded to be a supervisor due to retirement of the former (male) supervisor and because since 2003 there was no more recruitment, the factory began to appoint (female) piece-rate workers to fill the supervisory position. In 2015, Munisah received another promotion to be the group leader, also to replace the former (male) group leader due to retirement. Currently, Munisah is the only female group leader in the factory’s history53. Munisah’s career track also occurs to her comrades as many piece-rate workers upgraded to fill the supervisory position due to the moratorium54.
52 Interview, November 12, 2018 53 Interview, November 12, 2018 54 Ever since 2003 the factory stop recruit people. Anytime a (male) supervisor retire, his position will be filled by women from the piece-rate works.
51
The two narratives above emphasize that gender plays a role in the factory recruitment process. In the career path, feminization upon the supervisory position is done on purpose. The evaluation reflects that a female supervisor is seen more effective than the male. First, the female supervisor is experienced at either rolling or cutting, so she knows exactly how to produce good cigarettes. Thus, the female supervisor does not need training like a male supervisor. Second, the female supervisor reduces the communication barrier because she leads another female. Third, the female supervisor can be a role model of her peers as they all have an opportunity to level up to a higher position.55
Such argumentation above however overlook the part that the women worker will not level up to be monthly worker. There a moment the unit head told me that to be a foreman or a unit head requires much knowledge about cigarette. He explains that to know much about cigarette, whether it tastes good or not, you have to be a professional smoker, so you can compare which recipe of cigarette is the finest.”56 This statement strongly explains that no matter what, women will never lead the cigarette production because they do not taste their product; they do not smoke. The factory system thus somewhat provides a promotion to the women in a ‘limited opportunity’. It resonates with the ‘public patriarchy’ (Walby, 2000), that women could contribute and participate in public areas, but they will be subordinated by the system and tradition they are embedded within Despite some women being able to rise in the hierarchy, this does not necessarily demonstrate that the factory is beginning to empower women. Instead, the factory elevates the women’s career on behalf of effectivity. The exclusion of male in a particular occupation is understood as the management retaining control over the workforce. This includes the determination of the wage package and the redefinition of skills (Tjandraningsih, 2000). The expansion of the industry does not necessarily provide the same improvement to the workers.
5.4 Performing agency in the kretek promotion
In responding to the constraints from a gendered-organization, the women might also exercise diverse agency in their everyday practices and negotiations. According to Kabeer (1999) agency is a ‘process’ to see if individuals have autonomy as an inherent capacity or Mahmod’s definition upon agency as the capacity to realize one’s own interest (2006). Agency is shown not only in the form of resisting act, but also possibly performed in the one that inhabits the norms or in ‘compliance’ (Kabeer, 2016). Therefore, this section attempts to look on the way the women’s respond to the existing gender segregation in kretek and in the factory through their daily interaction, specifically in promoting kretek. I argue that the women workers participation in promoting kretek do not merely reflect that they have such obligation, but also that they engage
55 Interview November 13, 2018 56 Informal talk November 14 , 2018
52 with their roles in the sense that they are conscious about their participation; even in performing compliance.
In a routine inspection, the unit head told me that each worker should be aware that they are not only cigarette producer, but also the agent of [kretek] cigarette. Promoting kretek is one core mission of the factory because of two reasons. First, the cigarette is the source of their livelihood. The production [demand] of kretek cigarette has decreased throughout tim. Thus, it should be known that they should find way out to boost the market demand for kretek. If the demand keeps decreasing, it affects their income, especially the piece-rate workers, who are paid by the number of cigarettes they make. In an extreme condition, the workers could possibly lose their job due to the factory collapse. Therefore, the employers claim that promoting kretek is not only the duty of the company (of the factory). All workers have the same responsibility to preserve kretek by making the best cigarette and to promote their product to the market directly. “They [workers] can start convincing male members of their family to smoke our product.”57
Such an understanding to produce high-quality cigarettes are echoed by the workers. Sopiatun, a cutter, who has been working for twenty years as a cutter in the factory reckons that producing the best cigarettes are not only a duty for her. She embraces the connection she has to her job while she also acknowledges that the strict supervision urges her to do so. Her conscious, as well as her embeddedness to her job, is notified as an agency; as she is aware of her interest.
“If you ask me how much I love this job, you can see how I work hard to make good cigarettes. I know that the benefit of creating a good product not only for the factory but also for workers too. If many more people buy our cigarettes, it means that I have many more cigarettes to make, and I can receive a much higher salary. I think everyone else knows this. But this is not just because we make good cigarettes, but they [supervisors] are also very strict.”58
In addition to promoting kretek, there are other extra activities the women can participate in such as kretek sand kretek arts performances like kretek dance. In these activities, various interests of the women are also found at which displaying agency. The kretek exhibition refers to an agenda of several days business trip outside the city (usually in the weekend) to demonstrate the cigarette making using a manual tool or hereafter referred to as demo linting. Practically, the unit head asks for three to four rollers or female supervisors (who used to be rollers) to go with him for an exhibition event or on Car Free Day (CFD) on Sunday morning. An interview with Khasanah (a female supervisor) summarizes the activity of demo linting.
57 Informal talk November 13, 2018 58 Interview November 15, 2018
53
K: We bring with us the rolling machine. We demonstrate how to roll the cigarettes. Some people may stop by and watch over us. Sometimes, they came to us, asking how the process is, take our picture, and we give them the cigarette, only if it’s a man [adult men]. A: You still work at the weekend. How does your husband or family respond? K: I told my husband after I got the offer. My husband and I discussed whether I could go or not. If he did not permit me, I would not go, as that is fitrah, the duty of a wife to not disappoint her husband. But most of the time, he would not mind if I go, only if we already have a family agenda, I myself would refuse the offer. This job offers money, and I was not alone. I worked with other rollers, who were women, so it is safe. A: How do you see yourself promoting kretek? K: Although I’m no longer working as a roller, I am part of the cigarette factory. If there are more people that smoke our product and the sales increase, I can also be proud59.
Khasanah is a woman in her late thirties. She has light skin, puts on make-up, and wears high heels, which nobody else in the factory does. She is actively participating in the kretek dance. The kretek dance was firstly initiated in the last two years. She doesn't know how the details but she and several other ‘young’ women were approached by the former Unit Head to join the dance group. An external professional dancer, Bu Al, was hired by the company to create the choreography. In a nutshell, the dance is formed by five dancers (1 male and 4 female) demonstrating the process in the cigarette making. For sure, one male dancer is acting as the supervisor, and four females are as rollers. The dance is usually performed in the company event such as gatherings or to welcome important guess. Sometimes the dance is included in the exhibition mission, incorporated with demo linting to perform outside the city.60
Looking at Khasanah’s fashion style, I was wondering if the dancers have the same characteristic as her, that of good looking young ladies. She does not refuse this but she adds that anyone can join the group although at the end the unit head will determine who will get the offer to perform since they will pay the dancer for each performance. Khasanah also argues that it is mostly young women who are still energetic and want to get extra work, and willing to leave their family for several days, something elder women are not so keen to do61 Related to Khasanah’s arguments, I came to Rikanah (a roller) whose age is around fifty years old. I asked her about the kretek exhibition and the kretek dance, and why she does not join the activities.
“If I join the demo linting I’m afraid the factory will be collapsed. I am too old and not pretty. For the dance? [laughing] I can’t dance, and I don’t think any old rollers can. It’s better for
59 Interview November 16, 2018 60 Interview November 16, 2018 61 Interview November 16, 2018
54
the young. It’s enough for me to make good cigarettes without defect and bring the money home.”62
Rikanah’s statement shows her awareness upon her duty to promoting kretek, although in a different way. At the same time, Rikanah displays another way of performing agency compared to her counterparts. The long period they have been working in the factory has developed a sense of loyalty in them as individuals. Their loyalty to the job is, however, triggered by several factors such as the hierarchical work system that leads the workers to follow any command given by the supervisor or employers. On the other hand, their long service period (at minimum 15 years long) has built a strong connection between the workers and their job. As they are emotionally connected to their job, they exercise agency as a way to cope with the gendered job they are involved. They put consciousness in doing their job, so they do the job as it is obligatory and because they have a willingness to improve. The women perform different practices, but instead of resisting the existing gender constraint, they are seemingly accepting the norms as that reflects the compliant form of agency (Kabeer, 2016).
5.5. Conclusion
I have described activities and people within the cigarette production process in this chapter. I have shown how cigarette manufacture is organized and structured into a hierarchical form that normalizes inequalities that intersect between gender, class, and ethnicity. The gender- based division in the cigarette production unit indicates that gender still became a significant reason for dividing and designing tasks, reflecting Acker’s (2012) notion of ‘ideal worker’ to a specific type of task. The idea assigns both female and male as subject to change. Moreover, the feminization of an occupation that used to be male’s work is hardly seen empowering, instead of as another subordination of women due to different power relation. Thus, the organization and practices used in the cigarette production unit are under the male-centric authority. The asymmetric power relations put women workers to be subordinated that according to Walby (2000) indicating practices of ‘public patriarchy’. However, within such limitation, the women performs several ways responding the gender constraints. The practices show the extent the women cope with the gendered organization that reflect agency. Despite various practices indicating agency, all of them are considered to inhabit the norms (Mahmood, 2006), and displaying compliance.
In the next chapter, I will describe the experiences of the women workers from the piece- rate and daily works that I have hung out with and interviewed. I work to articulate the way they experience gender roles at home and the gender structures that drive and affect their practices.
62 Interview November 16, 2018
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6. Women workers dependency and control in the household
6.1. Introduction
Norms and values are applied in their household and thus, in investigating their gender performance, their activities, roles, and interaction in their home are important. This chapter does not try to place a geographical distinction on the performance of gender displayed by the women workers. It instead unravels the interconnectedness between the workplace and home to the extent to which structure, norms, and values of gender are shaped. In relation to the women’s employment in the factory, the household acts as ‘cooperative conflict’ (Sen, 1990); the women are potentially gain more options as they can earn money from working in the factory, and at the same time they are burdened with greater work load and responsibility that hampers their autonomy (Kabeer, 2000).
The two loci; the workplace and the household, are related to set of social constructions that occur over time, space, and generations. For instance, in the labor force, the women were associated with ‘feminine’ jobs as these are similar to the domestic jobs. Therefore, the notion of a ‘second shift’ is seen as an expectation to normalize women’s work both in the premises of the workplace and their homes (Hocschild and Machung, 1990), while men [within the family] are primarily considered to take care only to the production work, outward . This chapter aims at investigating how the women’s position lies within their double responsibility (both at home and in the workplace); to provide an overview of their activities as a response to the existing gender norms. Their everyday interaction and conversation with other individuals and the set of rules they believe in can perform ‘compliance’ agency (Kabeer, 2016).
This chapter describes women workers’ daily activities; explore their interaction with other members in their household and neighborhood, their contribution in the division of work to what extent they are involved in the decision-making process. This chapter also goes on to bring an analysis of the positionality of the women before and after they got married; analyzing how the women perform agency within varied form of household construction. I show how the women manage their time in a workday to illustrate their daily schedule, and the way they show control and dependence in relation to other individuals in the household and to the existing social structure. This sub-chapter also reveals the women’s contribution to financial strategies and their performing of agency in household management. I conclude with the evaluation of the women’s contribution within their household management, their bargaining position and to what extent women perform their agency within the domestic context.
56
6.2. Compromise with the parental authority
Joining the factory work is seemingly the best option the women have despite various motivations that drive them to do so. The economic factor drives all women workers to conduct waged work. As the women have a different level of education background, I cannot generalize that all the women come from the same economic capability. But, the women have been working in the factory for at least fifteen years. Thus most of them had worked since they were teenagers and are most likely unmarried. In that sense, they were still living with their parents. The parents hold a significant role in interfering in decisions upon the future of their girls. Thus, in deciding whether to do paid work or not, parents' directions become a prominent consideration. Being a daughter indicates that she should obey certain rules and limitations made by the parents. To work in kretek cigarette factory becomes their preference as it fits their parents’ desire, including the existing social norm. From the interviews, I draw four common reasons that drive the women to work in the cigarette factory, namely 1) the women could be economically independent from their parents (or spouse) ; 2) the factory is located not far from home; 3) to get free from the household task; and 4) to support the family income. Each respondent could choose seize at least two reasons that motivate them to work in the kretek cigarette factory.
Generally, the women are eager to work since they consider that their parents are not economically established, and so if they cannot pursue a higher level of education they should instead work and earn money at least for themselves. Although none of them state that they experienced such pressure to work from their parents or other members of the family, some of those aware of the household situation wish to make a financial contribution. During the process to enter a paid job, the women indicate that their decisions depended not only on their competence to work but also the feeling that they should respect the will of their parents. The women are aware that they may not be able to decide for themselves because they still live with their parents, and they tend to avoid conflict. The outmaneuvering process drawn from the above- mentioned motivations are depicted in the following life histories;
Ita has worked in the cigarette factory since 1999. She entered the factory after graduating from high school. She considered that her parents did not have money to send her to university. Ita’s parents were merchants with four kids, and Ita is their first born. In addition, Ita reveals that studying is not her passion. Therefore she decided to find a job once graduated. Ita’s parents never asked her to work, but Ita felt shy to ask for money from her parents anytime she wanted to buy her stuff, such as clothes or cosmetics. Her parents allow her to work outside the home, so long as it is not far from home. Ita’s parents did not allow her to live separately, thus working in a different city was not on her list. Besides that, Ita was afraid to live by herself in a strange place and be burdened by rental payments. She preferred to stay with her parents instead. Not too long from her graduation, Ita was informed by her neighbor about the vacancy. She found that many people who live in her surrounding area have worked in the cigarette factory, so she has been
57 familiar with such an occupation. “[…] to work in the factory is already an accomplishment for me,” said Ita63. Thus for Ita, to work in kretek factory is not only about getting a job, but also because it is prestigious.
Sumiyati began to work in the kretek cigarette factory in 2000 after graduated from Madrasah Aliyah (equivalent to a high school degree). Sumiyati’s aunt already worked in the factory and invited her to work with her. Her aunt was a roller and asked Sumiyati to be her pair (a cutter). Sumiyati consulted her parents before deciding to follow her aunt. Sumiyati’s parents are farmers. So if Sumiyati does not have a paid job, she should help her parents to work in the rice field to support the household. Sumiyati did not want to go to the field because she thought that farming was too physically challenging, although Sumiyati also stated that her parents never asked her to help them in the field. However, to stay at home would mean that Sumiyati should do domestic tasks, such as cooking and cleaning. She felt miserable staying at home doing household tasks without earning money. Thus, Sumiyati argued that to work in the factory is the best deal. Sumiyati's father permitted her to work in the factory as he knew that the factory is only four kilometers away from home and Sumiyati would finish working before sunset. Her father argues that a girl should not wander around in the night. With the permission of her father, Sumiyati began to work in the factory. She expressed how she was delighted receiving her salary of IDR 6500 on her first day. She bought her mother vegetables and fish from the market nearby. Since she worked at the factory, her parents rarely ask her to do the household tasks except on her day off. “I am not required to help my mother to cook every day,” said Sumiyati64
Jasmin started to work in the factory in 2003. She was twelve years old and just graduated from elementary school. Her parents worked as farm laborers, also referred to as farmers without land. It meant that Jasmin’s parents never had a stable income. Jasmin lived with her parents and her elder sister who had Down syndrome. Jasmin had no other option but to work and help to finance her family. Jasmin was informed by her neighbor about the vacancy. Jasmin had a talk with her parents about her preference to work in the factory. Her parents agreed, although they never pressured Jasmin to work. Jasmin’s parents thought that they could not avoid Jasmin working as they were aware that they could not fulfill all her needs. The distance between the home and the factory was also taken into consideration. It was only ten kilometers away. Jasmin went to work by commuting. Several years later, Jasmin invited her sister to work with her in the factory. Jasmin worked as a roller and her sister, Siti, acted as her cutter. Since then, the household expenditure depended upon both Jasmin and Siti’s income. “Father and mother never ask me to finance them. Because I have a more stable wage, I do not mind supporting my family,” said Jasmin.65
63 Interview October 22, 2018 64 Interview October 28, 2018 65 Interview December 6, 2018
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The three stories above exemplify the way in which the women show effort to work in the factory. Kretek cigarette factory has existed for a long time, and thus working in the factory is familiar to the girls. Many people who live in their neighborhood, and often some of their relatives, have worked in a kretek cigarette factory. Moreover, the factory location, which is not far from their homes, becomes another supporting factor. This has made factory labor a common occupation or a trend, as so many people in their surroundings have worked there. Thus, to work in the factory is seen as efficient and promising.
Each woman might have a different reason to get into the job, but they share the same satisfaction as they do not want to stay at home and not earn money. The do not necessarily receive any pressure from their parents to do a paid job, but their own self-awareness gives them the desire to no longer be financially dependent on their parents. In this sense, the women perform agency and capacity to act and envision their future career. Another thing in common is that the factory is located not far from their house. It is seen as economically efficient and complies with existing social norms. The asymmetric power relations between parents and children ensure that parents’ opinions are significantly taken into account in decision making. It means that children’s (in this case the daughter’s) agency is limited. The parents hold certain control and expect their daughter to act under their supervision. The parents find that the factory is in ‘a safe radius’. This perception of safety considers not only the close proximity but also the limited working hours of the factory. The parents permit their daughter to work if their shifts finish within daylight hours. In other words, the parents do not allow their daughter to work at night.
The household becomes both as support and hindrance upon the women’s agency. The existing norm through an asymmetrical power relations, the girls are seemingly subordinated, although it does not exclusively determine the girls into as passive recipients. The decision to do paid work certainly indicates an agency as well as their preference to work in the cigarette factory. Although practically, the girls' preference is not separated from the hegemony of the existing social and gender norms reflected in their parents’ conditions. The girls show that they negotiate permission to work in the kretek cigarette factory, presenting it as a compromize, as it satisfies both the girls and their parents, and complies with existing norms
6.3. Women workers in their married lives
As time goes by, the girls grew up and got married. The decision to get married is on the girl herself, and none of them had an arranged married. After getting married, the girl left her parents’ home to live with her husband. After getting married, the girl leaves her parents’ home to live with her husband. This can mean living in the same house with their parents-in-law or in a separated house. In that sense, the women enter a new ‘household’ with different members with different behavior. The new ‘household’ could have a different division of work compared to their
59 parents’ household. They used to deal with their parents’ hegemony; in married life, household actors change into the husband, wife, and later their kids if they live in a nuclear family. However, the family could be extended with other actors such as parents-in-law and other siblings-in-law. Whatever the composition of the family, the women remain working in the factory. In addition, they are also borne with extra productive and reproductive responsibilities as defined by the concept of the ‘second shift’ (Hochscild and Machung, 1990). .
This part look at how women workers experience their marriage lives. They live surrounded by different individuals and the effect that this has on them in nuanced. They interact with other members of their family in a nuclear family (husband, wife, and kids) as well as with individuals in their neighborhood (inter-household). These interactions and communications affect their agency and how they manage their household. The women perceive the factory work as a promising occupation, and thus they are motivated to remain working there. The following section examines the continuity and change upon gender roles of the women in their married lives.
6.3.1. Gaining self-worth by having waged work
After getting married, most of the respondents assert that to continue working is the best option they have. The economic reason urges them to keep working in the factory so then they can support their household. Beyond that reason, the women show varied form of motivation at which resonate their gender role both in the household and in larger social entities, as they perceive that to have waged work meaning they are more respected by others. Moreover, the women acclaims that their role as both wife and mother posit them to be aware of their dual responsibility; to handle domestic works as well as to earn income.
“I do not want to be a jobless wife. I should earn money no matter how much. I do not want to end up with other wives (in my neighborhood) gossiping about people all day long. As I am working, I could be away from that circle (or gossiping), and nor do I have to hear them gossiping about me” said Ita66
“…wong wedhok pabrikan ora gene-gene nek ora masak, tuku matengan ning warung. [A wife who is employed (factory worker) is justified not to be able to cook. We buy food in food stall instead] said Sumiyati67
“My husband’s income is not enough to cover all household needs. I prefer to remain working in the factory to help him” said Munisah68
66 Interview October 22, 2018 67 Interview October 28, 2018 68 Interview November 21, 2018
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“I have been working in the best cigarette factory in town. They provide many facilities to me, including medical insurance to me, my husband and kids. Why should I stop or find another job?” said Pujiatun69
From different motivations and reasons, the women have two things in common to remain working in the factory: economic benefit and self-worth. Women’s working status implies stable income and financial security. It does not focus on the amount of wage they receive from the factory, but as they are employed permanently they will receive a stable income until later, when they are retired. They perceive themselves to be able to work and support their family. They are aware of their position as a wife who needs to support her husband to finance the family. Although it is not clearly stated to what extent the women perceive their position in contributing to the household finances, whether to be a breadwinner or a supplement. The related discussion about finance will be brought in the next section.
At the same time, the women also perceive that working in the factory is a form of agency, which raises their self-worth. Through their perception of themselves as being able to hold the responsibility of financing the household, they already empower themselves. Moreover, working in the factory is seen as an accomplishment to the women, in contrast with those who are unemployed and do not earn money. They tend to avoid being unemployed and argue that through remaining working in the factory, they are making a worthwhile contribution. The women have been working in the factory since before they were married. They acknowledge this fact as an asset and a source of power in determining their status as beneficiaries. Employment at the factory not only benefits the women themselves but also other family members, for which the women are very grateful.
6.3.2 The division of work in the household
Factory working hours are managed reasonably to fit for women who are mothers at the same time. They could earn money from working in the factory, yet they should not worry about domestic works they are allocated such as nurturing kids and providing food. The cigarette makers [roller and cutter] start working at 6 in the morning, the road is not yet crowded with people going to school or work, and finish working at 1 pm so that they can do their household duties. Packers begin later at 7.30 am so they can cook or clean at home before going to work. “….the company manage the work hours seriously.”70
The interview above portrays the notion that the women workers are recognized to have other responsibilities. The factory acknowledges the women’s other responsibilities and thus the
69 Interview November 23, 2018 70 Interview with the factory manager on October 28, 2018
61 work schedule is managed accordingly, reproducing existing gender relations but also to make it possible to work. The management accommodates the women to conduct both their job in the workplace and at homes that reflects an interconnectedness between two domains.
I argued earlier that ‘wife’ or ‘mother’ status creates different responsibilities for the factory women. The women are aware of their two responsibilities; to conduct paid work as well as domestic tasks. Most of the women’s perspectives reflect an essentialist notion of gender, in which certain tasks are either defined as women’s work or men’s work. However, the task distribution can be diverse depending on how many ‘adults’ there are in the household. The type and number of activities could also be divergent depending on whether they have children or not. The women reported that negotiation commonly occurs in their household regarding who should carry out which tasks. Several domestic tasks remained flexible, such as cleaning the home. These tasks could be done by anyone in their household who is available at the time. The work division is somewhat divided across gender lines, drawn from an essentialist notion of gender, with the possibility to outmaneuver.
Most of the respondents admit that providing food is a women’s job and none of them revealing the presence of men in this particular job. Instead of cooking themselves, the women prefer to buy cooked food. For instance Sumiyati, a mother of two kids. She rarely cook herself. She instead buy food from warung71. Sumiyati reveals that she has no time to cook as she has to depart to work at 5.30 in the morning and her husband works in the construction sector and must often be placed outside the city for weeks. She usually buys breakfast for her kids before she leaves to work. “I neither cook for dinner, so I usually ask my daughter to buy food from warung or wait for bakso dorong [mobile food stall]”72
Beyond preparing food, other tasks such as clean the house is left shared, or can be done either by women or men. Sumiyati reveals that her husband also cleans the house (most likely sweeping the floor or gardening). But since her husband works in the construction sector and must often be placed outside for weeks. So at the time her husband away from home, the cleaning task is done by Sumiyati, because her kids are too young to help. Since Sumiyati has an infant, childcare is another concern. She delegates her mother, who is unemployed to do the childcare. She brings her second daughter to her mother’s home, which is in the next alley, on the way to work. This way is commonly done by most of the respondents, not only because they don’t allocate money for the childcare service, but because their extended family live in the neighborhood. However, the childcare job is meant to be ‘women’s job’ as they leave their kids to another woman in the extended family.
71 Food stall. In Kudus, there are many mobile food vendors that walk over housing in afternoon to evening 72 Interview October 28, 2018
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In sum, the domestic tasks are commonly done by either men or women in the family. Although, women might be borne with many more stuffs compared to men, yet a particular type of task is pledged as women’s job. The presence of men aims as ‘help’ for the women, neither substitute the women. Such norm is reproduced as both men and women normalize the gendered division of labor. Within the static gender roles, the women perform maneuver such as prefer to buy food instead of cooking for their family.
6.3.3 The bittersweet of living with a kinship neighborhood
In Kudus, it is quite common for a married couple to live in a patrilocal residence73. This entails that the bride is brought to live with parents-in-law or to live in a different house that is inherited from the husband’s side. The couple can also live in a separated house, but the husband’s families usually reside in their neighborhood. The respondents express that living in the patrilocal residence brings both advantages and disadvantages in terms of their household management. Their in-laws, who live in their surroundings, help them doing particular domestic tasks such as childcare and cooking. On the other hand, these in-laws could enact control and make interventions that affect household management. The interviewees admit that living surrounded by their husband’s families somewhat affects their bargaining position at home. For instance, in task management, the extended family’s opinion is taken into consideration, and the women must negotiate with them. This section works to identify interactions between the women and their neighborhood with kinship relationship, analyzing to what extent the women perform agency within their household decision making.
Interaction in the neighborhood can be more intense in a kinship relationship. There are multiple exchanges of goods and services between different household. The possibility to exchange control is also seemingly higher in a kinship neighborhood compared to a non-kinship related neighborhood. Parents can justify control over their children’s household despite living in different houses, as illustrated by the following story;
Inayati lives in a house whose land is inherited from her parents-in-law. She admits that living around family gives her advantages as she can leave her kids to her mother-in-law who is an unemployed widow. Inayati also mentions that her mother-in-law scolds her if she is not performing her chores appropriately. For example, sometimes she forgets to take down the laundry from the clothesline, which her mother-in-law gets angry about. She also keeps arguing with her mother-in-law about her kids. Her mother-in-law often acts like she knows everything about the best treatment of the children, including medicine. When the tension gets higher,
73 I refer to the definition of ‘patrilocality’ as the women leave her parents house on marriage to take up residence in the home of her husband and his patrilineal kin (Palriwala and Uberoi, 2015)
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Inayati prefers to calm herself and follow her mother in-law’s command. She avoids conflict, and she does not want to be a seditious daughter-in-law. There was a moment when Inayati felt she should not bother her mother-in-law, but her mother-in-law got angry and insisted on taking care of her baby. She is aware that her employment makes the condition way better compared to if she is jobless. She assumes that she and her mother-in-law could be in the fight more often as they interact intensively. She makes ends meet from her wage and also support her mother-in- law’s household. She imagines if she is jobless and has no money, so she would be perceived as a burden for her family, as to perceive herself only as ‘occupant’ not the ‘owner’ of the house, and thus she must well-behaved. The same scenario played out even when her father-in-law was still alive, as he completely detached himself from household issues. He considered it a woman’s domain and left it up to his wife to organize.74
Living around people within a kinship relationship eases the exchange of goods and services with the possibility to exchange control. The boundaries between families in the familial neighborhood seem blurred. A nuclear family’s autonomy can be affected by someone from the extended family who holds a higher position in the family, such as parents. In the domestic context, the presence of the mother [in-law] seems more dominating than the father. Another case demonstrates that the person intervening may not be one of the parents-in-law, but rather a sibling-in-law, in this case in the absence of the mother-in-law.
Alifah is currently living with her husband, her two kids, and her father-in-law. Her mother- in-law died several years ago. To live in her parents-in-law’s house was never Alifah’s dream, but Alifah thought that her income (including her husband’s income) would not be enough for them to buy a house, or even to rent a house. In addition, the current house is Alifah’s husband’s inheritance right; each child receives part of their parent’s property, and the house is his share. Thus they live there while also take care of his father (Alifah’s father-in-law). Alifah’s husband has one sister, Khodijah, who lives in the neighborhood. Alifah feels that Khodijah never liked her. Khodijah would comment on small things, such as if the house was not clean enough, and judge Alifah for not being grateful for the house she would later inherit. Khodijah keeps reminding Alifah to do things like her late mother used to do (concerning the household management). Alifah is grateful that she is having a job, so she should not interact to her siblings [in-law] intensively. Alifah tends to avoid conflict by remain silent once she does not agree with her sister, or generally to everyone at home. “I do not talk much to my father-in-law about the household. Neither do I divide tasks with my husband. He is a construction worker and usually has to work away from home. When he is home, he helps me clean the house and laundry. My father-in-law sometimes
74 Interview November 24, 2018
64 also sweeps the yard. When my mother-in-law was still alive, she took control of everything, and I used to help her. However, after she died, I had to take over her position.” said Alifah75
Similar to the first case, the second case illustrates that interactions regarding domestic issues are mostly done among women. Just as such parents may seize authority in a household, a mother-in-law can hold the same power that possibly limits the agency of the daughter [in-law]. But, if the mother-in-law is absent, such influence is not mutually shifted to the father-in-law but rather to another woman in the extended family. The dominance of women within inter- household relation results from the exclusion of men from the domestic context. A mother becomes the one who knows (almost) everything about the home. When the wife comes to the house, she interfaces the domination of the mother-in-law instead of father-in-law or her husband regarding the domestic tasks. To be clear, the women who live in parental residence are seemingly vulnerable and prefer to keep the relationship with the familial neighborhood in peace by avoiding conflict.
6.4 Managing the finance
“Uang istri using istri, uang suami uang istri [Wife’s money is wife’s, husband’s money is wife’s]”
The proverb above is mentioned by an abundance of women in the field. They jokingly say that money in the household is supposedly under the women’s authority. Wives expect their husbands to let them manage all issues surrounding the domestic expenditure. However, that is only stated as a joke, as in reality, most married women workers explain that household finance is controlled and negotiated between the wife and the husband. Research among Javanese women suggests that the idea that females are dominant in managing finance not only overlooks the presence of men but also contributes to diverting more of the workload to women (Wolf, 1992). However, the condition could be different according to the significance of the contribution of women in financing household expenditures. The finding exemplifies varying ways of managing household finance. There is a distinction between control and management, as control refers to taking a dominant role in the policy-making, and managing is related to the capacity to execute the decision into action (Standing, 1991; Saptari, 1995). The wife may have a management role, but often has little power to contribute to decision making.
In practice, there are three different ways of managing household finance. First, if the wife earns a lesser or equal amount as the husband, there are usually some agreements upon the wage allocation. The woman’s money is allocated to daily expenditures, while husband’s money is used
75Interview November 24, 2018
65 for other more significant things, such as electricity, school fee, debt, and tax. Second, the woman might collect and pool the money earned by each household member. This often applies in the case of a female household head[widow] or a housewife. These two methods are enacted by married women or widows. The third method relates to single women workers (unmarried), who tend to pool their money with their mother. The third way is rarely shown as the number of unmarried workers are already limited currently.
If the wife’s wage is as much as the husband’s, the allocation for each income can be done equally. Eka, who works in the procurement sector (the daily work) tells of how she and her husband agree to set the allocation. In her position, Eka roughly earns as much as her husband who works as a technician in the factory. Eka claims that her husband’s money is allocated to pay ‘big deals’ such as electricity, school fee, or emergency fund, while her income is used for food and daily expenditure. Eka adds that she does not pool all the money, as she directly spends hers to purchase the daily needs. Similarly, her husband does not leave her money but directly takes care of the large transactions. As the expenditure of her husband could be much more than hers, Eka also thinks about another form of consumption, like buying clothes for her, her husband and her kid. She used to think to collect her husband’s income and household budget, but over time she changed her mind. She feels that she already trusts her husband and that the new finance management is somewhat efficient for her. Many feminist studies reveal that control over income could improve the power of women in the household, but in the case of Eka, she finds that to be borne with the responsibility of ‘big money’ adds more of a burden76.
In a married couple, the woman can also act as the breadwinner. The breadwinner is defined as the household member whose income is used to cover most of the household expenses. It also refers to those who earn much more money than the other member of the household. This applies to Munisah, the one and only female group leader in the factory reveals that her wage is significantly higher than her husband, who works as a tailor. Her husband is a tailor who is no longer productive since he got a gastric infection, so his physical capacity is weak. Even while her husband was still healthy, the household could not rely solely on his wage. His occupation as a village tailor is hardly developed. Only in a particular moment such as in Idul Fitri77, her husband could receive many orders. Her husband always gives Munisah money, although not always the same amount. So, Munisah herself manages the allocation of the household expenditure, including electricity and children’s school fees. However, if they need to buy big things, such as a motorcycle or a laptop for the kid, they might have to decide together.78
76 Interview November 28, 2018 77 Muslim’s religious holiday held on 1 Syawal in the lunar calendar 78 Interview November 21, 2018
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The third way is women workers submit their income [partly] to another elder woman in the family. Jasmin lives with her parents and elder sister. All of her family members do paid work, although only Jasmin and her sister appear to have stable jobs. For the household expenditure, each member of the family ought to deposit money with Jasmin’s mother. Jasmin usually gives her mother half or less of her wage. As a roller, she could bring home approximately IDR 70.000. She gives IDR 20.000 to her mother and keeps the IDR 50.000 for herself. Jasmin sometimes do groceries, so she does not give her mother money on this particular day. Jasmin could also give more money to her mother for her expenses, such as to buy medicine or to donate to an event of a relative or neighbor.79
From the three examples, it can be seen that women take a significant role in managing household finance. The various contributions the women make to the household income indicates that women still have a central position in allocating and spending the family’s money. But not all women in the family could govern the finance as it is limited to the eldest one in the family, such as the mother.
6.4.1 Arisan and the social network
In the study about Javanese, arisan is defined as a way to store up income, a form of saving, which is done collectively (Saptari, 1995). One arisan group consists of people (the number of people is flexible) who gather an agreed amount of money on the regular payday (per week, two weeks or per month). On the payday, the members (some or all) will meet and pull out a name from the arisan bottle. The name that comes out from the bottle will be the person to receive the money. It will repeatedly continue until every name receives the money, and thus arisan is often referred to as a rotating saving association (Wolf, 1992). Arisan membership is not restricted by gender. Both men and women may join and participate in an arisan group. In practice, however, women often join an arisan whose members are only women. They join either with female colleagues in the workplace or other adult women from their neighborhood. In villages, adult women of each household used to gather and conduct meetings regularly and arisan is one of the meeting program.
The output of arisan is flexible and is determined by a consensus of all the members. Two most popular arisan joined by women are cash arisan and panci [cooking pot] arisan80. There are various reasons that motivate the women to join an arisan. It is usually aimed as a strong incentive to engage in saving.
79 Interview December 6, 2018 80 Instead of receiving money, the lottery winner receive kitchen stuff like pot or anything else based on the agreement.
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“If I am not involved in arisan, I’m not sure if I can save money. I receive IDR 65.000 from the factory. I spend the money for groceries, buying foods for the whole family, childcare or anything else that pops up in my head later. But because I commit to paying for the arisan, I should save some” said Sumiyati81
The cash arisan can potentially be allocated differently; purely for saving or to be allocated for household consumption, and thus it can be seen as a household strategy. But sometimes the women expect to collect money through arisan to buy their stuff, such as cosmetics and clothing. In that sense, arisan is solely seen as an individual strategy, instead of for the household.
Pujiatun joins two arisan simultaneously. One arisan is in the factory, and another one is conducted with women (ibu-ibu) from her neighborhood. Both arisan result in cash. Pujiatun confess that without arisan, she would not be able to save money. Pujiatun does not consult her husband about joining the arisan, but she informs him instead. These two arisan are pereived differently. The first arisan (the one with her factory colleagues) is used for her household needs. Anytime she feels she needs to buy a new cooking pot or other stuff, and she will use that money. Meanwhile, she expects to buy gold with the money from the second arisan, as the accumulated amount is a large sum: IDR 2.500.000. Pujiatun mentions that it is her husband that suggests to her that she should buy gold jewelry. He convinces her that gold is a good way of saving, and not to mention the fact that Pujiatun can also wear that. The gold value rises throughout time, so if they need money, they can sell the gold immediately.82
Pujiatun’s story illustrates that the women workers use arisan as a strategy either for individual or household purposes. The women have control over their income in joining the arisan, but not necessarily over allocating the money received from the arisan. The decision to use the money can come from the women hersel for be affected by another member of the household. Pujiatun’s preference to buy gold for investment could not be seen as a productive investment that could elevate the household economy. Saving gold is more of a social security measure. The gold’s value rises or is somewhat stable. It means that anytime the gold is resold, Pujiatun will not lose out on her initial investment.
Besides financial reasons, arisan is also seen as the way to build a social interaction. Arisan is used as a medium to connect and interact with other people both within the premises of the workplace and in the neighborhood.
81 Interview October 28, 2018 82 Interview November 23, 2018
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“Joining arisan is not only aimed to save money, but also to gather with the people in our area. In the village, people should be guyub (building connectedness within the community). I need to catch up with information and gossip around my place. I do not want to be outdated” said Ita83
“Existence is an important element to live in the village. I need everyone else to help me out of my daily problems, and I will also do the same if they need help. I need to keep the relations tight, and arisan provides an opportunity to stay connected to the people” said Rikanah84
6.4.2 Entrepreneurship and the household strategies
The women had perceived that they should participate in financing the household. Beyond getting income from the factory, the women show several entrepreneurial initiatives which are aimed to earn additional income. Similar to arisan, the income is aimed at individual desires, the household, or a combination of both. A general motivation is that the money is meant for a consumerist purpose; to buy stuff or household expenditure. Almost all women use a smartphone, and most of them go to work by motorcycle. Although smartphone and motorcycle are tertiary needs, for them they are essential. They usually buy them with a credit system. Thus the women conduct extra work also to purchase those products. However, some of them also reckon that they do extra work for investment.
A motivation to earn more money is also felt by Jasmin (mentioned above). She works gluing paper bags that she takes from her neighbor. She brings home 2000 paper bags in the afternoon after arriving from the factory. She could finish that in a week and will be paid IDR 100.000 for this work. She bought a motorcycle with her savings. Since she could not depend on her parents, she thinks that doing extra work is the only way to get what she wants. She needs it for her mobility. Before having a motorcycle, Jasmin would ride her bike to the bus stop, and commute with a mini-van (angkot) to work. Jasmin expressed that to purchase a motorcycle is a big deal, thus, she discussed it with her parents before buying it. Jasmin states that is a part of ethics as a daughter, to let other people know (usually the elder) and ask their opinion even if they do not contribute financially85.
83 Interview October 22, 2018 84 Interview November 30, 2018 85 Interview December 6, 2018
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A discussion is usually required if any household member is going to make a decision about a big transaction. It is commonly conducted with other older household members. In another case, decision making goes further as inter-household discussion.
“I receive a block [approximately 100-meter square] of rice field as an inheritance part from my late parents. As I think neither me nor my husband can farm, I am willing to sell it and buy land so I can later pass it on to my children. But my sister and my brother-in-law do not agree with my decision. They say if I am not making profit from the land, then it’s better to find someone else to work in my field. My husband and I do not agree as we find it bothersome to supervise the labors. In the end, my sister and her husband insisted on taking control of the operation because my part is next to hers. I agreed with their idea. Long story short, I rarely buy rice from the market; my field keeps supplying rice. I let my sister handle it” said Munisah86
In another situation, entrepreneurial activity is also motivated by both household expenditure and investment purposes.
Sopiatun is a widow with two daughters. Her first daughter is married and lives with her parents-in-law. Sopiatun lives with her second daughter who works in an electronic factory. However, Sopiatun should take care of her two grand-children (kids of Sopiatun’s niece). These kids are fed and taken care of by Sopiatun as their mother migrated to Jakarta to work, while their father has already passed away. Sopiatun’s income is used to feed four persons at her home. Sopiatun urges her daughter to save her money for herself and her wedding. Every month, Sopiatun receives money from her niece, but that is only enough for the children’s school fee and equipment. Thus, Sopiatun opened a small shop in her living room. The shop sells basic needs (sembako) such as rice, sugar, flour, and others. She could not count how much she receives per month, but the shop is useful for the household. Sopiatun pays cheaper for the stuff that she buys in wholesale. Sopiatun never does groceries since she had the shop, so she can take what she needs for cooking. Sopiatun intends save her earnings because she needs to prepare for her second daughter’s wedding. Although Sopiatun does not know yet when and with whom her girl will marry, as she knows that her daughter never introduces her to any boyfriend. At the end of the interview, she said a Javanese proverb: “Simbok yo kanggo tombok, simbah yo kanggo tambah, [a mother is sought to pay for everything and a grandmother acts as a supplement].”87
The absence of men as the head of the family justifies the dominance of women in authorizing and managing household finances. As reflected by Sopiatun, she performs control over
86 Interview November 21, 2018 87 Interview December 10, 2018
70 the allocation and strategies for the household. Sopiatun even determines her daughter’s financial management. Sopiatun illustrates agency as there is no dominant power above her. At the same time, she exercises authority and thus claims power that may subordinate the agency of other members of the household.
Figure 7. Sopiatun's shop covered with cigarette brands advertisement
6.5 Conclusion
The different position of the women workers in their household affects differently on how they perform gender roles. In many cases, the existing gender norm limits the women’s agency, but it does not straightforwardly oppress them. The women perform abilities to adapt and bargain with the existing gender norm. Their employment in the factory encourages women’s independence and self-worth. Nonetheless, the domestic context is still largely attributed to women rather than men. The women are aware of their domestic responsibility, and therefore their employment status is inextricable from household demand. The women outmaneuver the norms with certain ways that ease them of doing a task or through delegate the task to someone outside their household. The women could also become dominant as well as leading on determining the future of the household, although mainly in the absence of men.
In performing agency, the women show more acceptance and rather than to confront the general gender norms, although it does not regards that the women become obedient and stick to the rules. The women own their will and show efforts to reach it while at the same time they
71 prefer to compromise with certain rules and power that limit their agency. In comply with the division of work, the women tend to normalize sex segregated job. In this sense, the women themselves agree upon their ‘second shift’ (Machung and Hoshild, 1990). However, they also perform ability to manipulate or outmaneuver the method; provide nuanced ways; aimed to ease their responsibility to which reflect the ‘compliant agency’ (Kabeer, 2016).
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Conclusion
This research attempted to understand how women workers of kretek cigarette factory experience gender relations in their everyday lives. This research sought the gendering process of the organization exist in the premises related to the kretek-cigarette manufacture in Kudus, including the workplace and the women’s household, at which the women involved in their everyday lives. The thesis considered upon global wave of the feminization of labor has significantly affected to deteriorate working condition both to women and men and that women to experience more disadvantage compared to men (Standing, 1990). Through analyzing interaction and activities that the women involved in their day to day basis, this research overview the gendered impact of such gendered-adjustment and narrates the women’s ways in coping with such structure There is a complex historical process that lies behind kretek manufacture in Kudus so that it contributes significantly to the economic sector as well as another realm of daily lives in Kudus. The development of kretek industry does not only shape Kudus symbolically, as seen from the omnipresence of attributes related to kretek and many kretek factories which have provided job opportunities for the people. The development of kretek manufacture has revealed other social dimensions such as the ethnic competition and gender constraint in relation to kretek both in the level of consumption and production. Through analyzing the trajectory of kretek manufacture, I came to a conclusion that such gendered based tasks within kretek production is not only affected by the global wave of the feminization of industry as the general social construction upon gender also performed its influence. Secondly, in the factory and the kretek production processes, I have shown how the gendering process in the organization (the factory). It became clear how the organization in the factory is maintained across gender lines that result in a deterministic gendered division of labor. The organization is set into a hierarchical form of structure and posits women in the lower level compared to men’s showing public patriarchy (Walby, 2000). It closely aligned to Acker (1990) argumentation, to which affirm that a job is gendered, an institution has a logic to adjust ‘ideal worker’ for a particular task in the organization that results to either ‘women’s job’ or ‘man's job.’ Not to mention, the hierarchy in architecture and communication has created such inequalities regime (Acker, 2006) that maintain class and gender inequalities within the organization. In addition to the gendering process of the organization, a similar procedure occurs to the women workers’ household. The household acts as cooperative acts (Sen, 1990) that provide more option to the women (or girls) to earn money and get involved in the factory waged work yet at the same time give a greater workload to them. The organization in the family does follow the gendered-based division of labor, to which result that women have to be in charged for the domestic task, while men could also present as ‘helper’. The women were pledged to their ‘second
73 shift’ (Hoschild and Machung, 1990); the women have to earn income for their household and do the domestic tasks afterward. Turning to the experience of women in such deterministic gendered division of works in two premises, the women use their knowledge and will in participating in their gendered everyday lives indicating that they perform agency (Kabeer, 1999). Generally, the women highly consider such gender-segregated jobs in both domestic and the non-domestic context. Therefore, within the domestic context, women take more role in doing household task compared to men. In the same time, the women perceive their waged work is needed due to financial reason as well as other personal motives such as to be more independent, and the work raises their self-worth. The response of the women to the gender constraint in their workplace and their homes by performing ‘compliance’ (Kabeer, 2016). The compliance referred to as the women seemingly accept and participate in the gendering process yet also show some strategies and maneuver in practicing their gender roles. Here then, the women displayed nuanced agency which used to merely associated to any kind of resisting acts, while the agency could be ones that inhabit the norms (Mahmood, 2006). Moreover, in displaying compliance, the women performed diverse ways and strategies that are important to be taken into account as each woman is an active agent who is not homogenous. Furthermore, the kretek-cigarette industry is complex as it has three different scales of the company. In this research, the focus is set to the everyday practices in the factory owned by one big company that could be better compared to the lower scale company with regards to working facilities and employment warranty. It would be interesting to further take into account worker’s voices from a different scale of kretek industry in order to have broadened portrayal of gender experience from another type of company; to identify, combine and probably compare each gender performance from a different type of kretek-cigarette Company.
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Appendix A. Table of interview participants (women workers)
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