The patriarchy of accumulation: homework, fieldwork and the production-reproduction nexus in rural Indonesia

ABSTRACT

This article argues that patriarchy expands capitalist accumulation by increasing surplus labour-time, lowering production costs, and dividing and controlling workers. Consequently, patriarchy increases profits, manages intra-capitalist competition, and impedes labour’s capacity to organise. Analysing how it does so can inform counter-strategies. Based on fieldwork in two West Java villages, the article analyses four forms of patriarchal accumulation: (i) reproductive labour underpinned by the ideology of housewifeization; (ii) the gendered production of cheap foodgrains; (iii) the production of street-food that reduces reproduction time and costs; and (iv) the extension of labour-time through low-waged homework squeezed into the rhythms of reproductive labour.

RÉSUMÉ

Dans le présent article, nous soutenons que le patriarcat favorise l’accumulation capitaliste, en augmentant le surplus de temps de travail, en diminuant les coûts de production, et en divisant les travailleurs pour mieux les contrôler. En conséquence, le patriarcat accroît les profits, régule la compétition intra-capitaliste, et limite la capacité des travailleurs à s’organiser. C’est l’analyse de ce processus qui nous permet d’élaborer des contre-stratégies. Cet article se base sur des recherches sur le terrain, menées dans deux villages situés dans l’est de Java, pour analyser quatre formes d’accumulation patriarcale : (i) le travail reproductif sous-tendu par l’idéologie de housewifeization ; (ii) la production genrée de céréales à bas prix ; (iii) la production de street-food qui réduit le temps et le coût de production ; (iii) l’extension du temps de travail par le biais de travail à la maison peu rémunéré et intégré de force dans les rythmes de travail reproductif.

KEYWORDS:

• Patriarchy
• accumulation
• social reproduction
• class
• Indonesia

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank his co-researcher Mia Wastuti for indefatigable data collection and companionship, as well as two anonymous reviewers for their valuable and constructive comments.

Notes

1 Patriarchy tends to serve the interests of capital and is shaped by capitalists for such ends (e.g. Kalb 2004), but it does not always serve its interests. Excessive appropriation of female labour can undermine the capacity to work (Fraser 2017), and patriarchy can obstruct women from seeking employment (as in some dominant caste households of better-off farmers in India [Pattenden 2016]). It can also help women to exit from harsh forms of low-paid work (Heyer 2015).

2 Term is from Mies (1986).

3 Reproductive labour is appropriated to varying degrees – less in Li’s (2013) remote fieldwork areas in northern Sulawesi than in this article’s fieldwork villages, which are more thoroughly integrated into capitalist social relations.

4 Petty forms of self-employment that produce goods or services at a level that contributes part or all of a household’s living, but without any accumulation.

5 This was an estimate. While most households could be characterised as primarily PCP or primarily wage-labour, this was not the case for some households that were only surveyed, and had similar amounts of both. The margin of error for these figures may be as much as 5 per cent.

6 This includes the work of White, Stoler, Wiradi and Hart among others (see Pattenden and Wastuti 2021).

7 There is a long history of research on this in Indonesia. See, for example, Hartiningsih (2000).

8 Typically around four, with additional fall-back options for poorer households (such as fodder collection).

9 One bata (term used locally to measure land) is 14 m². One hectare is 714 bata.

10 Government-owned land rented out by the kampung’s representative on the village council.

11 Deep-fried vegetables, cassava dumplings and meat balls (especially the former; the latter are mostly made by men).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the University of East Anglia Quality Related Global Challenges Research Fund (QR GCRF RR1018-4) a research programme funded by Research England UKRI.

Notes on contributors

Jonathan Pattenden

Jonathan Pattenden is at the University of East Anglia in the UK. He is author of the monograph Labour, State and Society in Rural India: A Class-Relational Approach, and an editor of the Journal of Agrarian Change. His work on agrarian political economy and political sociology has been published in journals such as Development and Change, the Journal of Peasant Studies, Global Labour Journal, and the Journal of Agrarian Change.