Unjuk Rasa or conscious protest? resistance strategies of Indonesian women workers

Abstract

This paper explores the ways in which Indonesian women workers actively devise strategies through which they can counteract the exploitative practices typical of their working environments and use their labor in ways that are more beneficial to them. These strategies–sometimes dismissed as “emotional displays” (unjuk rasa) rather than conscious protests—are examined in a manner that deemphasizes divisions between formal labor struggles and the alternatives that workers devise, since it is clear that women are involved in both. The authors stress that the awareness of the importance of women's strategies should not obliterate the recognition of the personal and structural conditions that may limit and repress women's participation in more collective, formal, and overt labor struggles in Indonesia. This paper makes use of Scott's notion of “everyday forms of resistance,” pointing out that these forms differ from institutionalized struggles in that “everyday resistance is informal, often covert, and concerned largely with immediate de facto gains.” The paper advocates an actor-oriented approach that shows the agency of individuals and groups in shaping social change, as well as the force of the structural conditions that frame their lives and choices. The authors acknowledge that the scarcity of suitable empirical information makes it difficult to document this approach in detail.

In this paper we explore the strategies devised by Indonesian women workers to counteract exploitation in their working environments and we examine the ways in which they use employment opportunities to their advantage. Our analysis downplays the division between formal and alternative kinds of labor struggles since women are involved in both. Awareness of the importance of alternative forms of resistance should not overshadow the personal and structural conditions that may limit the participation of women in more collective, formal, and overt labor struggles in Indonesia. More broadly, this paper focuses on women's active participation in processes of economic and social change, challenging the prevalent image of women as docile workers.