Women's labor force participation in insurgency and ethno-religious conflict: the cases of Aceh and Ambon

ABSTRACT

This article explores changes in patterns of labor participation in two types of conflict settings in Indonesia: the insurgency in Aceh and the ethno-religious conflict in Ambon, Maluku. It brings into view interactions between gender on the one hand, and religion, age, social class, and ethnicity on the other, while also taking into consideration regional economies. I show how intersectional dynamics set in motion by different types of conflict create different patterns of labor force participation. Women increased their economic activity in both conflicts but became breadwinners only in a few specific contexts. Moreover, their increased economic activity was sometimes experienced as hardship and sometimes as empowerment. After the conflict, many women in Aceh returned to the domestic sphere in the name of Sharia law, whereas many in Ambon remained economically active. I argue that different types of conflict in different economic contexts and the associated differences in the relationships between gender, religion, age, social class, and ethnicity help to explain this variation in outcomes.

KEYWORDS:

• Gender
• women
• labor force participation
• insurgency
• ethno-religious conflict

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Liberia may be an exception (Fuest 2008; but see Aguiari 2012).

2 KTP or Kartu Tanda Penduduk is the Indonesian national identity card. During the conflict, only Acehnese people who were considered not to be members of the GAM were issued with this identity card.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Swiss Programme for Research on Global Issues for Development: [grant numbers 400240_146777,400240_171176].

Notes on contributors

Wening Udasmoro

Wening Udasmoro is Professor of Gender and Literature at Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia. She received her PhD in Gender Studies from University of Geneva, Switzerland, in 2006. Her main research interests are gender studies, literature, conflict and peacebuilding, identity politics, and critical discourse analysis. Her latest publication is “Art for Peace: An Intersectional Reading” (with Rahel Kunz, 2021). She is the co-editor of the book in which it appears, entitled Gender in Peacebuilding: Local Practices in Indonesia and Nigeria.