Rural women earning income in Indonesian factories: The impact on gender relations

In 1997 and 1998, the international economic crisis widely known as the 'Asian crisis' caused massive inflation and currency devaluation in Indonesia. This paper highlights the effects of the economic crisis on rural Indonesian women and their families. After the crisis, young women who were employed in factories began to contribute a significantly greater amount of their wages to family budgets. This cash contribution seems not only to have altered the nature of household livelihood strategies, but also to have raised young women's status within the household.