Fighting Against Culture: The Reality of Women Entrepreneurs in Bali

Supervised by Tettie Setiyarti

The research focuses itself particularly on the division of roles, and the distribution of power within the family as well as in the community, related with women’s issues. We believe that both focuses will help the research by objectively revealing the degree of domination and subordination between men and women in Bali. Where in general, the research is conducted to answer; (1) how are the women entrepreneurs’ profiles and characteristics in Bali; (2) how are the divisions of roles by genders as well as their distributions of power, which is related to the social, cultural, and religious aspects, within the family and the Banjar (traditional village) in Bali, where the wife works as an entrepreneur.

Besides, to enrich and improve the process of knowledge dissemination in Indonesia, the results of this research is also expected to be the ground footing for all forms of women’s empowerment efforts in Bali. In the end, this research undoubtedly can help the provincial governments in formulating a more effective scenario related with programs on women’s empowerment and innovation in Bali. The research is also consistent with the vision of the ministries of women’s empowerment, namely to achieve gender equality in family life as well as in the communities, through all forms of justice and the socializations of gender equality.

Methodology
The research will use the qualitative descriptive approach. The qualitative descriptive research design is chosen because of its in-depth analysis method, which can vividly reveals new complex phenomenon as well as the relationship among phenomenon with a more systematic, factual and accurate understanding. The description in this research is related to the phenomenon of women Entrepreneurs in Bali, which is corresponded with the cultural phenomenon on women’s roles in the middle of the Balinese community. Later this research will use both the primary and secondary data:

• Primary data will be obtained through open and in-depth interview techniques. At the same time, to support the information that hasn’t yet been revealed from the interview process, it will be done by directly observe and examine the subject’s activities in the real environment.
• Secondary data will be attained by several procedures; namely through literature study, web-based researches, government statistical data, and third parties statistical data.

Meanwhile, the unit of analysis in this research is the unity of the household (all people in one house) and the banjar where the household is located.

The research informants will be determined by considering several variations existed in the community that will be examined: education; the size of the family; age; age differences between husband and wife; the informants’ social and economic level. Furthermore, based on both units of analysis, informants are not only women, but also they can be men in the household as well as several banjar representatives. Subsequently, this research will be implemented in two regencies of Bali, Badung and Karangasem. Both regencies are selected because:

1. Both regencies have their own characteristics, Badung is the Province’s richest regency, whereas, Karangasem is now the poorest regency in Bali.
2. Through its tourism industries, Badung is highly exposed with various cultures brought by tourist or migrants. A condition that is rarely happened in Karangasem.

To test the validity of the data, the research will use triangulation techniques (Bungin, 2007: 257) , by: (1) making result comparisons between the observation data and the interview results; (2) making comparisons between the informants’ public statements and their personal judgements; (3) making comparisons between the informants’ opinions about the research situation and the general consensus; (4) comparing every situation and perspective with different opinions and views from other people who have different backgrounds; and (5) compare the interviews result with the related documents. Hence, the data will be presented descriptively and analyzed qualitatively, in consideration mainly upon the three components of the analysis process, namely: (1) data reduction, (2) data display, and (3) conclusion drawing and verification (Miles and Huberman, 1984: 10).

Result and Disemination
By knowing the actual situation of women Entrepreneurs, we can thoroughly understand the innovation process and all of the factors effecting their achievements, both in handling business as well as coping with their roles in the family. The findings of the proposed research are expected to be as references for the Indonesian government (especially the provincial government of Bali) in formulating policies, which are considered less gender-conscious. Additionally, they can also be used by the Indonesian communities as learning materials in perceiving their cultures, which frequently repress the creativity of women in developing innovations. In short, the research intends to open all eyes of both the policymakers as well as the Indonesian public that women also have the same potentialities compare to men.

The major obstacle of this research is unquestionably the thin boundary between the religion and the tradition that is rooted in the heart of the Balinese community. This problem certainly requires hard and sustained efforts from the researcher in order to finish this proposed research.

References

• Baumol, William, 1990, Entrepreneurship: Productive, Unproductive, and Destructive, Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 98, No. 5. Pg. 893-921.
• BPS, 2006, Pendataan Rumah Tangga Miskin Di Provinsi Bali.
• Bungin, H.M. Burhan, 2007, Penelitian Kualitati: Komunikasi, Ekonomi, Kebijakan Publik dan Ilmu Sosial Lainnya, Prenada Media Group, Jakarta.
• McMillan, John, and Christopher Woodruff, 2002, The Central Role of Entrepreneurs in Transition Economies, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 16, No. 3. Pg. 153-170.
• Miles, Matthew B. dan A. Michael Huberman, 1984, Qualitative Data Analysis : An Expanded Sourcebook, Sage Publication, California.
• Muhadjir, 2005, Negara dan Perempuan, CV. Adipura, Yogyakarta.
• Pemerintah Provinsi Bali, 2006, Profil Daerah Bali, http://www.baliprov.go.id/informasi/profil/, 19/11/2008.
• There are no assumptions or constraints with respect to the start date related with seasons, events, dependencies, etc.
• Tim Ekspor, Maret 2008, CSR untuk Pemberdayaan Pempuan UKM, EKSPOR Edisi 39, Tahun VII, http://www.bexi.co.id/images/_res/AnalisaPeristiwa-39-CSR%20Untuk%20Pemberdayaan%20Perempuan%20UKM.pdf, 23/11/2008.