Part 1 — Women’s Stories

19

Malaysia

Rural poverty tightens a cultural net around women

According to government statistics¹, 30.3 per cent of Malaysia's population was living below the poverty line in 1983. Half of these were women. In rural areas, the poverty level had actually increased—to 41.6 per cent—that year. In urban areas, the population living in poverty decreased by only 1.5 per cent in the same year,

The poorest groups have been identified as the rubber, coconut and oil palm smallholders and workers, padi farmers, fishermen (72.8 per cent of fishermen are living in poverty), plantation workers, orang asli (natives), new villagers, and those earning very low incomes in urban areas. Most of the rural people suffer under poverty, as they have few alternatives to, or ways of overcoming, traditional life open to them. This desperate situation compounds other factors which keep women shackled to their existing life. Being traditional and conservative, rural life places on the womenfolk the responsibility of caring for the home and family, in addition to any work women may do in the fields or plantations. They must bear these responsibilities even during and after pregnancy. Women have no control over childbearing, as they are ignorant or afraid of birth control methods and devices. They cannot determine the way in which their men use either time or money, and religion keeps women in confined roles. Access to, and motivation for, formal education of women is limited if not non-existent. Most rural women either marry in their villages or work in urban factories until they marry. Some may work at handcrafts, as a supplement to family incomes, but most crafts—cookery, sewing, weaving—are learned for the purposes of homemaking.

Notes

1. Source: Aliran Monthly, Malaysia, March 1985. Other information in this article is from Women in Malaysia, edited by Hing Ai Yun, Nik Safiah Kakim and Rokiah Talib, Pelanduk Publishers, 1984.

Long hours of back breaking work: women planting padi in the swamps, Sarawak, Malaysia.

Photo: Hedda Morrison.