Wage Inequality: Women's Workers Are More Suffering Than Men In The Dutch Colonial Period

Portraits of workers working in plantations in Deli, North Sumatra. (Wikimedia Commons)

JAKARTA - Women are like 'figuran' figures during the Dutch colonial period. The narrative took place from the era of the Dutch trading airline, the VOC to the colonial government of the Dutch East Indies. In fact, they became the people who suffered the most because of colonialism.

Women are often seen as low. Take for example when they work as laborers in Deli. They don't seem to know the same word. Their wages are far below men. Alias, too small. Buying daily necessities is never enough.

Colonialization is the darkest time in the history of the journey of the Indonesian nation. However, those who felt the most pain from colonialism were the women. The grief began with the Company establishing its power in the archipelago in the 1619s.

The Company also became the culprit that made the life of the Bumiputra woman fall at its lowest point. Women are only seen as useful people in the kitchen and in the bedroom. They are only used as prostitutes without certainty to be married.

This condition made women unable to access the convenience of life. Among other things, access to education and adequate work. This condition got worse when the Company began to be replaced by the colonial government of the Dutch East Indies.

Women's suffering peaked when the Paksa Planting system was implemented (1847-1870). Women's lives have not changed much. They are never seen as equal to men. In fact, a woman helps men (husbands) in preparing export plant commodities.

They also grow to harvest. However, they also have an obligation to serve their husbands and take care of their children. This condition is inversely proportional to the treatment and wages they receive. Their presence is never considered.

The wind of change was thought to have swept away when the Paksa Plant period ended. In fact, equality to women never happened. If in the past the Dutch colonialists relied on forced cultivation to get cheap workers, now they have started giving entrepreneurs the opportunity to open plantations in Java and Deli, Sumatra.

This condition made the Dutch need many workers to work in plantations. The irony is that women's workers are not much needed in Java. As a result, young women and married women go to school and work in local plantations.

In the 1881-1902 period, the largest proportion of workers was Chinese who were imported from China, Penang, and Singapore. Javanese are the largest indigenous groups. There are also Indians called Keling. To get the cheap workers needed, various tricks were carried out against them, and their mentality was damaged in order to stay in the plantation.

"It is very troublesome for plantations to find a replacement if workers return to Java for good every time the contract expires after three years. In rural Java, brokers looking for workers for East Sumatra spread lucrative seduction: those who join the new land, Deli can buy lots of gold. Because, there is cheap gold. And many young women who are beautiful! And can gamble, again! " wrote Tempo magazine report entitled Kuli Kontrak (1990).

The plantation owners are happy not to play with the presence of female workers from Java in Deli. Their arrival is considered a solution to the lack of manpower in plantations. Women are generally mostly involved in coffee plantations.

However, working in plantations is not an easy matter. The jobs available to women remain limited. They are employed only to pick coffee to sweep the streets. The work makes them unpaid like men who have the same work details.

Wages for women are very small if it should not be said to be less. They are paid according to the amount of coffee beans they pick. The wages go down if production goes up and up when the harvest drops. The wage payment scheme makes entrepreneurs profitable, while women are on the run.

Problems arise. Small wages cannot finance the entire daily life. Their wages as female workers are lacking for the most basic needs. Shortcuts are also trying to be taken. Many of them started doing side jobs such as being a blind woman.

The work was able to provide them with sufficient additions to everyday life, but not enough to return to Java. The fact that female laborers in Deli are proof that the comparison of wages between men and women is much different. Alias, women are the most miserable people.

Of all the workers, female laborers are the most miserable. Compared to their fellow likes, male laborers, they are much more vulnerable to extortion and oppression from company leaders and supervisors. Beebrapa of them managed to become foremans, so like his male colleagues, they went back and forth carrying rattan whips.

That's a tool that includes permanent devices of a company staff member to protect themselves from those who impose their will. However, this is an exception, especially among women. Their power is generally drained. However, according to doctors, plantation administrators stated to him that the condition of such female laborers was because they worked day and night. During the day with his hands, at night with his body, "said Jan Breman in the book Tamiting the Culi: Colonial Politics in the Early 20th Century (1997).