All Blog Looking Closer at The Social Norms and Harmful Gender Stereotypes in Sigi, Central Sulawesi
A Saraswati team, in collaboration with UN Women, recently conducted field research about social norms related to women's leadership and involvement in decision-making in Pandere and Toro Villages in Central Sulawesi. Our team of Yulies, Alya, and Ester, along with field associates, Yahya, Pater, and Hendrik, lived in the villages to directly observe and consult with more than a hundred people from various groups about social norms in the villages.
We stared at the vast rocky field with the air full of sand and dust where several heavy machines were working. “This was the point of liquefaction in 2018,” said Om Marwan, our driver who guided and took us back and forth from Palu to Sigi. At that time, we were heading to Pandere Village in Sigi District, Central Sulawesi Province, one-and-a-half hours from Palu, the provincial capital.
Pandere village, which is located along Poros Palu-Kulawi Street, is majority inhabited by the ethnic Kailis–the majority ethnicity in Central Sulawesi, where almost all the population is Muslim. Because it is located right on the side of the main road, Pandere Village is also inhabited by migrants, including those of Minahasa, Bugis, Toraja, Batak, and Java ethnicities.
From Pandere, we went south. Our bodies were heavily shaken on the rocky road of Poros Kulawi. We had to spend another three hours to get to Toro Village in Kulawi Sub-District. We were warned that we would pass several points prone to landslides, which have open and closed lane schedules. On these hill roads, we also met several heavy machines that worked to clean up the soil almost always caused by landslides after every incident of heavy rain.
The majority of the inhabitants in Toro Village are Kulawi, an indigenous ethnicity in Sulawesi, consisting of Kulawi Moma and Kulawi Uma. Toro Village is surrounded by hills, so it is very secluded, making it very hard to get a phone signal there. However, this helps to explain the very tight relationships within the community. Toro Village also has very strong adat (customary) law, alongside religious and formal laws.
There are a lot of takeaways that we learned from this research. In both villages, women have huge roles in the family and society. However, we found several disablers for women to participate and lead in their community meaningfully. For instance, people's perspectives on gender roles, power dynamics in the family, domestic roles, and distribution of work, as well as limited access to economic opportunities and higher education in the Sigi District are among the challenges in women's participation and leadership. Girls and young women in both villages have to go to Palu City to get degrees which often leads to decisions of school drop-outs, unemployment, and child marriage. Religious activities are important to the extent that every village's programs are socialized in mosques and churches. Unfortunately, this way of delivering messages is very prone to bias, noise, and exclusivity.
We hope the research results will provide a baseline for UN Women and other development actors, especially in Sigi District to decide appropriate interventions in addressing the social norms and harmful gender stereotypes, in order to create equal opportunities for women and marginalized people to participate in local development as the other community members. Our activities went smoothly due to the contribution of every party involved. We thank all of the government institutions and civil society organizations in Central Sulawesi, and also the village government and people in Pandere and Toro Villages who warmly welcome and supported our fieldwork.
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Tim Saraswati, bekerja sama dengan UN Women, melakukan riset lapangan untuk melihat norma-norma sosial yang berhubungan dengan kepemimpinan dan keterlibatan perempuan dalam pengambilan keputusan di Desa Pandere dan Desa Toro. Tim Saraswati, Yulies, Alya, dan Ester, ditemani oleh staf lapangan Yahya, Pater, dan Hendrik, tinggal di Desa Pandere dan Desa Toro untuk langsung mengobservasi dan berkonsultasi dengan lebih dari seratus anggota masyarakat dari berbagai kalangan mengenai norma sosial yang terkait dengan budaya dan nilai-nilai di masyarakat, terutama yang mempengaruhi kepemimpinan dan peran perempuan di desa setempat.
Kami memandang padang luas berbatu dan berdebu, dengan beberapa alat berat sedang bekerja. “Ini titik likuifaksi 2018 kemarin,” kata Om Marwan, supir kami yang setia mengantarkan kami bolak-balik antara Palu dan Sigi. Saat itu, kami sedang menuju Desa Pandere, Kecamatan Gumbasa, Kabupaten Sigi, Provinsi Sulawesi Tengah, satu setengah jam dari Palu, Ibukota Provinsi Sulawesi Tengah.
Desa Pandere yang terletak di pinggir jalan Poros Palu-Kulawi dihuni oleh mayoritas suku Kaili, suku mayoritas di Sulawesi Tengah, yang hampir seluruh masyarakatnya beragama Islam. Karena terletak di pinggir jalan utama, Desa Pandere juga dihuni banyak masyarakat pendatang, antara lain suku Minahasa, Bugis, Toraja, Batak, dan Jawa.
Dari Pandere, kami berjalan lagi ke arah selatan. Tubuh kami terguncang hebat di atas jalan bebatuan Poros Kulawi. Kami harus menempuh perjalanan tiga jam dari Pandere, atau empat jam dari Palu, ibukota Provinsi Sulawesi Tengah, untuk menuju ke Desa Toro, Kecamatan Kulawi, Kabupaten Sigi, Provinsi Sulawesi Tengah. Kami sudah diperingati akan melewati beberapa titik rawan longsor yang memiliki jadwal buka-tutup jalur. Di jalan perbukitan ini, kami juga berkali-kali bertemu dengan alat-alat berat yang berguna untuk membersihkan tanah yang hampir selalu longsor tiap kali hujan deras.
Desa Toro adalah desa adat yang dihuni oleh mayoritas Suku Kulawi, suku asli di Sulawesi Tengah yang terdiri dari Kulawi Moma dan Kulawi Uma. Desa Toro dikelilingi oleh perbukitan, hingga lokasinya terpencil, sulit akses dan sinyal. Namun demikian, persaudaraan di Desa Toro sangat erat. Desa Toro juga memiliki peraturan adat yang ketat, berdampingan dengan peraturan agama dan hukum formal.
Banyak hal yang dapat kami pelajari dari penelitian ini. Di kedua desa, perempuan berperan besar dalam keluarga dan masyarakat. Namun ada banyak faktor lain yang menghambat peran dan kepemimpinan perempuan untuk jadi lebih besar dan bermakna di masyarakat. Misalnya, perspektif masyarakat umum dalam melihat peran gender, relasi dalam keluarga, pembagian peran dan beban rumah tangga, serta kurangnya akses terhadap peluang penghidupan dan pendidikan tinggi di Kabupaten Sigi. Remaja dan perempuan muda di Desa Toro dan Pandere juga harus pergi ke Kota Palu untuk melanjutkan sekolah yang seringkali menjadi pemberat izin orang tua yang berujung dengan putus sekolah, pengangguran, bahkan pernikahan anak. Kepercayaan terhadap agama di kedua desa juga kental, maka banyak program desa yang disosialisasikan melalui tempat-tempat ibadah, seperti masjid dan gereja. Sayangnya, penyampaian pesan seperti ini rentan terhadap bias, gangguan komunikasi, hingga eksklusivitas.
Hasil penelitian ini diharapkan bisa menjadi dasar pemahaman UN Women dan aktor pembangunan lain, khususnya di Kabupaten Sigi, untuk menentukan intervensi yang lebih tepat dalam mengatasi norma-norma sosial dan stereotip gender berbahaya agar perempuan dan kaum marjinal mendapatkan peluang keterlibatan yang sama dengan masyarakat lainnya. Kegiatan kami dapat berjalan dengan lancar atas kontribusi seluruh pihak yang terlibat. Kami sangat berterima kasih pada berbagai institusi pemerintah dan organisasi masyarakat di Provinsi Sulawesi Selatan, Kabupaten Sigi, serta pemerintah dan masyarakat Desa Pandere dan Desa Toro yang menerima kehadiran kami dengan hangat dan terbuka.
