From Formalization to Civilizing Discourse: Indigenous Women in Colonial Javanese Education (1935–1940)

Abstract

This research will discuss the position of Javanese women in the emergence of the colonial huishoudschool education policy in Java. This education, which was also intended for Indigenous women, included subjects related to domestic skills, such as washing, cooking, ironing, and house maintenance. This research uses the historical method, which provides heuristics, verification, interpretation, and writing. The sources used are contemporary magazines and newspapers, including De Locomotief, Bataviaasch Niewsblaad, De Indische Courant, Soerabaiasch Handelsblaad, Serat Centini, and other supporting literature. The theoretical approach in this research is based on Gayle Rubin's social construction of gender. The result of this study is that the formalization of domestic activity education for Javanese women is a process of perpetuating domestic interests inherent to women. The effort is a way of civilizing, training the use of Dutch industrial products in Java, and stabilizing the appearance of women in the public sphere. There is an imbalance in domestic traditions between women's space and Javanese women, as shaped by this education policy. Education, one of which targets women, involves the reconstruction of women's skills through culture and social construction in formalized education.