The Lives of Balinese Women

Balinese women has become a trademark of the tourism ind ustry. Glorious images of their strength, sensuality, and elegance ornamect every hotel brochure, coffee table book, and postcard. Women participate in the gorgeous pageantry of balinese ritual, gracefully balancing towers of handcraftd offerings on their heads.

They dance for the gods at temle festival, dreesed in glorious costumes that show off hteir legendary beauty. Far from being secluded by tradition, women can be seen working in the fields or at construction sites, buying and selling in the marketplace, and driving motor bikes all around the island.

These images hide the complex reality of balinese women's lives. The strong balinese women who work alingside men make up less then 40% of the paid workforce. Women occupy lowur status jobs, wuther in agriculture, tourism, or trade.

In the fields, men perform the butter paid tasks like ploughing or planting, while women undertake the domestic unpaid tasks of weeding, thresihing, and drying rice. In tourism, men act as drivers and tour guides, positions that get them a chance to colect fat commissions from restaurants and craft shops, while women work low payin jobs like witresses