Page 621 - Proceedings Collega2023

Introduction

Javanese women (JW) are known as being humble, polite, and having a high tolerance. Apart from
that, they have a gentle character, are smooth in their way of talking, are always modest, and do not want
to offend others, especially their husband. However, Javanese women also can also be boosters and family
protectors. Fenda and Hendriyotopo (2021) argued that in Javanese culture, the highest place for a wife is
one who dares to sacrifice for the sake of her husband. Therefore, this shows that Javanese women’s
position depends on the husband’s order, and as a wife, Javanese women must follow and obey their
husband’s will. The patriarchy system existed in the wider community, especially in Javanese, women in
positions that were culturally and structurally disadvantaged. Women are only placed in domestic and
reproductive matters, such as taking care of the house and raising children. In Javanese culture, women’s
roles are only limited to 3M: Macak (dress-up), Manak (giving offspring), and Masak (cooking in the
kitchen). This cultural value has put Javanese women in limited places and confined positions (Catur, 2010;
Muhmad Pirus and Nurahmawati, 2020).

Moreover, Javanese society, which has a patriarchal ideology, ensures that men play a dominant
role against women, who have a lower position. The patriarchal ideology that places men in higher
positions is strengthened because of the agreement of women. This happens because the roles of
institutions such as family, community, school, and religion play an important role in maintaining
patriarchy. Each of those institutions justifies and strengthens male dominance. Even if a woman refuses
to accept the patriarchal ideology, or if she manifests her mistrust, then a man will use force to show his
dominance (Munir, 2002). Those opinions were also supported by Agofure (2021), who observed that
intimidation was everywhere in patriarchy.
Aristotle is the classical Greek theorist who was one of many philosophers who taught that a
woman was fundamentally different from man. Aristotle asserted that having children was a women’s
highest function, and intellectual creativity was a man’s highest purpose (Grigsby, 2002). Those opinions
were supported and maintained by Rousseau, a French philosopher who legitimized patriarchy using a
philosophy. In his novel with the title ‘Emily’ (Rosseau, 2012), explicitly wrote about a woman’s position
as a man’s subordinate, whereby women should comply with all the man’s needs and were supposed to
give him pleasure. The dominance of men (as well as government) was awful, but the domination of men
over women was natural and a pleasure thing (Baah-Boateng, Twum, and Akyeampong, 2020). This is
ironic because Rosseau was one of the philosophers who preached the equality rights movement in the
French Revolution, which sparked Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité in France.
The development of information technology has brought major changes in the lifestyle of
humankind, especially in terms of intercultural relations for Javanese women. In addition, it has opened
the opportunity for interaction and relationships with people from different countries and different
cultural backgrounds. Thus, intercultural marriages of different ethnic groups or mixed marriages of
different nationalities have become an interesting study in intercultural communication. Arasaratnam
(2015) stated that the conditions that facilitate intercultural contact across nations have made research in
intercultural communication as more pragmatically relevant than ever before. Furthermore, the term
“intercultural communication” can be used to represent interethnic, interracial, and intergroup
communication, that refers to encounters in which individual participants differ, and or perceive
themselves to be different, in a group-based experiential background (Ferri, 2018).

International Conference on Local Wisdom of the Malay Archipelago (COLLEGA 2023) Page - 608 -