Photo by Linda Susilowati
Rural Java has changed enormously over the past fifty years. Girls now complete their schooling, women occupy leadership roles within the community, and having two incomes has become the norm rather than the exception. Yet many Javanese women will tell you they still prepare every meal, manage the household, and visibly serve as dedicated wives, all while doing everything else.
It is this gap between what has changed and what has not that drives Dr Linda Susilowati’s research. Linda is a lecturer in the Development Studies Postgraduate Program and the Centre for Sustainable Development Studies at Universitas Kristen Satya Wacana, Indonesia. Holding a PhD in human geography from the University of Sydney, she researches gender, rural transformation, and women’s livelihoods in Java using ethnographic and participatory methods.
Drawing on her doctoral fieldwork in Wonogiri, Central Java, with over two hundred women, men, and community members across generations, Linda traces how gender roles have been renegotiated and how cultural expectations have proven far more resilient than economic or infrastructural changes alone.
In this episode, recorded in the spirit of International Women’s Day, Dr Clara Siagian chats with Linda about generational shifts in rural Javanese women’s lives, the enduring weight of kodrat (predetermined nature) and kewajiban (obligation), and how Julia Suryakusuma’s concept of State Ibuism appears in contemporary Indonesia.
In 2026, the Talking Indonesia podcast is co-hosted by Dr Clara Siagian from the University of College London, Dr Jacqui Baker from Murdoch University, Dr Elisabeth Kramer from the University of New South Wales, Dr Jemma Purdey from the Australia-Indonesia Centre, and Tito Ambyo from RMIT.
Photo from Canva 
