Vulnerability of women working in the art and creative sector: recommendations for further improvement

Koalisi Seni along with Indonesia Contemporary Art and Design (ICAD) last Monday (8 November) initiated a virtual discussion about the vulnerability of women working in the art and creative sectors. They indeed have faced various challenges due to their gender and social class. This vulnerability is even greater for women who work behind the scenes in these two sectors. 

“The work behind the scenes is often invisible, so there is minimal protection against various risks. These risks are not only related to their physical health, but also to their mental health,” said Koalisi Seni Coordinator of Policy Research Ratri Ninditya. 

Musician, researcher and member of SINDIKASI, Rara Sekar, was featured at the event as speaker, sharing her view in regards to this issue. She highlighted the term “flexploitation”, coined by Pierre Bourdieu, which is a combination of flexibility and exploitation. She said that people tend to think that creative and art workers have both flexible working time space. However, in reality, they have long working hours, not to mention the blurry line between working hours and breaks that they usually face.

A Koalisi Seni survey of 202 women working in the sectors found that most of the respondents have long working hours-34% said that they work more than 40 hours a week, while 28% said that they work more than 5 days a week. Nearly half of them are working without a written contract. 

To add, a research by SINDIKASI found that these workers tend to not have both social and job security. This finding is supported by data from the Koalisi Seni survey which found that 41% of women workers are paid below the minimum wage. 

According to Koalisi Seni’s survey, 68% of respondents said that they did not receive training needed to increase and improve work capacity. 82% said that they are not a member of any creative or art workers union. To make matters worse, more than 25% said that they experienced at least one instance of physical violence, sexual harassment, or bullying at work in the past 12 months.

Musician and activist Kartika Jahja who is also a member of Koalisi Seni said there are several reasons why these women hesitate to speak up whenever they experience sexual harassment. It includes the fear of being blamed and fear of being persecuted by the ITE Law. Most of them are also worried that it might negatively impact their family if they decided to speak up. She added that in the creative industry, most cases of sexual harassment occur because gatekeepers, such as directors and managers, tend to abuse their power.

However, as stated by Ratri, most of the respondents work because they want to. High work motivation that is not supported by proper working conditions could lead to the normalisation of exploitation as well as early retirement, she said. 

Hence, Ratri came up with several recommendations. For the government, first, it has to include protection of the rights of creative workers in the Advancement of Culture Law and the Law on Creative Economy. This should also include the mechanism needed to mitigate work risks. 

Second, the government should strengthen the “safety nets” in order to  prevent and combat gender-based violence by passing the Bill on the Elimination of Sexual Violence. Third, the government has to expand the coverage of K3 protection by including the protection of mental health. Lastly, the government must carry out monitoring which focuses on gender-based violence in the art and creative industry. 

For the employers, it is important to provide a healthy working environment for their workers. They need to create policies to prevent and combat violence in the workplace and minimise emotional labour by giving workers enough breaks and covering mental health care treatment of their workers. 

Ratri also encouraged all workers to join the art and creative workers unions - hence it is also important for such unions to strengthen and expand their scope. Donors also need to monitor the beneficiaries’ work practice, ensuring that they do not promote any kind of misogyny, sexism and transphobia. 

Deputy Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy Angela Tanoesoedibjo also attended the virtual discussion. She said that these suggestions can be the starting point and encouragement for government policies and programmes. The ministry will definitely take these recommendations into consideration as she noticed that there are many things that need to be done in the future. 

“A synergy in capacity building needs to be done. Let's keep voicing these kinds of issues in order to prevent the normalisation of toxic working conditions. It is our time to move forward together in order to curb women's vulnerability and create a healthy environment in the creative economy industry that is inclusive, sustainable and more resilient,” Angela stated.