Study of Women's Role in Increasing Family Income:

Case Study of Fisherman Families in Lengkong Village, Cilacap

Regency

Novita Wahyu Setyawati, Endah Prawesti Ningrum, and Supriyanto

Bhayangkara Jakarta Raya University

Keywords: Women's Role, Family Income.

Abstract: The problem of poverty is still identical in the community environment which is partly a livelihood as a

fisherman, until now it is still a classic coastal phenomenon. Where women fishermen have the potential as

a driving force for the empowerment of coastal communities. In this case, they have the potential to help

increase family income. In this study researchers chose to use a qualitative approach. Data collection

method uses in-depth interview techniques, observation, and documentation studies. The results show that

women in coastal areas have a very large contribution or role in increasing family income. Wife's income

contribution can be seen from the fulfillment of the needs of primary, secondary, and even tertiary families.

The relationship between husband and wife can meet family needs by working together to improve the

welfare of their families. The increasing role and duties of the wife as a breadwinner leads to an agreement

between husband and wife to share duties.

1 INTRODUCTION

Indonesia is an archipelagic country with the

majority of its territory consisting of coastal areas,

and livelihoods as fishermen are still synonymous

with poverty problems which are still a classical

coastal phenomenon. Women fishermen have the

potential as a driving force to empower coastal

communities. In this case, the wife of the fishermen

is a household member who has the potential to help

increase family income. Therefore, efforts to improve

the welfare of fishing communities become an

important discourse in the development of coastal

areas. Coastal residents mostly work as traders, or

activities in marketing and processing fishery

products.

TPI is a fish landing facility and at the same time

a selling place for catched fish. The existence of

these facilities is very strategic for the development

of the marine fisheries sector, because in this sector

provides a great opportunity for the emergence of

other employment sectors that are still associated

with the use of raw materials for fisheries resources,

such as the scanning industry, fish crackers, fish

drying, and fish trade. Through this sector has also

absorbed the available workforce in Lengkong

Village, Cilacap Regency and its surroundings.

For residents of Lengkong Village, Cilacap

Regency, marine resources are the main potential that

drives the village economy. In general, village

economic activities are fluctuating because they

depend heavily on the high and low productivity of

fisheries. If productivity is high, then the income

level of fishermen will increase, so that the

purchasing power of the majority of fishermen will

also increase. Vice versa, if productivity is low, the

level of income of fishermen will decrease so that the

level of purchasing power of people is low. Thus it

will affect the economic conditions of fishermen.

The dependence of fishermen on the sea became

one of the factors that led to the development of the

village of the arches and other villages. Where the

dependence can ultimately have an impact that is still

a phenomenon in the arch village, even in other

coastal villages in Indonesia, namely poverty.

Coastal or marine resources with high productivity

are basically expected to play an important role in

overcoming poverty which covers most of the fishing

communities in Indonesia in particular. Therefore, it

is necessary to understand the factors that cause

602

Setyawati, N., Ningrum, E. and Supriyanto, .

Study of Women’s Role in Increasing Family Income: Case Study of Fisherman Families in Lengkong Village, Cilacap Regency.

DOI: 10.5220/0009024600002297

In Proceedings of the Borneo International Conference on Education and Social Sciences (BICESS 2018), pages 602-607

ISBN: 978-989-758-470-1

fishermen's poverty, so that potential marine

resources can really play a role in encouraging

economic development through labor supply,

increasing PAD (Regional Original Revenue), and

improving the welfare of coastal populations, so that

in the end Other coastal villages in the coastal area

are ready to meet the era of regional autonomy.

Regional autonomy is an initial step for the

government to encourage regional regions in

Indonesia develop by maximizing the potential of

resources in their respective regions, both in the form

of natural resources and human resources. Women

with a greater number of men are potential resources

to be developed.

Based on a quick survey conducted by the women

of Dharma WanitaPersatuan in various coastal areas

of Central Java Regency, it was found that women

were generally left to sea between 1-2 weeks, while

the rest were ordinary fishermen (at night) and some

sailed for a month or more (joining a large ship), so

that it can be said that most of the responsibilities for

daily survival of the family are in the hands of

women as temporal single parents.

Things like this make efforts to empower or

intervene in the welfare of fishing families that focus

on the ability of women who are there.

The condition of the economic crisis experienced

by the Indonesian people at this time has a very

broad impact and burdensome the lives of people

from all walks of life. In an uncertain economic

situation, fishermen basically have to adjust. Among

others, by utilizing household members to work as an

effort to increase the income of fishermen's families.

Efforts to increase this income are pursued

through the efforts of productivity of all human

resources in the fishing family. Among the family

members of fishermen who are productive to

increase income are the wives of fishermen. Women

are a potential, where currently in global competition

that is getting stronger and tighter, the women's

empowerment program is very important in

responding to various challenges while taking

advantage of opportunities in the future. The position

of women who have tended to be placed lower than

men has caused a woman's ability to contribute and

develop potentials not maximally.

Women fishermen have the potential as a driving

force to empower coastal communities. The

percentage of women who are larger than men in the

Cilacap coastal area is the potential to increase the

income of the fishing community, where the position

of women who have only functioned as housewives

has been increased as breadwinners.

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Women's Role

In essence, women are given a role in the domestic

sector in the family such as washing, cleaning the

house, sweeping, cooking, preparing children to go

to school, and others. This role is never separated

from their daily activities because it has become a

necessity besides no one else helps at home. The

role of women in managing financial resources is

very dominant. Fisherman household management is

very possible for the importance of the wife's role,

especially in household financial management.

Women also play a role in the decision-making

process in the household given that husbands have

been busy making a living. Women have a dual role

as breadwinners when their husband's income is not

enough to meet their household needs.

2.2 Factors Affecting the Role of

Women in the Economic Life of

Coastal Communities

Economic conditions are increasingly uncertain,

employment opportunities are increasingly limited

due to increasingly fierce competition, prices of

basic necessities are increasing, family income that

tends not to increase will result in disruption of

family economic stability. This condition

encourages housewives who previously only

engaged in the domestic sector, then participated in

the public sector by participating in supporting the

family economy.

The existence of women as a supporter of

household economic needs is needed because the

husbands who work as fishermen cannot depend on

income. Fishermen are those who depend their

livelihood on marine products. The daily life of male

fishermen has a job to go to sea, catch fish and sell it.

Going sailing looking for fish is the same as

speculating because the possibility of getting a fish

catch with no catch is 50%. If fishermen will go to

sea, it needs a large amount of capital for their needs

while at sea, the possibility of fishermen losing

money because they do not get the catch will increase

the deterioration of the household economy. The

problem of the inability of fishermen to be

productive throughout the season is one of the causes

of the economic resilience of low fishermen

households. In the famine season, fishermen will not

get income if they do not have alternative

livelihoods, or involve families to make money to

meet various household needs. Women's

Study of Women’s Role in Increasing Family Income: Case Study of Fisherman Families in Lengkong Village, Cilacap Regency

603

participation in making money is an alternative way

to get around the gap in income of fishermen in the

famine season, and increase the resilience of the

fisherman's household economy during the harvest

season.

The fisherman's wife must work with the main

motivation of seeking additional insights in trying to

meet their household economic needs, which seems

to be a necessity. Family economic conditions where

the number of needs increases with increasing family

members, namely children and other social costs

such as education, health, and social. While the

husband's income which is only as a fisherman labor

is not enough to fulfill all these needs. Fishermen's

husbands only rely on fish catches from their work

activities at sea, where the gambling element

between getting fish catch is always there. For

fishermen who work for bosses / ship owners, they

must share the profits from the catches obtained

during sailing for about 20 days. The opportunity for

the role of women fishermen to have a good chance

of improving the household economy because their

husbands have good habits is to give up the results of

their fishing efforts to women and at the same time

give confidence to women to manage. Coastal

women can also work in various types of work both

related to the fisheries sector and those not related to

the fisheries sector. The role of women can be

involved in productive economic activities. These

forms of productive economy can be fish farming,

fish processing, fish marketing, and supporting

services such as the provision of other production

facilities.

2.3 Family Income

Family income is the amount of real income from all

members of the household that is used to meet

shared needs and individuals in the household.

Family income is a reply to the work or service

or compensation obtained because of donations

given in production activities. Concretely family

income comes from:

1. The business itself: for example trading,

farming, opening a business as an entrepreneur

2. Working with other people: for example as civil

servants or employees

3. Results of the election: for example land leased

and others. Revenues can be in the form of

money or goods such as compensation in the

form of rice, housing facilities and others. In

general, human income consists of nominal

income in the form of money and real income in

the form of goods. (Gilarso, 2008)

If income is more emphasized on household

income, then income is the total amount of formal,

informal income and subsystem income. Formal

income is all income in the form of money or goods

received usually as remuneration. Informal income

in the form of income obtained through additional

work outside of the main work. While subsystem

income is income derived from the production sector

which is valued by money and occurs when

production with consumption is located in one hand

or small community. (Nugraheni, 2007).

There are several studies. Research on coastal

communities has often been carried out both

individually and in groups. Researches that have

been carried out include:

Research conducted by Slamet Widodo,

HendriBustamam, and Soengkono, in 2011 with the

title Model of Economic Empowerment of Poor

Fishermen Family Women through the Application

of Integrated Appropriate Technologies (Studies of

Fishermen's Families in Kelapa DistrictNorth

Bengkulu Regency). The results of this study

include: a) standardization of 4 (four) integrated

effective technology modules processing of random

fish is the basis for the development of business of

poor fisherman women, namely the dry fish business

module, fish nugget business module, fish farming

business module, and fish cracker business module;

b) the formulation of an integrated model of

appropriate technology development that is adapted

and adapted to the potential of human resources, the

potential of natural resources, social potential, and

existing environmental conditions; c) the

formulation of a model for empowering women

fishermen in coastal areas can be developed through

3 (three) stages, namely group development

(community development), pre-business

development, and business development.

Research conducted by Tri UtamiAkbarini,

IwangGumilar, and RoffiGrandiossa in 2012 entitled

Women Fishermen's Productive Economic

Contributions to Fishermen's Family Income in

Pangandaran, Ciamis Regency. This study resulted

in the wife of fishermen contributing large enough to

the family of fishermen as much as 31.32%. The

highest work time is spent on economic productive

activities around 9 hours. Decision making in the

household is carried out democratically dominated

by fishermen's wives in terms of meeting food needs

by 90% of the level of decision and purchasing

100% of household appliances.

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3 METHODOLOGY

This study uses a qualitative approach so that

problems can be examined more deeply and not

limited by measurement restrictions. The

involvement of researchers actively in research can

make it easier for participants to express their

problems.

Researchers conducted in-depth interviews with

informants and questions and answers to obtain the

data or information needed. Interviews in qualitative

research is the interaction between the interviewer

and the informant where the interviewer has a

general planning question but not in the form of a

specific question device that must be asked with

certain words and in a certain order.

According to Idrus, subject selection is done

purposively and avoids random selection. The

chosen subject is the key people or key person and

data source of the phenomenon under study. Based

on these criteria and adapted to the context of this

study, then the researchers set several people to be

used as informants (subjects), namely the wives of

fishermen or women who work in the field of

processing marine catches.

The process of implementing qualitative research

consists of several stages, namely determining the

focus of the problem, developing a theoretical

framework, determining methods, analyzing

findings, and drawing conclusions.

4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Poverty is a situational problem that engages

individuals or groups of people.Which is caused by

factors from outside the individual or community.

These factors are cultural, structural, and natural

factors.

If they look at the lives of fishermen, they have

worked hard but their economic life is still

deficiency. This can be due to the circumstances that

make it poor, such as the impartiality of the owners

of capital to them so that access to capital becomes

low, not infrequently the fishermen who go to sea do

not get catches if the weather is bad, so the costs

they incur are not balanced with the catch.

Table 1. Types of Fisher Wife Work in Lengkong Village, Cilacap Regency, 2014

No. Type of Work Total (Person) Percentage (%)

1 Fish Processor 15 50%

2 Processed fish sellers 10 34%

3 Stall owner 4 13%

4 Non-fishery trader 1 3%

30 100%

Source: Primary data processed, 2014

SMP

SMA

Tidaksekolah

Source: Primary data processed, 2014

Figure 1. Education Level of Wife of Fishermen in Lengkong Village, Cilacap Regency, 2014

Based on an interview with Mrs. Sugiarti, a small

shop owner whose husband is a fisherman. Their

lives were once deprived and poor because they only

relied on their husband's income from going to sea.

But now their family's economic conditions are

improving.

Study of Women’s Role in Increasing Family Income: Case Study of Fisherman Families in Lengkong Village, Cilacap Regency

605

The role of women in coastal communities in

increasing the income of women fishermen families

in Lengkong Village. Has a dual role, namely as a

housewife and breadwinner to help increase the

family's economic income.

The following are the results of the interviews

conducted by mothers, where they said that they did

housework such as washing clothes, washing dishes,

cleaning and cleaning houses, shopping, and

cooking from 5 am to 8 am and then continued to

work to earn a living afternoon. After returning to

work for a living, they returned to work to clean the

house, accompany children to study, and watch

television.

The income of the fishermen's family that is

minimal encourages fishermen's wives to be more

empowered and productive so that their family's

economy is better and more prosperous.

As some women said that their husbands never

demanded that his wife make a living, but the

husband's income as a fisherman did not meet the

daily needs of the family.

Similarly, the family of Ms. Kamsi is 47 years

old, has 3 children and 1 grandchild is a small shop

owner. Ms. Kamsi became the backbone of her

family because her husband did not work. His efforts

gave him considerable profits so he could meet the

needs of his family, send his children to school.

5 CONCLUSIONS

From the results of this study, it can be concluded

several things, namely:

1. Women's productive economic activities in

coastal communities use simple techniques and

equipment that do not require special education

and expertise.

2. The income of fishing families is generally

minimal even though they work hard, but the

results are low. This is due to the lack of

information, capital and technology of the

fishermen.

3. To increase the income of fishermen's family,

the dual role of women or fishermen's wife is as

a wife who performs a task or a job and earns a

living to help her husband meet daily needs.

There are even women who are the backbone of

the family because their husbands work

seasonally or do not work at all so that they rely

on his wife's income. Therefore, the role of

women is large enough to improve the family's

economy.

The suggestions that researchers can submit are

as follows:

1. The role of government or non-governmental

organizations is needed to make efforts to

empower women, especially in coastal

communities.

2. It is necessary to establish a joint business entity

or body that is managed professionally to

facilitate the fishermen in having access to

capital and not rely on large business

individuals.

3. Increased income of fishermen households can

be done through efforts: empowerment of

household members who have entered the active

workforce, through skills training in the field of

fisheries and non-fisheries; and business

assistance that is implemented at the right time

and target that is able to overcome poverty in

fishing households.

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