Women as Breadwinners in Maureen Sherry’s Opening Belle

Margaretha Finna Calista; Wening Udasmoro

doi:10.24071/joll.v21i2.3146

Women as Breadwinners in Maureen Sherry’s Opening Belle

Margaretha Finna Calista^(1*), Wening Udasmoro⁽²⁾,

(1) Universitas Gadjah Mada
(2) Universitas Gadjah Mada
(*) Corresponding Author

Abstract

There have been many popular fiction novels in the literature world that raise how women enter the economic aspect. One of them is the novel Opening Belle written by Maureen Sherry and published in 2016. Opening Belle represents women’s participation in the financial sector because they want a good life. This research is studied with the feminist political economy theory proposed by Jacqui True. In her book, The Political Economy of Violence against Women, True explains that economic globalization has changed women’s lives becoming financially independent. However, on the other hand, women involved in the public sphere are underappreciated and receive sexual harassment or violence, making it difficult for women to participate in the economic aspect. This research uses the descriptive qualitative method. With this method, the writer takes parts of the novel in the form of words, sentences, paragraphs which explain the economic aspect and women’s participation in it. This research is analyzed through the explanations and utterances of the characters. The results of this study are: first, the participation of women as breadwinners in this novel is started as part of her life experiences and is driven by the hardships of her family; second, women are highly motivated figures so that they implement several strategies to survive in their office, namely by proving their competence, joining the GCC women’s community and voicing equal rights in the workplace. In conclusions, economic globalization opens up women’s opportunity to become the sole breadwinner in the family.

Keywords

Opening Belle; women’s participation; Jacqui True

Full Text:

PDF

References

Adichie, C. N. (2019). A Feminist Manifesto Kita Semua Harus Menjadi Feminis (W. A, Trans.). Yogyakarta: Odysee.

Agusalim, L., & Pohan, F. S. (2017, October 27). Globalisasi ekonomi dan pengaruhnya terhadap kemiskinan dan ketimpangan pendapatan di indonesia. 103–119. Yogyakarta: Universitas Atma Jaya. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1037618

Alsaba, K., & Kapilashrami, A. (2016). Understanding women’s experience of violence and the political economy of gender in conflict: The case of Syria. Reproductive Health Matters, 24(47), 5–17. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rhm.2016.05.002

Fatimah, D. (2019). They, the Brave: Narratives of Women’s Agency in the Peasant Movement in Wongsorejo, Banyuwangi. In W. Udasmoro & A. Rahmawati (Series Eds.), Gender and Peacebuilding: Agency and Strategy from the Grass Root (pp. 1–17). Yogyakarta: Universitas Gadjah Mada, Faculty of Cultural Sciences.

Federici, S. (2020). Perempuan dan Perburuan Penyihir (L. Sudiono & N. Zega, Trans.). Yogyakarta: Penerbit Independen. Retrieved from https://penerbitindependen.com/product/akan-terbit-perempuan-dan-perburuan-penyihir-silvia-federici/

Folke, O., Rickne, J., Tanaka, S., & Tateishi, Y. (2020). Sexual Harassment of Women Leaders. Daedalus, 149(1), 180–197. Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/48563040

Ikbal, M. (2020). Kekerasan terhadap Perempuan dalam Novel Entrok Karya Okky Madasari. In W. Udasmoro & W. Nayati (Eds.), Interseksi gender perspektif multidimensional terhadap diri, tubuh, dan seksualitas dalam kajian sastra (pp. 198–207). Yogyakarta: Gadjah Mada University Press.

Johnston, M. F. (2018). The political economy of gender interventions: Social forces, kinship, violence, and finance in post-conflict Timor-Leste (Master Thesis). Murdoch University, Australia.

Kohli, A. (2015). The Political Economy of Violence Against Women by True, Jacqui. Journal of Women, Politics & Policy, 36(4), 498–500. https://doi.org/10.1080/1554477X.2015.1083738

Kristen, E., Banuelos, B., & Urban, D. (2015). Workplace Violence and Harassment of Low-Wage Workers. Berkeley Journal of Employment and Labor Law, 36(1), 169–204. Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/43551801

Marḉal, K. (2020). Siapa yang Memasak Makan Malam Adam Smith? (N. D. Andarnuswari, Trans.). Tangerang Selatan: Marjin Kiri.

Metzger, M. J. (2016). Epistemic Injustice and “The Rape of Lucrece.” Mosaic: An Interdisciplinary Critical Journal, 49(2), 19–34. JSTOR. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/44030582

Moraletat, E. (2020). Perempuan Negara dan Keluarga (Heterotopia, Trans.). Yogyakarta: Penerbit Liberta.

Nafiana, F. I. (2018). Paradoksalitas Pemosisian Perempuan antara Ranah Publik dan Domestik dalam Novel-Novel Suparto Brata: Ser! Randha Cocak, dan Nona Sekretaris. In W. Udasmoro (Ed.), Dari Doing ke Undoing Gender: Teori Dan Praktik Dalam Kajian Feminisme (pp. 2–18). Yogyakarta: UGM Press.

Puspita, Y. (2019). Stereotip Terhadap Perempuan dalam Novel-Novel Karya Abidah El Khalieqy: Tinjauan Sastra Feminis. Ksatra: Jurnal Kajian Bahasa dan Sastra, 1(1), 29–42. https://doi.org/10.1983/ksatra.v1i1.7

Reed, E. (2020a). Apakah Takdir Perempuan Sebagai Manusia Kelas Dua? (S. N. Dewi, Trans.). Yogyakarta: Penerbit Independen.

Reed, E. (2020b). Mitos Inferioritas Perempuan (D. Mahardika, Trans.). Yogyakarta: Penerbit Independen.

Sherry, M. (2016). Opening Belle. New York: Simon & Schuster.

True, J. (2012). The political economy of violence against women. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

True, J. (2015). A tale of two feminisms in international relations? Feminist political economy and the women, peace and security agenda. Politics & Gender, 11(2), 419–424. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1743923X15000136

Udasmoro, W. (2012). Konsep Nasionalisme Dan Hak Reproduksi Perempuan: Analisis Gender Terhadap Program Keluarga Berencana Di Indonesia. Jurnal Humaniora, 16(2), 147–154. https://doi.org/10.22146/jh.814

Udasmoro, W. (2017). Reproduksi Womanhood dalam Novel Bunda: Kisah Cinta 2 Kodi Karya Asma Nadia. Adabiyyāt: Jurnal Bahasa dan Sastra, 1(2), 182–200. https://doi.org/10.14421/ajbs.2017.01203

Vida, H. D., Udasmoro, W., & Noviani, R. (2020). Women’s Resistance towards “Master Narratives” through Female Travelers’ Instagram. KnE Social Sciences, 22-30-22–30. https://doi.org/10.18502/kss.v4i10.7388

Wulansari, A. D. (2018, April 21). Beban Ganda dan Komodifikasi Perempuan dalam Kapitalisme. Retrieved January 21, 2021, from MAP Corner-Klub MKP UGM website:https://mapcorner.wg.ugm.ac.id/2018/04/beban-ganda-dan-komodifikasi-perempuan-dalam-kapitalisme/

Yasmin, P. (2020). Dampak Positif dan Negatif Globalisasi di Berbagai Bidang Lengkap. Retrieved January 21, 2021, from Detiknews website: https://news.detik.com/berita/d-5252353/dampak-positif-dan-negatif-globalisasi-di-berbagai-bidang-lengkap

DOI: https://doi.org/10.24071/joll.v21i2.3146