Table Of ContentThe Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) was established as an
autonomous organization in 1968. It is a regional research centre dedicated to
the study of socio-political, security and economic trends and developments in
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The Institute’s research programmes are the Regional Economic Studies (RES,
including ASEAN and APEC), Regional Strategic and Political Studies (RSPS),
and Regional Social and Cultural Studies (RSCS).
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First published in Singapore in 2007 by
ISEAS Publishing
Institute of Southeast Asian Studies
30 Heng Mui Keng Terrace
Pasir Panjang
Singapore 119614
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: http://bookshop.iseas.edu.sg
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Studies.
© 2007 Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore
The responsibility for facts and opinions in this publication rests exclusively with the
editors and contributors and their interpretations do not necessarily reflect the views or
the policy of the publisher or its supporters.
ISEAS Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
Village mother, city daughters : women and urbanization in Sarawak / edited by HEW
Cheng Sim.
1. Women—Malaysia—Sarawak—Social conditions.
2. Women—Employment—Malaysia—Sarawak.
3. Urbanization—Social aspects—Malaysia—Sarawak.
4. Rural-urban migration—Social aspects—Malaysia—Sarawak.
I. Hew Cheng Sim.
II. Ttle: Women and urbanization in Sarawak
HQ1750.6 Z8S2V71 2007
ISBN 978-981-230-415-5 (soft cover)
ISBN 978-981-230-416-2 (hard cover)
ISBN 978-981-230-572-5 (PDF)
Typeset by Superskill Graphics Pte Ltd
Printed in Singapore by Photoplates Pte Ltd
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Contents
Preface vii
The Contributors ix
1 Urbanization in Sarawak: A Context 1
Hew Cheng Sim
2 Gender, Wages and Labour Migration 21
Goy Siew Ching and Low Kuek Long
3 Women and Health 42
Adela Baer
4 Madness and the Hegemony of Healing:
The Legacy of Colonial Psychiatry in Sarawak 71
Sara Ashencaen Crabtree
5 Elderly Women’s Experiences of Urbanization 88
Ling How Kee
6 Like a Chicken Standing on One Leg:
Urbanization and Single Mothers 104
Hew Cheng Sim
7 From Highlands to Lowlands:
Kelabit Women and Their Migrant Daughters 120
Poline Bala
8 Conclusion 140
Hew Cheng Sim
Index 143
v
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Preface
Research in Sarawak is often fuelled by anxieties that oral traditions,
cultural mores, customs and practices of remote rural communities will
soon be lost by ever-engulfing modernization forces. Thus, most research
focuses on rural ethnic communities, documenting rich indigenous cultures
and customs and discussing the state’s colourful history. However, if I
were asked to pick only one aspect of social transformation in Sarawak
which I believe to be the most significant, it would be the rapid rate of
urbanization. In other words, it is argued that the hotbed of change is in the
ever-expanding towns and urban centres as they pull more and more
women and men from the hinterland of Sarawak. Very little is known of
the experiences of Sarawak people in the wake of such unprecedented
economic and social transformation and even less is studied of women’s
lives as they walk the tight-rope of change. In order to fill the knowledge
gap, the few women who have conducted studies in this area held earnest
discussions as to how to put together a small volume. We felt that a book
of this nature will make an important contribution to studies of Sarawak in
the late twentieth and early twenty-first century as so little work in Sarawak
focuses on women.
All the contributors to this book are scholars who have lived in
Sarawak for many years and therefore have an intimate knowledge of
local conditions. This book is multi-disciplinary, and different
methodological perspectives are brought to bear on the same subject
matter, that is, women’s experiences of rural–urban migration and
urbanization. It is also empirically driven with material grounded in
ethnography, field observation, case studies, surveys and in-depth
interviews. Any shortcomings of such pluralism are compensated by the
richness of the data and the tight focus of the book which makes women
visible in the process of social transformation. What are the gendered
experiences of different groups of women — women in the urban labour
market, women who are sole parents, elderly women, women with mental
illness? In other words, this book puts women’s experiences centre stage
and in the spotlight and gives development in Sarawak a gendered face.
vii
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viii Preface
In putting this book together, I would like to thank the contributors for
their patience, the Faculty of Social Sciences, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak
for hosting our meeting, the anonymous ISEAS reviewer for his/her valuable
comments and suggestions, Triena Ong and her team at ISEAS for their
efficient handling of this publication, and last but not least, my husband,
Tang Tieng Swee for the photographs on the cover.
Hew Cheng Sim
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The Contributors
Adela BAER received her Ph.D. from University of California, Berkeley
in 1962. She was Fulbright Professor in Universiti Malaya in 1967–68 and
in Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) in 2001. She has held various
positions in universities in the United States, India and Malaysia between
those years. Her recent publications include Vital Signs: Health in Borneo’s
Sarawak (Maine, 2006) and Genes, People, and Borneo History (Maine,
2005).
Poline BALA is a Ph.D. candidate currently pursuing a degree in the
Department of Social Anthropology, University of Cambridge.
Sara Ashencaen CRABTREE, Ph.D., is presently working in the
Department of Social Work at the Chinese University of Hong Kong,
where she is conducting research on Muslim ethnic minorities in the
region. She has published widely in the area of mental health, as well as in
cross-cultural social work practice and education. She is now writing two
books: one being a co-authored volume on Islamic perspectives in social
work; while the other expands on the current topic in this volume, that is,
gender, post-colonialism and mental health in Malaysia.
GOY Siew Ching is a lecturer at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Universiti
Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS). Before joining UNIMAS in April 2005,
she lectured at University Technology MARA, Sarawak Branch. Her
research areas have included labour employment, mobility and earnings.
Her recent articles include “Male-Female Earnings Differentials in Kuching
Urban Labour Market”, in International Journal of the Humanities 3, no.
8 (2006): 171–80 (co-authored with Low Kuek Long).
LING How Kee has a doctorate in social work and social policy. She is
currently the Head of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology,
Faculty of Social Sciences, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS). She
was a social worker in the State Social Welfare Department, Sarawak for
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x About the Contributors
thirteen years before joining academia in 1994. Her areas of interest
include women, community development and indigenization of social
work practice. Her recent articles include “The search from within: Research
issues in developing culturally appropriate social work practice”, in
International Social Work 47, no. 3 (2004): 336–45; and “Drawing lessons
from local designated helpers to develop culturally appropriate social
work practice”, in Asia Pacific Journal of Social Work 13, no. 2 (2003):
26–44.
LOW Kuek Long is a lecturer at the Faculty of Business and
Administration, University Technology MARA, Sarawak Branch. He has
done research on labour employment, mobility and earnings. His recent
article include “Male-Female Earnings Differentials in Kuching Urban
Labour Market”, in International Journal of the Humanities 3, no. 8
(2006): 171–80 (co-authored with Goy Siew Ching); and “The Roles of
Employees Provident Fund in the 21st Century”, in Jurnal Akademik
(December 1996).
The Editor
HEW Cheng Sim, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor at the Universiti
Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS). She is currently the Deputy Dean of
Postgraduate Studies and Research in the Faculty of Social Sciences. Her
research interests include gender relations, urbanization, marriage, family
and work with a focus on Sarawak. She has published widely and her most
recent book is Women, Workers, Migration and Family in Sarawak (London:
RoutledgeCurzon, 2003).
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