The Existence of Javanese Women in The Grip of Patriarchal Culture

ABSTRACT: This research discusses the efforts of Javanese women to get their existence not only in the domestic sphere, but also in the public sphere. The patriarchal culture causes the confinement of women’s movement within the family or community sphere. The Sri Sumarah novel by Umar Kayam is a literary work in the form of a novelet in which there is a story about Javanese women. The method used in this research is qualitative. The data source in this research is the novel Sri Sumarah by Umar Kayam. The theory used in this research is Simone De Beauvoir (1949) using an existentialist feminist approach. The results of this study are that the figures Bawuk, Sri Sumarah, and Tun can show their existence through efforts that can identify themselves in a patriarchal culture. The efforts made by female Javanese figures in the novel Sri Sumarah by Umar Kayam are 1) women can work outside the home, 2) women are intellectuals, and 3) women work to bring about socialist transformation in society.

Keywords: existence, Javanese Woman, existensialism feminism.