ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the interface between the reproductive and productive work
of women in a poor, remote transmigration settlement.1 The transmigration pro-
gramme saw the resettlement of millions of poor and landless people from densely
populated to less populous regions of the Indonesian archipelago. The relocation of
transmigrants to a distant rural settlement, in unfamiliar physical, social and eco-
nomic surroundings, and away from extended family support, impacts on gender
relations and increases the responsibility and burden for women as they perform the
multiple tasks which are essential for their family’s well-being and for keeping the
cooking pot full. Their family’s survival depends on how well they undertake their
domestic and reproductive work, managing scarce household resources and caring
for the family in locations where much of the infrastructure, communication and
services are limited in comparison with the places from which they have come.
