The roles of Indonesian women today are being affected by many factors, including increased modernization and globalization, better education, and advancing technology (in particular communications
technology). Many women in Indonesia choose to reside in cities instead
of staying in townships to perform agricultural work because of
personal, professional, and family-related necessities, and economic
requirements. These women are moving away from the traditional dictates
of Indonesian culture,
wherein women act simply and solely as wives and mothers. At present,
the women of Indonesia are also venturing actively into the realm of
national development, and working as active members of organizations that focus and act on women's issues and concerns
Many pregnant women in Indonesia do not have the financial capability to pay for hospital deliveries and birthing by Caesarian section, because of disproportionate salaries and medical expenses. Thus, these women require the support and assistance of "birth
sanctuaries" that provide "free prenatal care, birthing services and
medical aid", such as the Yayasan Bumi Sehat (Healthy Mother Earth
Foundation) health clinics established by Robin Lim, an Americanmidwife, in 2003. Such 24-hour nativity havens, mostly located in Bali and Aceh,
help Indonesian women to escape the common practice of private
hospitals in Indonesia that entails detaining newborn infants until
medical bills are fully remunerated by the birth mother
After a surge of foreign multinational investors began investing in Indonesia during the 1970s, many Indonesian women became the "prime workforce" and a source of cheap laborers in manufacturing businesses. In the 1990s, some women in Indonesia, including adolescents and the homeless, resorted to engage in employment as sex workers and housemaids due to financial hardship. Some of the women who were forced into such work opted to go abroad, into countries such as Saudi Arabia and Thailand.
Some have since become victims of torture, sexual abuse, murder,
illegal detention, rape, sodomy, and other forms of sexual assault.
Health-wise, as a consequence of becoming prostituted by human
traffickers, some have contracted HIV, AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases
