About

Frances Bowden Affandy is an anthropologist by academic training and is a marketing specialist in the hospitality industry by professional experience who now teaches Service Marketing courses in Institut Teknologi of Bandung.  She has been in Indonesia since the 80s after having moved here from the US with her Indonesian husband. Her husband passed away nearly a decade ago and Frances continues to live in Bandung. She learned that Janda is a loaded terminology and carries many meaning, predominantly negative in context. Her suggestion is to do away from the term Janda, whether widows or divorcees, young or old. A Janda is no more than a single woman. Is it time to retire a term from the Indonesian lexicon? Should widows and divorcees reject the labeling?  And advance apologies for Frances' video lag and blue glow. :) My talk with Frances and our discussion is as follows:   00:00 - Janda is a term devised by men to control the sub-segment of women who are Widows & Divorcees 01:00 - Frances & Tania's anthropology and its uses  06:00 - What does Janda mean? Differences of Widows and Divorcees in Indonesia and in the US 10:06 - Divorce status carried stigmas in the US. Generational changes.   11:51 - Why use Janda at all? 14:00 - Frances: Does your relationships with friendschange being a Janda? 16:00 - Being a Janda is not an insult. Highlights of better role models.   19:00 - Female identities in Indonesia in the use of language, respect for seniority over gender.   21:00 - Indonesian obsession with wealth. What is "hidup berkecukupan?" 25:00 - What are the financial expectations from parents to children?   28:00 - Mothers: To Work or Not To Work? Women's need for continued financial independence 30:00 - Women need more encouragement. 33:00 - Economic disempowerment of married women have kept women in bad marriages for too long.   35:20 - Services Marketing - Marketing the intangibles, like a podcast. :) --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/jandabecanda/support