Lifecourse and housing careers of childless and poor older Malaysians

Secure, affordable housing is strongly linked to wellbeing in older age. This paper reports on a study of childless and poor older Malaysians who are potentially a vulnerable group in relation to accumulating such housing resources for older age. Childless is defined as a person without biological, step or adopted children, and poverty is defined following the national guideline. The research explores the cumulative advantages and disadvantages over the lifecourse that may influence their routes to attaining, or failing to attain, secure and stable housing in older age. Semi-structured interviews with a purposive sample of 34 childless and poor older Malaysians in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, were analysed using a lifecourse perspective to identify the events/experiences that had shaped their housing arrangements in old age. Housing arrangements are hierarchical in structure and can be categorised into four types: home-ownership, public-rental, private-rental and informal housing arrangements. The capacity to afford secure housing (i.e. public rental or ownership) decreased with ill-health and reduced opportunities to work. Structural and policy factors such as eligibility for public housing had also contributed to shaping current housing arrangements. Family poverty, low levels of education and, consequently, reduced employment opportunities affected the ability to accumulate the financial resources needed to afford housing in older age. Some individual decisions and situational disadvantages also contributed to reductions in housing choice. From the social and cultural context, some participants with greater networks had more choices and advantages in the accumulation of housing resources. Initiatives to provide retirement entitlements for workers have not favoured those in low-level informal employment or have come too late to assist those who are now older people. In conclusion, more disadvantages than advantages were accumulated earlier in their life, impacting on their ability to have affordable, secure and stable housing in older age.

Gender Awareness of Maria Hartiningsih as a Kompas Daily Reporter

Structure of the media in Indonesia is still dominated by men who lack of gender sensitivity so that the role of women journalists as agents of change towards gender awareness is important to discuss. This study aims to determine the factors that make up the awareness, values and attitudes of women journalists on gender, and the influence of media and community structure in forming the gender awareness of women journalists. As a case study, a journalist of the largest newspaper in Indonesia, Kompas, namely Maria Hartiningsih is chosen. The study is based on the concept of gendered-perspective journalism as a practice of journalistic that informs and questions inequality of the relationship between men and women. The study uses a qualitative approach with the method of Critical Discourse Analysis model of Norman Fairclough. Text analysis is conducted to examine the writings of Maria Hartiningsih in Kompas related to gender issues. The results show that at the textual level—since she started joining Kompas—Maria Hartiningsih’s writing already highlighted problems of women, street children, and poverty. Her awareness and perspective on gender is a process conducted through the experience of reporting, discussions, and reading books related to gender. In the case of 'Maria', Kompas as an institution provides her with freedom to pour her thoughts.