Women’s Resilence during the Pandemic Era in ‘Perempuan Dalam Kotak’ Short Story by Aziz Athar

Abstract

During the pandemic, women occupied a core position and role in maintaining the family in various dimensions. Women (mothers) perform roles in various fields at the family and community levels. This study aimed to describe the roles and strategies for women's resilience in dealing with problems during the pandemic, expressed in literary works. The research method used in this study was a descriptive qualitative approach, with the data source coming from the short story "Prempuan dalam Kotak/Women in a Box", which is included in the selected collection of short stories #ProsaDiRumahAja Pandemi. The collected data were in the form of a linguistic unit that described the focus of the research problem and analyzed using a feminist literary criticism approach. The results of the study reveal, first, the problems faced by women include economic, family, and cultural problems. Second, in dealing with these problems, women base themselves on several aspects, involving spirituality, self-efficacy, and self-assessment. The roles played, the problems faced, and the efforts made to survive during the pandemic in substance were real manifestations of women's resilience when dealing with the pandemic. In conclusion, women were the most severely affected during the pandemic as they are taking on broader roles and positions in efforts to prevent, overcome and maintain the continuity of family and community life during the pandemic. Women have resilience or resilience in dealing with the pandemic with all the problemsthat surround it.