Hany Nurahmawati, *Mohd Shahnawi bin Muhmad Pirus

Abstract:

Marrying a foreigner has become a trend and a reflection of a modern lifestyle to achieve gender equity. Nowadays, the number of mixed marriages in Indonesia, particularly among Javanese women who marry French men and subsequently migrate to France, has steadily increased. The Javanese adhere to a patriarchal system called 3M: Macak-Manak-Masak (Beautifying herself–Giving
offspring–Cooking), that places and limits the movement of women. Adopting a phenomenological approach, the study observed how the Javanese culture is integrated with the French culture, particularly in understanding how Javanese women who are married to French men balance the cultural differences of the Javanese values of 3M in the setting of France’s Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité (freedom, equality, fraternity). Eleven Javanese married women who migrated to Paris were selected through snowball sampling as the study informants.

Keywords: Intercultural communication, Javanese women and French locals, 3M: Macak-Manak-Masak, managing cultural differences, Javanese patriarchy