salasika indonesian journal of gender, women, child, and social inclusion's studies volume 1, number 1 – february 2018 table of content a road to the recognition of home-workers: transformation of pos production modes and roles of home-workers in batik industry in central java: case study in cluster batik in central java arianti ina r. hunga 1 advancing women’s digital skills and economic empowerment through girls in tech indonesia: a case study isyfi’afiani 21 women and batik conservation on muria slopes: a study of female batik crafters in kudus zaimatus sa’diyah 33 against ahok: an analysis of emotion-driven movements and network power in jakarta’s 2017 gubernatorial election subekti w. priyadharma 43 women’s circle approach is an alternative path for gender responsive public procurement system in indonesia sartiah yusran, eliyanti agus mokodompit, & ulfa matoka 59 chief editors dr. ir. arianti ina restiani hunga, m.si. (scopus id: 46161114400; google scholar); dr. phil. dewi candraningrum. (google scholar). executive editors indriretno setyaningrahayu, m.pd. (google scholar); daniel kurniawan, m.pd. (google scholar); andi misbahul pratiwi, m.si. (google scholar). board of editors prof. claudia derichs (scopus id: 14026487800). humboldt universität zu berlin, germany; assoc. prof. dr. ida sabelis (scopus id: 6507181398). vrije universiteit (vu) amsterdam, the netherlands; prof. siti kusujiarti.ma. (scopus id: 56276925900). warren wilson college, usa; dr. ratna saptari (scopus id: 6504610910). leiden university; prof. sylvia tiwon (scopus id: 6506468591). university of california; prof. dr. emy susanti, ma. (google scholar). airlangga university; prof. dr. ir. keppi sukesi, ms. (scopus id: 56025803300). brawijaya university; dr. kristi poerwandari, ma. (scopus id: 25628305200). university of indonesia; prof. dr. willemijn de jong (scopus id: 55258294800). university of zurich, switzerland; prof. lyn parker (scopus id: 56273266700). the university of western australia. reviewers prof. lyn parker (scoups id: 56273266700). university of western australia, perth, australia; dr. elisabet titik murtisari (scopus id: 38161752200; google scholar). satya wacana christian university; dr. wening udasmoro (scopus id: 56493135600; google scholar). gadjah mada university; dr. phil. farah purwaningrum (scopus id: 57205254451; google scholar). the university of sydney & rahayu and partners in association with hfw; alimatul qibtiyah, m.si. ma. ph.d. (scopus & google scholar). sunan kalijaga state islamic university; dr. tyas retno wulan, m.si. (scopus & google scholar). the jenderal soedirman university; dr. titik sumarti, msi. (scopus & google scholar). bogor agricultural university; prof. dr. mien ratoe oedjoe, mpd. (google scholar). the university of nusa cendana, kupang; j. casey hammond, phd. (scopus & google scholar). singapore university of technology and design; dr. phil. ratna noviani (google scholar). gadjah mada university; dr. rina herlina haryanti (google scholar). sebelas maret university; dr. ida ruwaida noor (google scholar). university of indonesia; dr. nurjanah, sp.m.pd. (google scholar). state university of jakarta; dr. ir. evi feronika elbaar, m.si. (google scholar). the university of palangka raya; dr. jendrius m.si. (google scholar). andalas university; dr. grace jenny soputan, se. (google scholar). manado state university; dr. anis farida, s.sos., sh., m.si. (scopus & google scholar). sunan ampel state islamic university surabaya; ira desiaanti mangiliko, s.si,.ph.d. (google scholar). the artha wacana christian university. women and batik conservation on muria slopes … (sa’diyah) 33 women and batik conservation on muria slopes: a study of female batik crafters in kudus zaimatus sa’diyah department of islamic education, iain kudus zaimah_pba@stainkudus.ac.id abstract the worsening condition of nature calls the critical attention of human beings to look for primary keys to deal with. struggling with the same issue, the local government of kudus promotes community-based development programs that concern with introducing environmental conservation and education, besides cultural understanding programs, which emphasizes local community awareness in environmentally friendly tourism hosting and management. the youth community is invited to join workshops and training to enrich the skills in some handy craft production, networking and society management, particularly related to batik. “komunitas batik manjing werni” (kbmw) is one of the community-based development centers that concerns in promoting a unique batik motif. this article aims to describe the role of female crafters of natural motif batik in batik conservation on muria slope. the main objective is to identify how these female crafters in kbmw contribute to build public awareness around muria slope conservation through religious teachings and education. the data in this descriptive-qualitative research were obtained through observation, documentation and interviews with key persons in kbmw, people living around kbmw and kudus regency tourism office. keywords: batik, conservation, women background the worsening condition of nature calls the critical attention of human beings to look for primary keys to deal with. the underlying problems of environmental issues are the decline of water resources, floral extinction and growing numbers of endangered animals that contribute to climate change and recurring disasters. indonesia, as an island country, is rich with its natural resources and is well known as a home of thousands of animals and varieties of plants. unfortunately, the recent data shows that some kinds of protected animals are dying due to the sporadic human invasion and continuing deforestation that inflict their habitat. in addition, some local plants are vulnerable and in danger of extinction. kudus, one of the famous cities in central java, is also suffering from environmental damages that result in natural disasters such as floods and about:blank salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 1 no. 1, february 2018 34 landslides in its northern part highlands, mount muria. throughout the history, muria is well known as an ideal region for plantation where wilhelmina, the previous queen of the netherland, through voc, established coffee plantations in the sixteenth century (nugroho, 2014, p. 22). this choice was undoubtedly based on water availability, soil fertility and crisp air. nevertheless, the growing population leads to unstoppable natural exploitations and new fields of livestock agriculture development that end up with serious water, soil and air pollution. furthermore, as a common phenomenon, human abuse of natural resources is getting worse due to people's ignorance of a balanced agricultural system (gfm, 1995, p. 4). the latest natural disaster was a landslide that occurred in three regions around muria slope, namely rahtawu, menawan and kedungsari. the heavy rain during the rainy season deteriorates the natural condition in these three regions. should people think about muria, they will deliberately link this mountainous area with raden oemar said or sunan muria (one of the nine saints who were wellknown for spreading islam at java island). the tomb of sunan muria is located at the top of mount muria. his great efforts in spreading islam attract many people, both muslim and non-muslim, to visit his tomb. around one thousand visitors come to this mountainous area each day. this apparently opens wider chances for local people to rise their financial level by providing goods and services. however, this religious tourism is a kind of double-edged sword with its benefits and drawbacks. the financial benefits the local people gain cannot outweigh the adverse effect such as the growing number of wastes, erosion, and overuse of water supply. to deal with the declining natural condition, the local government of kudus promotes community-based development programs that concern with introducing environmental conservation and education, besides cultural understanding programs, which emphasizes local community awareness in environmentally friendly tourism hosting and management. in this program, the local government prefers to invite the youth community since data indicate that the older members of society have already had wellestablished activities. the government invites them to join workshops and training to enrich their skills in some handy craft production, networking and society management. since kudus is well known for its embroidery production house rather than batik, one of the unique classes is batik class. after joining this class, the government supports the participants to promote their products through local exhibitions and national events. “komunitas batik manjing werni” (kbmw) is one of the community-based development centers that concerns in promoting a unique batik motif. the existence of this community cannot be separated from the training provided by the local government several years ago. three key persons in this community joined batik classes together and tried to apply their new skills in commercial and educational ways. from 2013, they have raised funds from their own pockets to build their batik workshop. the well-known batik motifs in kudus are gebyok women and batik conservation on muria slopes … (sa’diyah) 35 kudus (traditional house), tobacco leaves, menara kudus (iconic building in kudus located near sunan kudus’ tomb), lentog tanjung (local food) and kapal kandas (the stranded ship). kmbw tried to promote new motifs based on natural resources such as parijoto, a plant with mystical believes that refers to sunan muria (raden umar said, one of the nine saints who were well-known as the main persons in spreading islam around java island). it is believed that pregnant women will deliver a goodlooking baby if they consume parijoto during their pregnancy. other local plants like cycadaceae (pakis haji), commonly used as a pest repellent, and pisang byar (a local species of banana) are also promoted in batik crafting. many argue that education may have a big impact on reducing the detrimental effect of environmental damage. however, education is not merely transferring knowledge from teachers to students. it is more than character building, which, of course, takes a long time and involves all stakeholders including surrounding environments and policy. before being involved with batik, one of the key persons of kbmw was a teacher in raden oemar senior high school located near the workshop area. she dedicated her life to education for the sake of her society. when she joined the batik classes facilitated by the government, she realized that batik might become an effective medium in spreading educational values, especially in developing social awareness of local biodiversity, which seems to be endangered. the educational values she promotes are merely based on religious thought and local wisdom. when she campaigns against littering, for instance, she does not only explain the adverse effect of littering for the environment but also link it with religious belief. furthermore, she uses batik as her medium to explain more about this matter. this kind of effort is actually more effective than a formal explanation in classes. with the government’s support, this community starts to settle and prove its existence. for now, there are five active batik crafters in this community (all of them are female) besides several students who join weekly batik classes as their extracurricular activity. even though it is not a kind of direct conservation, the effort to revive local biodiversity in the model of batik motif has a great impact on the local community’s paradigm of their environment. in addition, their activities also level up their incomes and help the local community to be more independent. based on the previous description, this article aims to describe the role of female crafters of natural motif batik in batik conservation on muria slope. the main objective is to identify how these female crafters in kbmw contribute to build public awareness around muria slope conservation through religious teachings and education. the data in this descriptive-qualitative research were obtained through observation, documentation and interviews with key persons in kbmw, people living around kbmw and kudus regency tourism office from may to july 2017. women and conservation environmental issues merely relate to women. the discussions on and criticism of the relationship salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 1 no. 1, february 2018 36 (both the one that is socially constructed and naturally reflects the essential similarity) between women and the environment exist up to these modern eras1. the data show that women are the most affected parties s in many cases of environmental damage; this is because the victims of any disaster are those who live under the poverty line. surprisingly, 70% of impoverished people are women. the more indigent they are, the more serious their burdens are (recoftc, 2014; eaton and lois, 2003, p. 2). moreover, women’s low level of education positioned them in two-third of the world's 876 illiterate people (ruether, 2003, p. viii). however, the burdens women face result from both environmental degradation and social design, which position them as the primary caregivers of the whole family member who are responsible for their food, water and well-being. what worse is that access to economic resources such as proprietorship of land or commercial business remains limited (eaton and lois, 2003, p. 2; kelly, 1997: 113). since the close relationship between women and nature is inevitable, women may have greater expertise and knowledge to find the appropriate solution to minimize environmental problems (eaton and lois, 2003, p. 2). human domination and exploitation over nature present in the forms of abuses, immoral and unethical deeds. religious teachings about respecting nature and conservation do not necessarily reduce environmental abuses. yet, 1 some eco-feminists posit that the relationship between women and environment is merely social construction, while others see that women are closer to nature than men and possess the innate attribute to care and serve the earth (eaton and lois, 2003, p. 2; mellor, 2003, p. 17) religion is still supposed to be tricks of the trade to solve environmental degradation. indeed, all religions’ concern in the cosmos and its significance to human life are manifested in their teachings and practices. each religion has its religious ethics of nature and its functions to guarantee human safety (nasr, 1996, p. 21; dwivedi, 1990, p. 201; tucker and john grim, 2003, p. xxvi). furthermore, religions may evoke people's consciousness of their limited control over both human natures and nonhuman natures, and that overexploitation can backfire. according to dwivedi, religions provide three pivotal mainstays to help people adapt to the recent technological society, which destroys nature. first, they protect the individual against the depersonalization of technology. second, they concede individual mistakes and combine realism with idealism. third, in contradiction to technology, which allows people to destroy the world, religions provide the moral strength to live in virtue through the liberation of selfcenteredness (dwivedi, 1990, p. 201). the role of religions to respond to the environmental crisis is challenged. there are countless appeals from environmental groups, parliaments and scientists to engage the world's religions to provide solutions to a more sustainable and better future. in response to these growing calls, many conferences, dialogues and alliances all over the world are established to investigate the potential contribution of each women and batik conservation on muria slopes … (sa’diyah) 37 religion to mitigate the environmental crisis (tucker and john grim, 2003, p. xxviii). it is important to include environmental awareness issues in religious teachings, both in the formal and non-formal educational system. kbmw as one of the communitybased development centers plays a significant role in promoting community awareness of nature, especially muria’s local biodiversity. batik and women it is not easy to track the origin of batik. many argue that batik was from india and was later brought to egypt. however, the tradition of batik was found in china, japan, thailand, east turkestan, europe and africa hundreds of years ago. this means that batik is not new in the history of human civilization (elliot, 2013, p. 22). since the united nations recognized batik as indonesian intangible cultural heritage in 2009, the world has suggested that indonesia is home for this traditional craft. to celebrate this recognition, president susilo bambang yudhoyono has asked all indonesians to wear batik on october 2. sir thomas stamford raffles was the leading witness to the development of batik when he was the lieutenant governor of the island at the beginning of the eighteenth century. his masterpiece book entitled history of java described how batik was made and how javanese people wore batik in various ways besides many different patterns or motifs of batik (elliot, 2013, p. 38) the motif of batik in the classic period (ninth century) seemed to be influenced by religious belief. lereng motif, for instance, describes the cloth of god shiva depicted near dieng temple (kusrianto, 2013, p. 3) the motif of batik may vary from one city to another. there are thousands of batik patterns with typical colors and motifs that reflect the philosophy or even certain believes of each community. javanese batik, for instance, different from balinese or sundanese batik. moreover, various batik patterns can be found in java since every city has its characteristics of batik. batik in kudus is recognized as something new compared to batik in coastal areas along the northern part of javanese islands such as pekalongan, tegal, semarang, pati, lasem or tuban. however, it is hard to decide the precise era of batik in kudus as none can find any evidence indicating the initial existence of batik in this city. according to djoemena, arabic calligraphy batik found in cirebon, jambi and bengkulu was originally from demak and kudus. it was dated back when some prosperous chinese people in demak and kudus invited batik crafters from pekalongan to make batik based on the motifs they proposed at the beginning of the twentieth century. maybe, this is the beginning of batik tradition among kudus community. at that time, the famous motifs of batik were flowers, birds and butterflies. however, as batik is not a common tradition among kudus community, the workshops built by those chinese people were on the road to abundance (ishwara, 2011, p. 163) there is no doubt that the heyday of batik in indonesia cannot be separated from the royals of surakarta. among the royals, royal batik is known as keraton batik (the word keraton refers to surakarta and salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 1 no. 1, february 2018 38 jogjakarta, the two javanese royals). keraton batik maintains the meaningful symbol and color blends of batik. data shows that the use of batik in the javanese tradition is full of meanings, philosophy or even myth. moreover, batik used to be special and worn by the royal family and the respected people of that period. for javanese people, batik is an expression of belief in the relationship between microcosms (human beings), macrocosms (nature) and metacosmos (god). batik, therefore, is a symbol of their belief and faith. as they were not accustomed to thinking abstractly, they used the symbolic way of thinking through batik. in addition, the choice and blend of colors should express the beauty and harmony of those three main pillars of the cosmos. in keraton batik, there are four main dominant colors: brown, blue, white and black. the brown color depicts the fertile soil, which is believed to transfer the positive energy of soil, such as humility, modesty and simplicity. the blue color represents the serenity, confidence and loyalty, while the color of white reflects the eastern direction, which creates an impression of purity, bravery and forgiveness of whoever wears it. the other common color in keraton batik is black. many recognize black as a symbol of death and negativity; however, according to javanese people, this color reflects strength, luxury, sensuality, mystery and gracefulness (kusrianto, 2013, p. 336; elliot, 2013, p. 66) besides the color’s reflection that is firmly identical to keraton batik, the motif of keraton batik also reflects the social status of the people who wear it. moreover, every motif brought mystery and meaning to the forms and uses of batik. the sultan of surakarta and jogjakarta have their sacred pattern that no one can copy and wear. there are eight forbidden patterns or motif of keraton batik: kawung, parang, parang rusak, cemukiran, udan liris, sawat, semen and alas-alasan (elliot, 2013, p. 68). however, when the industrialization flourished, those mystical meanings and restrictions of batik faded. batik then becomes a commodity people all over the world may wear daily. another specific batik is vorstenlanden (coastal batik) that refers to the coastal areas along the north part of java, from banten in west java to banyuwangi in the eastern part of east java. compared to the southern parts of java, the coastal areas of java were quite dynamic since they were located at the gate of java where many traders came and go. this condition also influenced the characteristics of pattern and color picking of batik developed in these areas. chinese and european influence is strongly visible in coastal batik; moreover, the bright colors used in batik also reflect the character of a coastal community such as bright red, green, yellow and purple, which are not found in keraton batik (elliot, 2013, p. 100-120) batik in kudus is actually part of pekalongan batik, which is rich in colors and motifs. the production of batik in demak and kudus started when some wealthy chinese family proposed a specific pattern of batik to batik crafters of pekalongan. those crafters were invited to demak and kudus to finish their work. nevertheless, after a long time of absence, the tradition of batik in kudus begins to bloom along with the women and batik conservation on muria slopes … (sa’diyah) 39 support of the local government to level up community income and maintain batik as a national heritage of indonesia. there are more than ten batik workshops in kudus with special patterns and motifs. the history indicated the involvement of women in batik tradition since the majority of batik crafters were female. researches are convinced that the majority of batik crafters are female, except a few workshops where men have a dominant role, such as batik's workshop in cirebon. since men had more opportunities to join batik workshops, the motif of batik in cirebon had masculine characteristics. when the industrialization of batik flourished all over the country and the use of cap was widely accepted, men became more involved in batik production as they were stronger than women in carrying heavy blocks used in cap; however, women were still needed to produce handwriting batik (tulis). when the dutch imposed expensive tax regulation, men had limited opportunities to be involved in batik activities; thus, women replaced them. from that period onwards, batik production seemed to be a female area. moreover, some production houses of batik allowed crafters to bring their works home, and women can finish their work while doing household duties (elliot, 2013, p. 54-90) batik manjing werni: conservation and religious education as mentioned above, kbmw is a batik workshop in kudus that considers local biodiversity as its main motif or pattern of batik. one of the main popular patterns is parijoto. recent researches point out the level of antioxidants in parijoto as well as its function as chemoprevention in breast cancer (tusanti, johan and kisdjamiatun, 2014). however, for generations, people in kudus and its surrounding communities believe that parijoto can increase fertility hormone in women playing a role in maintaining the condition of babies in wombs; thus, babies will have handsome or beautiful faces. this belief refers to the history of sunan muria, who planted parijoto in muria slopes after dampo awang ship was stranded and damaged. it is believed that the wife of sunan muria craved for parijoto during her pregnancy. she consumed it, and the baby was delivered in clean skin and healthy condition (widjanarko, 2008). as one of the endemic plants in muria, it is easy to find parijoto around muria slopes. the local roadside sellers will offer parijoto to the visitors who pass by their stalls. the name, parijoto, is derived from a popular javanese song, sinom parijoto, used by both sunan muria and sunan kalijaga to spread islam in java (hanum, prihastanti and jumari, 2017). salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 1 no. 1, february 2018 40 image of parijoto another pattern is pisang byar, a local species of banana. the communities around muria usually cook this kind of local banana in sweet coconut milk during the "baby shower", a banquet held in the seventh month of the pregnancy. during this feast, the family of pregnant women invites relatives and the surrounding community to pray together for the health of those pregnant women and their babies (sa’adah, 2015). this banana also becomes a commodity for the local community due to the increasing number of people who visit muria, especially during maulid, the third month of the islamic calendar, the birth of the prophet muhammad (pbuh). the other motifs are muria coffee bean, siyem (a kind of vegetable), plontang birds (one of the local birds found in muria), and pakis haji (cycadaceae). pakis haji is hereditary used as a rat repellent. it is a kind of wild plant that can be found in the forest. the farmers around muria usually take this plant and put it in the corner of their rice fields. pakis haji is also used as the raw material for souvenirs such as sticks and prayer beads (wibowo, wasino and setyowati, 2012). the choice of the community in kbmw to craft batik in these patterns is a kind of indirect conservation effort. for them, humans are the most responsible beings to look for a solution to environmental issues. the current generation inherits the rich nature from their ancestors, so they have to pass on the same nature to their descendants. this community believes that every single effort will reveal good news in the future. those students who attend batik classes will have embedded environmental awareness and will continue the same efforts. moreover, this community believes that this effort is also a form of gratitude to allah for all his immeasurable mercy. for them, batik is only a media to internalize religious values of gratitude, love and responsibility for nature. they realize that both men and women should stand hand in hand to respond based on islamic teachings that they are in the same position. in addition, the financial values they got from batik may increase the income of the community. economic independence will lead to the readiness of the generation to play their roles in the community. for them, the existence of the tomb of sunan muria is a blessing; thus, they have to maintain this blessing including preserving local biodiversity. it is a symbolic relationship of which they depend on the blessing of sunan muria as well as biodiversity. references dwivedi, o. p. (1990). satyagraha for conservation: awakening the spirit of hinduism. ethics of environment and development: global challenge, international response (pp. 201-212). women and batik conservation on muria slopes … (sa’diyah) 41 eaton, h., & lorentzen, l. a. (2003). ecofeminism and globalization: exploring religion, culture, and context. usa: rowman & littlefield publishing group, inc. elliot, i. m. (2013). batik: fabled cloth of java. vermont: tuttle publishing. german federal ministry (gfm) for economic cooperation and development. (1995). environmental handbook: documentation of monitoring and evaluating environmental impacts. nyc: springer. hanum, a. s., prihastanti, e., & jumari. (2017, august). ethnobotany of utilization, role, and philosophical meaning of parijoto (medinilla, spp) on mount muria in kudus regency, central java. aip conference proceedings 1868( 1), 090018. ishwara, h., yahya, l. s., moeis, x., & sumarsono, h. (2011). batik pesisir pusaka indonesia: koleksi hartono sumarsono. kepustakaan populer gramedia. jakarta: gramedia. kelly, petra. (1997). women and power. in warren, k., & erkal, n. (eds.), ecofeminism: women, culture, nature (112-119). indiana: indiana university press. kusrianto, a. (2013). batik: filosofi, motif & kegunaan. yogyakarta: andi publisher. mellor, mary. (2003). gender and the environment. in heather eaton and lois ann lorentzen (eds.), ecofeminism and globalization: exploring culture, context and religion (pp. 11-22). usa: rowman & littlefield publishing group, inc. nasr, s. h. (1996). religion and the order of nature. oxford: oxford university press nugroho, yuliono tri. (2014) budaya dan wisata kabupaten kudus. kudus: dinas kebudayaan dan pariwisata kudus. recoftc. (2014). equity in climate change and redd: a handbook for grassroot facilitators. retrieved from https://www.recoftc.org/project/gr een-mekong/training-manualsand-guides/equity-climatechange-and-redd-handbookgrassroots-facilitators ruether, rosemary radford. (2003). ecofeminism and the challenges of globalization. in heather eaton and lois ann lorentzen (eds.), ecofeminism and globalization: exploring culture, context and religion (pp. vii-xi). usa: rowman & littlefield publishing group, inc. sa'adah, l. n. (2015). muatan dakwah dalam adat tingkeban di desa damarwulan keling jepara. annida: jurnal komunikasi islam, 7(2). tucker, mary evelyn and john grim. (2003). series foreword. in richard c foltz, frederick m denny and azizan baharuddin (eds.), islam and ecology: a bestowed trust (pp. xvxxxii). massachusetts: cambridge. tusanti, i., johan, a., & kisdjamiatun, r. a. (2014). sitotoksisitas in vitro ekstrak etanolik buah parijoto (medinilla speciosa, reinw. ex bl.) terhadap sel kanker payudara t47d. jurnal gizi indonesia (the indonesian journal of nutrition), 2(2), 53-58. wibowo, h. a., wasino, w., & setyowati, d. l. (2012). kearifan lokal dalam menjaga lingkungan hidup (studi kasus masyarakat di desa colo kecamatan dawe kabupaten kudus). journal of educational social studies, 1(1). widjanarko, m. (2008). peran masyarakat menjaga kearifan lingkungan di kawasan gunung muria, kabupaten kudus (disertasi doktoral). semarang: program pasca sarjana magister psikologi universitas katolik soegijapranata. salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 1 no. 1, february 2018 42 0101_00a_cover.pdf 0101_00b_content.pdf 0101_03_sa'diyah.pdf 0101_10_backcover.pdf salasika indonesian journal of gender, women, child, and social inclusion's studies volume 5, number 2 – december 2022 table of content javanese feminine leadership during the pandemic: a study of sragent regent’s leadership style in overcoming the covid-19 pandemic setyasih harini, riska wirawan 63 analysis of the local wisdom and role of women weavers in samarinda norhidayat 79 constraints and solutions to problems in online learning at sd kristen satya wacana, salatiga fidelis alvin basundara prima, eunice widyanti setyaningtyas 89 government’s responsibilities in handling cases of child sexual abuse in samarinda suryaningsi, edi rachmat, wingkolatin, atika yuliana ichsani 105 “decision to migrate” of female migrant workers in sendang biru, malang regency keppi sukesi, henny rosalinda, yahya, wahyu handayani , jedda ayu inggrida, elok anggraini, rany purnama hadi, rozaila farcha 125 index 141 editorial team chief editors arianti ina restiani hunga, universitas kristen satya wacana, indonesia (scopus id: 46161114400, google scholar) dewi candraningrum, universitas muhammadiyah surakarta, indonesia (google scholar) board of editors claudia derichs, humboldt universität zu berlin, germany (scopus id: 14026487800) ida sabelis, vrije universiteit (vu) amsterdam, the netherlands (scopus id: 6507181398, google scholar) siti kusujiarti, warren wilson college, usa (scopus id: 56276925900) ratna saptari, leiden university, the netherlands (scopus id: 6504610910) sylvia tiwon, university of california, usa (scopus id: 6506468591) emy susanti, universitas airlangga, indonesia (scopus id: 57213142220, google scholar) keppi sukesi, brawijaya university, indonesia (scopus id: 56025803300, google scholar) kristi poerwandari, university of indonesia, indonesia (scopus id: 25628305200, google scholar) willemijn de jong, university of zurich, switzerland (scopus id: 55258294800) lyn parker, the university of western australia, australia (scopus id: 56273266700) technical editors indriretno setyaningrahayu, universitas kristen satya wacana, indonesia (google scholar) daniel kurniawan, universitas kristen satya wacana, salatiga, indonesia (google scholar) suryaningsi, universitas mulawarman, indonesia (scopus id: 57223402854, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1093-810x, id sinta: 5990865, google scholar) agustinus fritz wijaya, universitas kristen satya wacana, indonesia (scopus id: 56461093400, google scholar) stefanus perangin-angin, universitas kristen satya wacana, indonesia (google scholar) reviewers elisabet titik murtisari, universitas kristen satya wacana, indonesia (scopus id: 38161752200, google scholar) asfa widiyanto, iain salatiga, indonesia (scopus id: 56451676900, google scholar) wening udasmoro, gadjah mada university, indonesia (scopus id: 56493135600) farah purwaningrum, the university of sydney, australia (scopus id: 57192369400, google scholar) alimatul qibtiyah, sunan kalijaga state islamic university, indonesia (scopus id: 57200660732, google scholar) tyas retno wulan, the jenderal soedirman university, indonesia (scopus id: 57205341358, google scholar) nurjanah, state university of jakarta, indonesia (scopus id: 57210948418) ira desiawanti mangiliko,the artha wacana christian university, indonesia keiko hirano, ochanomizu university, jepang (orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3258-6072) anik yuesti, universitas mahasaraswati, indonesia (scopus id: 57214104250, google scholar) nurdiana gaus, stiks tamalanre makassar, indonesia (google scholar) yacinta kurniasih, monash university, australia (google scholar) yafet yosafet wilben rissy, universitas kristen satya wacana, indonesia (scopus id: 57221474276, google scholar) analysis of the local wisdom … (norhidayat) 79 analysis of the local wisdom and role of women weavers in samarinda norhidayat mulawarman university norhidayat@fkip.unmul.ac.id abstract this study aims to analyze the values of local wisdom of the tepian people illustrated in the samarinda sarong and looks at the role of traditional women weavers and the values of the samarinda woven motifs. it is a qualitative study employing observation, interview, documentation, library research, and source criticism. interview guides were used to collect data from interviewees. the findings suggested that the sengkang wajo bugis tribe first introduced woven fabric to samarinda. as they lived and mingled with the samarinda community, the woven fabric was assimilated into the local culture and known as samarinda sarong. in the past, weaving skills were regarded as an indicator of women’s maturity and readiness to get married. consequently, women learned weaving from generation to generation and became the main actors in weaving. some of them even managed to contribute to the household income through weaving. samarinda woven fabric had various patterns bearing philosophical meanings. keywords: women’s roles, local wisdom, woven fabrics, sengkang wajo bugis tribe, samarinda introduction human sociality can be understood as an organism. almost all aspects of life can be understood in a phenomenological sense as part of a life system. a proper perspective for considering life and interpreting social reality is extremely important in determining the direction and orientation of humankind. the aim of this paper is to describe a new methodological point of view to discover the nature of social reality in the study culture in indonesia. in taking a perspective from philosophy, this research endeavors to provide a new perspective in the study of local wisdom in indonesia. this paper presents a philosophical view on approaching the study of local wisdom: first, human social systems are systems of self-reference; second, human sociality is actualized in contingent social systems. local wisdom can be viewed as a social and communicative system that produces a kind of selforganization (autopoiesis) within a culture. basically, local wisdom is a joint effort in a community to maintain resources that are used continuously to support the community and maintain environmental balance. local wisdom is a positive attitude of the community when interacting with nature and the environment around them, which comes from their salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 5 no. 2, december 2022 80 values about rituals in religion or messages from elders or local culture formed naturally in a community so that people can adapt to the surrounding environment. local wisdom can also be interpreted as a human effort using their ability to think (cognitive power), run, and behave towards an object or condition in a particular place. local wisdom can also be defined as a variety of local ideas that are wise, full of noble values, well embedded, become a tradition, and run by the local community naturally. in general, local wisdom occurs because of an internal process in a community that is maintained for generations in a relatively long time and results from the interaction between humans and the surrounding environment. in other words, local wisdom can be interpreted as a communal social system rather than an individual. in his research, sartini (2004) concludes that local wisdom combines noble religious values with various values found in society, from those related to sacred life to the profane (not holy). although local, the values in local wisdom are universal. in addition, adimihardja (2008) and sartini (2004) explain that local culture directly or indirectly influences the formation of local wisdom. according to soedigdo, harysakti, and usop (2014), there are two main elements of local wisdom. first is the human aspect and mindset, and the second is the local natural and climatic conditions. local wisdom also consists of tangible aspects, such as writing and buildings, and is intangible, such as the advice of elders and traditional songs that contain hereditary teachings. the development of culturebased products was explained by smith (2015), who emphasized the importance of this in meeting the potential demand in the tourism market that is dynamic and supports the sustainability of the industry in the future. there are at least five elements of culture-based products, among others: physical buildings, services, hospitality, freedom of choice, and involvement. culture is interpreted as the embodiment of the life of a person or group in treating their natural environment. therefore, there are demands to constantly develop abilities, creativity, and various new discoveries. ideally, to ensure sustainability in the future, the development of culture-based products is centered on the interdependent relations between the social and economic dimensions of culture. in addition, the use of new media, such as the internet and social media, in developing social and cultural communication initiatives also enables various networks to open up previously unimaginable tourism markets. the right marketing mix to carry out established marketing strategies is also essential to ensure that culturebased products are competitive and have the proper positioning in the eyes of tourists as a target market. in developing culture-based products, the community, as the primary agent in the change process, must always be involved so that they can actively participate and not only be seen as limited to the subject of analysis of the local wisdom … (norhidayat) 81 development. the community is also the party that best understands the potential of the region that can be developed into an integrated cultural product. on the other hand, tourists, as the main clients of the product, must also be given the opportunity to be involved in the development of culture-based products. in the context of tourism, involvement is not limited to being understood as physical participation but also active participation to enjoy tourism services fully. according to benur and bramwell (2015), cultural products can be concentrated or diverse. first, concentrated cultural products imply that the development of cultural products is only focused on one or a few products. this can be advantageous because the product offered can have a unique identity and reputation that attracts many tourists, even though there is a risk of problems with the product due to limited choices. second, cultural products can also be diverse, which can increase the attractiveness of tourist destinations, increase the likelihood of being able to provide services that can be tailored to the needs of customers (customized), and ensure greater flexibility in meeting the tastes and demands of tourists who keep changing as with the times. indonesia is a large country stretching from sabang to merauke. as a large country, indonesia is rich in natural and human resources. it is a host for various ethnicities, languages, and cultures. the bhineka tunggal ika, unity in diversity, motto unites existing diversity. indonesia comprises 38 provinces, including east kalimantan. the capital of this province is samarinda, the home to various tribes, including dayak, banjar, bugis, jawa, and many more. samarinda has a distinctive cloth inspired by the local wisdom of the mahakam river. samarinda woven fabric was brought by the people of sulawesi, who settled in the lowlands of samarinda seberang. they came to samarinda as nomads and asylum or protection seekers to the kingdom of kutai kartanegara. weaving has been part of their daily activities since they settled there. as they mingle with the indigenous inhabitants, the woven fabric is influenced by the local wisdom and is known as samarinda woven sarong. most traditional weavers in various regions in indonesia are women and have learned weaving techniques from generation to generation. it makes the researcher wonder why traditional weavers are primarily women and their roles. therefore, this research will examine the typical roles of women weavers in samarinda and the main reasons why most weavers are women. methods this qualitative research aims to describe the role of women weavers in samarinda. data were gathered through observation, interview, documentation, library research, and source criticism. the interview used interview guides to facilitate the data collection. salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 5 no. 2, december 2022 82 the data covered primary and secondary data. primary data sources were obtained directly by the researchers through the first source, such as archives and early notes of the existence of woven sarongs in samarinda. in contrast, the secondary data were obtained through media, such as books, newspapers, journals, and articles related to this research. the data analysis technique used was source and interpretation criticism. source criticism is useful for clarifying and sorting the data collected. the critical stage is to assess the data considered relevant and vital in the research and dispose of data considered less relevant. result and discussion awareness of local wisdom was rampant after the fall of the new order regime. during the new order regime, leaders initiated all policies, setting aside the people's will. at the end of the new order, a government program was implemented to open up a million hectares of peatland farms and bring migrants to central kalimantan. it turned out that the mega projects spending high cost and clearing many forest areas failed. this is the phenomenon of orientation to the state and market authorities who make economic and political configurations of cultural reality or validity to weaken human positions in various forms (abdulah, 2008) learning from the experience, the participation of the community in development becomes an inseparable part. following the demise of the new order government, indonesian ngos had a vast opportunity to engage in various community development activities, and local governments had the opportunity to plan development strategies based on local needs and capabilities (ahimsaputra, 2009, p. 5) amid the strengthening of the desire to broaden the knowledge of local communities or local wisdom, the first thing to do is to understand the local wisdom. some experts try to define local wisdom. according to ridwan (2007), local wisdom is an explicit knowledge emerging in the past that evolved with the community and its environment in the local system. local wisdom can be in songs, proverbs, sasanti (motto), adverbs, slogans, and ancient books inherent in everyday behavior (ridwan, 2007). wahyu (2005) emphasizes that the advantages of local wisdom are its flexibility and resistance in adapting to environmental changes for sustainable natural resources and environment. local knowledge also leads to adaptation to ecological systems to maintain the ecological system's sustainability (wahyu, 2005). in addition, ahimsa-putra (2009) defines local wisdom as a set of knowledge and good practices that originate from previous generations and the experience of dealing with the environment and other communities used to deal with various problems and/or difficulties encountered. of the three definitions above, some view local wisdom as a process of evolution and its manifestation, such as in the form of writing and speech. on the other hand, wahyu (2005) sees local wisdom as an experience, not just a process of the analysis of the local wisdom … (norhidayat) 83 past, to deal with problems. ahimsaputra (2009) states that it combines experience and something inherited. wahyu (2005) and ahimsa-putra (2009) agree that local wisdom helps to deal with the problems experienced by the local community. two essential points in local wisdom, knowledge and practice, are patterns of interaction and action (ahimsa-putra, 2009). knowledge, which is less permanent, can be obtained from various sources such as mass media or oral sources. in contrast, the relatively permanent experience or memory is obtained from direct experiences throughout the human life journey (sairin, semedi, & hudayana, 2006). in his research on experience conducted in java, bali, and morocco, geertz (2013) describes how individuals approach ideas by imagining themselves as others, peasants or tribal sheiks, then searching and analyzing the forms of symbolic words, images, institutions, and behaviors. the culmination is the structure of meaning in the relation of the individual or group of individuals to survive in life, especially with symbols to incorporate themselves into a set of meaningful forms, the web of meaning they weave themselves (geertz, 2003). thus, the local wisdom of the population is a system of knowledge of the local population acquired as a legacy (blueprint) from generation to generation and is a process of life experience. the knowledge system operates at the level of everyday life as an individual and collective effort to solve life problems. local wisdom can be written or oral, such as advice, pantun, local language expression, and fairy tales. in daily practice, local wisdom comes through the meaning of the phenomenon occurring in the vicinity. traditional woven fabric has a special place in indonesian society. it is not only used as a cloth to cover aurat (private body parts) but also has excellent philosophical values in terms of its uniqueness and meaning. in indonesia, traditional clothes are mandatory in traditional ceremonies and symbolize one’s status in society. traditional indonesian fabrics are also sacred. not all people can wear or use them. kartiwa (1983) suggests that indonesia is one of the countries in asia producing a variety of standout traditional fabrics. it can be seen in various types of fabrics, fabric manipulation techniques, cloth motifs, and fabric functions. indonesian woven fabrics bear high cultural values , especially in terms of technical, aesthetic, symbolic, and philosophical meanings. budiyono et al. (2008) state that weaving is a technique for making fabrics using a simple principle, combining warp and weft or, in other words, inserting weft over and under the warp. according to anas (1995), woven fabric is a piece of cloth weavers produce by inserting weft over and under warps based on a particular weaving pattern. the local wisdom of the batak people is a hand-woven cultural heritage called songket (mandar). songket is very closely related to the life of the batak indigenous people to this day. apart from being used in traditional ceremonies, songket is known as one of the hallmarks of salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 5 no. 2, december 2022 84 batak culture and is used as a souvenir. the weavers, batak women, make songket their main livelihood and a side job. songket weavers still use traditional tools requiring a longer production time resulting in less efficient work (berlianti & siagian, 2018). weaving is indonesia's wealth with philosophical, social, and legal meanings and clothing, aesthetic, and economic functions. one of the challenges faced is the diminishing interest of young women in the village to weave because there are alternative employment opportunities. currently, the average weavers are over 40 years old. to increase young women's interest in weaving, the economic value of weaving needs to be increased (ndolu & sulistiyono, 2020). women on the island of selaru are not only weavers but also the successors of the ikat culture who will bequeath it to their daughters. as a cultural heritage, woven fabrics are used only for traditional and ritual events, such as weddings and funerals. it is also used in traditional ceremonies with religious nuances or those related to the human cycle, such as church ceremonies, weddings, veneration of bodies, and the release of spirits (pattipeilohy, 2013). this shows that ikat contains cultural values continuously preserved by women as part of the local wisdom of the people on selaru island (pattinama, 2019). based on the opinion above, it can be concluded that weaving is a fabric craft produced by inserting the transverse yarn (weft) under and over the longitudinal stationary yarn (warp) using non-machine looms. the woven fabrics produced with traditional equipment bear highvalue meanings. holding and using a traditional woven fabric is like wading through a sheet of the society's historical documents. woven fabric is a dead object but a living witness of a culture. yuniarti and haryanto, in berlianti & siagian (2018) state that the income of female workers in the weaving business significantly contributes to increasing family income. women's contribution serves as a support for poor households to meet their basic needs. several research results show that the role of women in various industries in several regions is quite significant and decisive. women's involvement in the work field is evident through the large number of regional women who become weavers. in eastern indonesian culture, women are the principal architects, from forming patterns to completing weaving. almost every eastern indonesian woman has weaving skills. timo (2002) said that this skill is inherited by learning, observing, and practicing under the guidance of the mothers and the women's sisters. weaving skill is a benchmark against the maturity of eastern indonesian women. they are regarded as mature and ready to marry if they have mastered weaving. the eastern indonesian people's paradigm of weaving characterizes eastern indonesia's cultural values that distinguish it from other regions. eastern indonesian weavers are appreciated for the work requiring maximum energy and concentration from the main actors, the women (therik, 2021). analysis of the local wisdom … (norhidayat) 85 women weavers in popalia village, togo binongko subdistrict, contribute to improving the family economy and meet daily needs such as the cost of raising children and health. besides helping to improve the family's economy, weaving also preserves the culture in the togo binongko subdistrict, especially in popalia village (badje, 2022) the explanation above highlights why women's role dominates in continuing the weaving tradition. besides the flexible time, weaving does not require much energy and can be done anywhere. moreover, weaving can increase household income as a support to the income from the head of the household or husband. women weavers, in general, will feel very happy and excited when they can finish the weaving work, and the woven cloth they produce can be useful for themselves and others. they admit that weaving gives them inner satisfaction. weaving brings happiness, especially when watching other people wear woven fabrics they create. one of the motivating factors that encourages them to continue weaving is the desire to produce the best and give the best, especially for others (lolo, 2018). in this way, they obtain inner pleasure from doing this work. weaving requires strong accuracy to determine the appropriate motif or pattern and to adjust and recognize the color of the thread so that the colors are neither swapped nor intertwined. women weaving mandar silk must master the primary skill entailing knowing the loom, which consists of passolorang, passaq, papamalingan, etc., the function of each weaving tool, the sitting position, and how to choose good quality yarn. the technical skills of the women weavers of mandar silk in pambusuang village, balanipa district, polewali mandar regency allows them to produce good quality weaving with various distinctive patterns of a high-level difficulty. they even make various colors using simple dyes made from natural ingredients. the mandar silk weavers use interpersonal skills when dealing with consumers. good interpersonal skills enable women to build mutually beneficial relationships with their customers. interpersonal skills are also essential to face problems in the weaving process, such as broken threads, untidy patterns, or problems with customer complaints about products, which makes consumers unhappy (mawadda, ashdaq, qamariah, & fauzan, 2022). to conclude, weaving activities in poliwali mandar involve women and their skills. women weavers are expected to master the basic skills in weaving, especially communication skills for marketing and direct interaction with consumers. salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 5 no. 2, december 2022 86 table 1. patterns and meanings of samarinda woven fabric. source: https://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/sarung_samarinda patterns meaning lebba suasa it is the first pattern made by samarinda weavers. this pattern is no longer produced as it is difficult to find even in its origin, south sulawesi. two colors, black and white, dominate this pattern, with red color on the edge or side of the sarong. kamummu hatta it incorporates red and black (hatama mascara) colors. it is also known as the hatta pattern. the name was adapted from dr. mohammad hatta, the vice president of indonesia who visited samarinda around 1950. ruwi (rukun wanita indonesia/indonesian women association) cooperative samarinda handed sarong with this pattern to moh. hatta during his visit. since then, this pattern has been referred to hatta style. tabba this pattern has two types: regular tabba and tabba fierce. it is called anyaman palupuh because this pattern resembles woven bamboo. tabba or palupuh means bamboo. assepulu bolong pulu or pulut means sticky rice, while bolong means black (black sticky rice). the name describes the beautiful shiny dark pattern, which looks like black sticky rice. rawa-rawa masak it is named after a kind of guava fruit. the color is rosy pink or violet, like the color of guava fruit. it is called the rawa-rawa masak pattern because it resembles nature and its surroundings. coka manippi this pattern adopts the charming color a kutai noble princess saw in her dream of entering the paradise loka. when she woke up, the princess was distraught and missed the color in her dream. the princess then called the weavers to weave a sarong with the color in her dream. the pattern is then called coka manippi, meaning conquered by the dream. initially, ordinary people were not allowed to wear sarong with the coka manippi pattern. the kutai noble family usually wears this pattern. garanso this pattern incorporates black and dark blue colors. garanso means fierce. it is because the combination of black and blue is viewed as fierce. fierce here means the one wearing these bold colors will look dashing. billa takajjo the name means lightning. the phrase billa takkajo (when surprised) means seeing lightning. red, blue, and white lines dominate this pattern. burica it means pepper or sahang. this pattern is called burica because it depicts small round flowers as big as pepper, like pepper grains. siparape siparape means getting closer. this pattern is deliberately created for newly married couples. they get closer and love each other during their honeymoon. kudara similar to the hatta style, this pattern is a sarong pattern presented to president soekarno, the first president of indonesia, when visiting samarinda. kudara means country. it is called kudara because it is given to a country leader. sabbi this is a new creation made for women. it is usually worn with a shawl of the same pattern. pucuk similar to sabbi, this is also a new creation. depicting plant shoots, the pattern is designed specifically for women along with the shawl. analysis of the local wisdom … (norhidayat) 87 conclusion local wisdom is human activities carried out from generation to generation in an area. local wisdom is rich in philosophical meaning, guiding the surrounding community and unique to every region in indonesia. the samarinda woven sarong is the local wisdom of the samarinda people existing since the arrival of the sengkang wajo bugis tribe. it has undergone cultural assimilation, and it has become samarinda's local wisdom. woven fabrics play various roles in human activities. apart from being used as everyday clothing, they complement religious and traditional ceremonies. they also reveal one's social status. besides that, woven cloth is also used as a traditional wedding dowry. the role of women is very dominant in samarinda woven sarong production. the women weavers also support for the family economy to increase household income. weaving was also a standard for women’s maturity in the past. a woman's thoroughness and skills in weaving determine her maturity and marriage readiness. before getting married, women had to be able to weave and good at using a loom along with its equipment. weaving is also an activity that women do in their spare time when they finish household chores and wait for their husbands to get home from work. references abdulah, t. (2008). nasionalisme dan sejarah. bandung: satya historika. adimihardja, k. (2008). dinamika budaya lokal. bandung: cv. indra prahasta dan pusat kajian lbpb. ahimsa-putra, h. s. (2009). bahasa, sastra, dan kearifan lokal di indonesia. mabasan, 3(1). doi:10.26499/mab.v3i1.115 anas, b. (1995). tenunan indonesia 3. jakarta: yayasan harapan kita. badje, y. (2022). peran perempuan meningkatkan ekonomi keluarga melalui usaha tenun di kelurahan popalia kecamatan togo binongko. jurnal akademik pendidikan ekonomi, 9(1). https://www.ejournal.lppmunida yan.ac.id/index.php/ek onomi benur, a. m., & bramwell, b. (2015). tourism product development and product diversification in destinations. tourism management, 50 (c), 213-224. doi: 10.1016/j.tourman.2015.02.005 berlianti, & siagian, m. (2018). pemberdayaan perempuan dan perbaikan manajemen usaha bagi penenun songket. abdimas talenta, 3(2), 215-219. http://jurnal.usu.ac.id/abdimas budiyono, et al. (2008). kriya tekstil. jakarta: direktorat pembinaan sekolah menengah kejuruan. geertz, c. (2003). the interpretation of culture. new york: basic books. kartiwa, suwati. (1983). kain tenun donggala. palu: palu donggala press. lolo, i. u. (2018). perempuan penenun menelusuri pengalaman perempuan penenun di sumba dari sudut pandang teologi keindahan menurut john navone. indonesian journal of theology, 6(1), 25-43. doi: 10.46567/ijt.v6i1.16 mawadda, y. ashdaq, m., qamariah, n., & fauzan, m. (2022). keterampilan https://dx.doi.org/10.26499/mab.v3i1.115 https://econpapers.repec.org/article/eeetouman/v_3a50_3ay_3a2015_3ai_3ac_3ap_3a213-224.htm https://econpapers.repec.org/article/eeetouman/v_3a50_3ay_3a2015_3ai_3ac_3ap_3a213-224.htm https://econpapers.repec.org/article/eeetouman/v_3a50_3ay_3a2015_3ai_3ac_3ap_3a213-224.htm https://econpapers.repec.org/article/eeetouman/v_3a50_3ay_3a2015_3ai_3ac_3ap_3a213-224.htm https://econpapers.repec.org/scripts/redir.pf?u=https%3a%2f%2fdoi.org%2f10.1016%252fj.tourman.2015.02.005;h=repec:eee:touman:v:50:y:2015:i:c:p:213-224 salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 5 no. 2, december 2022 88 kerja perempuan penenun sutra mandar dalam menopang ekonomi keluarga: studi kasus desa pambusuang, kecamatan balanipa, kabupaten polman. manarang: jurnal manajemen and business, i(i). https://ojs.unsulbar.ac.id/manaran g ndolu, j. s., & sulistiyono, a. (2020). urgensi kebijakan afirmasi sebagai model perlindungan bagi penenun perempuan di indonesia. dialogia iuridica,12(1). pattinama, e. (2019). perempuan tenun di maluku merawat alam dengan semangat spiritualitas ekofeminis. jurnal ilmiah wahana pendidikan, 5(4), 126-137. https://jurnal.unibrah.ac.id/index .php/jiwp pattipeilohy, m. m. (2013). busana tradisional daerah maluku dan masa depannya. jurnal penelitian, 7(5). https://kebudayaan.kemdikbud.go. id/bpnbmaluku/wpcontent/uploads/sites/13/2015/03/ di-publikasikan-pada-jurnalpeneltian-vol-7-nomor-5.-edisinovember-2013-untukmendapatkanya-silakandownload-di-sini.pdf ridwan, n. a. (2007). kearifan lokal: fungsi dan wujudnya. jurnal studi islam dan budaya, 5(1), 1-8. sairin, s., semedi, p., & hudayana, b. (2006). pengantar antropologi ekonomi. yogyakarta: pustaka pelajar. sartini. (2004). menggali kearifan lokal nusantara sebuah kajian filsafati. jurnal filsafat, 14(2). doi: https://doi.org/10.22146/jf.339 10 smith, s. (2015). a sense of place: place, culture and tourism. tourism recreation research, (40)2, 220– 233. doi: 10.1080/02508281.2015.10 49814 soedigdo, d., harysakti, a., & usop, t. b. (2014). elemen-elemen pendorong kearifan lokal pada arsitektur nusantara. jurnal perspektif arsitektur, 9(1), 37-47. therik, a. g.. (2021). tenun timor memberdayakan perempuan tolfe’u sebagai konseling imajinatif. pute waya: sociology of religion journal, 2(1), 63-78. https://doi.org/10.51667/pwjsa.v2i1. 618 timo, e. n. (2002). menenun sebagai sebuah karya teologi. pos kupang. wahyu. (2005, october 1). penguatan kearifan sungai: kasus banjarmasin. a paper presented at a sumbangan ilmu-ilmu sosial dalam penguatan budaya lokal (contributions of social sciences to strengthening local culture) seminar. banjarmasin: unliversitas lambung mangkurat. https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=view_citation&hl=id&user=bx940ruaaaaj&citation_for_view=bx940ruaaaaj:d1gkvwhdpl0c https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=view_citation&hl=id&user=bx940ruaaaaj&citation_for_view=bx940ruaaaaj:d1gkvwhdpl0c https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=view_citation&hl=id&user=bx940ruaaaaj&citation_for_view=bx940ruaaaaj:d1gkvwhdpl0c https://scholar.google.co.id/citations?view_op=view_citation&hl=id&user=q9xsdmmaaaaj&citation_for_view=q9xsdmmaaaaj:nagl4sejco4c https://scholar.google.co.id/citations?view_op=view_citation&hl=id&user=q9xsdmmaaaaj&citation_for_view=q9xsdmmaaaaj:nagl4sejco4c https://doi.org/10.22146/jf.33910 https://doi.org/10.22146/jf.33910 https://doi.org/10.1080/02508281.2015.1049814 https://doi.org/10.1080/02508281.2015.1049814 salasika indonesian journal of gender, women, child, and social inclusion's studies volume 1, number 2 – july 2018 table of content gender and ict usage: self-assessment of critical issues facing indonesia-thai gen y students' future by 2030 leslie retno angeningsih & bangon sirisunyaluck 75 sekar jagad art studio as an agent of citizens’s diplomacy (study of women’s participation in intercultural relations) setyasih harini 93 “aliansi laki-laki baru”: the role of social media in promoting gender equality in indonesia eni maryani, preciosa alnashava j, & detta rahmawan 107 standardized certification for indonesian female migrant workers: towards qualified domestic workers kiki zakiah & chairiawaty 123 pragmatics competence of preschool age children eti setiawati & putri kumala dewi 135 chief editors dr. ir. arianti ina restiani hunga, m.si. (scopus id: 46161114400; google scholar); dr. phil. dewi candraningrum. (google scholar). executive editors indriretno setyaningrahayu, m.pd. (google scholar); daniel kurniawan, m.pd. (google scholar); andi misbahul pratiwi, m.si. (google scholar). board of editors prof. claudia derichs (scopus id: 14026487800). humboldt universität zu berlin, germany; assoc. prof. dr. ida sabelis (scopus id: 6507181398). vrije universiteit (vu) amsterdam, the netherlands; prof. siti kusujiarti.ma. (scopus id: 56276925900). warren wilson college, usa; dr. ratna saptari (scopus id: 6504610910). leiden university; prof. sylvia tiwon (scopus id: 6506468591). university of california; prof. dr. emy susanti, ma. (google scholar). airlangga university; prof. dr. ir. keppi sukesi, ms. (scopus id: 56025803300). brawijaya university; dr. kristi poerwandari, ma. (scopus id: 25628305200). university of indonesia; prof. dr. willemijn de jong (scopus id: 55258294800). university of zurich, switzerland; prof. lyn parker (scopus id: 56273266700). the university of western australia. reviewers prof. lyn parker (scoups id: 56273266700). university of western australia, perth, australia; dr. elisabet titik murtisari (scopus id: 38161752200; google scholar). satya wacana christian university; dr. wening udasmoro (scopus id: 56493135600; google scholar). gadjah mada university; dr. phil. farah purwaningrum (scopus id: 57205254451; google scholar). the university of sydney & rahayu and partners in association with hfw; alimatul qibtiyah, m.si. ma. ph.d. (scopus & google scholar). sunan kalijaga state islamic university; dr. tyas retno wulan, m.si. (scopus & google scholar). the jenderal soedirman university; dr. titik sumarti, msi. (scopus & google scholar). bogor agricultural university; prof. dr. mien ratoe oedjoe, mpd. (google scholar). the university of nusa cendana, kupang; j. casey hammond, phd. (scopus & google scholar). singapore university of technology and design; dr. phil. ratna noviani (google scholar). gadjah mada university; dr. rina herlina haryanti (google scholar). sebelas maret university; dr. ida ruwaida noor (google scholar). university of indonesia; dr. nurjanah, sp.m.pd. (google scholar). state university of jakarta; dr. ir. evi feronika elbaar, m.si. (google scholar). the university of palangka raya; dr. jendrius m.si. (google scholar). andalas university; dr. grace jenny soputan, se. (google scholar). manado state university; dr. anis farida, s.sos., sh., m.si. (scopus & google scholar). sunan ampel state islamic university surabaya; ira desiaanti mangiliko, s.si,.ph.d. (google scholar). the artha wacana christian university. standardized certification for indonesian female migrant workers: … (kiki zakiah & chairiawaty) 123 standardized certification for indonesian female migrant workers: towards qualified domestic workers kiki zakiah & chairiawaty journalism study program, bandung islamic university & islamic communication, bandung islamic university kikizakiahdarmawan@gmail.com abstract this research focused on how migrant workers empower themselves in terms of knowledge, skill, and character building through certified programs given by labor training center. the research problems can be identified as follows: (1) to what extent can the certified programs given by labor training center upgrade migrant worker’s knowledge, (2) to what extent can the certified programs given by labor training center increase migrant worker’s skill, and (3) to what extent can the certified programs given by labor training center improve migrant workers’ character. the objectives of the research are: (1) to find out the map of the knowledge development of migrant workers taking the certified programs in labor training center; (2) to know the improvement of migrant workers’ skill s, and (3) to find out the improvement of migrant workers’ characters. the research used descriptive qualitative method. the data were gathered from previous research, in form of journals, documents and participant observation. from the data gathered, it was found out that the initiation programs organized by labor training center was the dissemination of information about working abroad. this was aimed to give information to those who wanted to work outside indonesia legally, securely, and appropriately, and to give information on opportunities to find some jobs overseas along with the advantages and disadvantages. this is one way to prepare indonesian migrant workers to be ready to work outside indonesia. this means that migrant workers are given some knowledge to be well-prepared workers. the findings of the research showed that the knowledge of the migrant workers increased after they took part in the programs conducted by labor training center. they knew that they needed to have legal contract when they worked overseas so that they could work safely, securely and appropriately. they would not be kicked out form a certain country any more. in terms of skill, the migrant workers could increase their social and technology skill to equip them to work overseas, whereas in terms of character building, the migrant workers could have positive mind and strong confidence to work overseas. keywords: empowerment, knowledge, skill, character, migrant workers, certified program mailto:kikizakiahdarmawan@gmail.com salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 1 no. 2, july 2018 124 introduction indonesia is the country sending the highest number of female migrant workers among eleven countries in the world, as can be seen in table 1. table 1 10 countries with the highest placement from 1 january 2016 to 31 july 2016 no host countries male female total number informal formal informal formal informal formal 1 taiwan 28 1.555 11.166 397 11.194 1.952 2 malaysia 4 809 2.487 1.080 2.491 1.889 3 saudi arabia 80 1.784 973 871 1.053 2.655 4 singapura 1 0 3.092 8 3 8 5 hong kong 1 0 1.427 0 093 0 6 brunei darussalam 14 489 392 118 1.428 607 7 united emirate arab (uea) 11 30 678 269 406 299 8 oman 1 7 350 2 689 9 9 kuwait 0 11 10 273 351 284 10 6 23 219 9 10 32 11 total 146 4.708 20.794 3.027 20.940 7.735 the huge number of indonesian female migrant workers taking jobs in informal sector is due to the fact that indonesian migrant workers have no competitiveness in labor markets. according to eny haryati and janess eudes wawa (2005), indonesian migrant workers are relatively unqualified as shown by these indicators: (1) lack of knowledge and skill needed in job types; (2) lack of strong personality that makes them unable to be self-standing; (3) insufficient knowledge of laws and rules, at least laws on and rules of their position as migrant workers; (4) lack of understanding of the culture where they work; (5) inability to use technology to support their work supporting device and information access; and (6) lack of language used with their partners, etc. with focus on standardized certification for indonesian female migrant workers to prepare qualified domestic workers, this research is aimed to: (1) find out the map of knowledge development of migrant workers participating in certification programs organized by center of work training; (2) know the migrant workers’ skill improvement; and (3) find out personal character improvement of the migrant workers . the research result of muna siva ananda et al. entitled “the capacity improvement of indonesian human resources in mea” showed that the problematic situation of indonesian domestic workers was caused by indonesian government’s lack of attention to the protection and placement of indonesian domestic workers in malaysia. therefore, indonesian domestic workers are required to enrich their competencies and skills to meet standardized job competencies for domestic workers. the main problem frequently found among domestic workers is their inability or incompetence in employer’s house. this indicates the low level of competency of indonesian domestic workers. in the future, indonesian government needs to put up concise rules and regulations to make job certificate as one of the standardized certification for indonesian female migrant workers: … (kiki zakiah & chairiawaty) 125 requirements for migrant workers to work abroad. the research of muna silva ananda et al. offers the house model, a model to improve the competitiveness of indonesian domestic workers for five years ahead (2016-2021). this becomes the vision described to achieve work performance target. there are four main factors in improving competitiveness: human resource quality, individual competence, government policy, and market demand. supporting actions used as operational strategies are escalating the relevance of central government’s authority, improving domestic workers’ individual reputation, and establishing cooperation, which is needed to plan the vision for 5 years ahead, between government and worker agency. to facilitate workers’ competencies to be skilled workers, especially in facing asian economic community, some efforts need to be made, those efforts are: 1) government must be completely clear in determining policies connected with domestic workers, 2) execution of the program must be directive and the implementation must be in accordance with the instruction of the minister of manpower of republic of indonesia, 3) the institution for professional certifications must focus more on improving the competence of migrant worker candidates. the allotment of the competency certification is required to get through the process of competency assessment, which will be the requirement for migrant workers to work abroad, 4) future research needs to conduct evaluation to formulate determined strategy to improve the competencies of indonesian domestic workers to work in malaysia. this research presented the map of knowledge development, skill improvement, and the improvement of personal character of migrant workers participating in the certification programs organized by center of work training. indonesian migrant worker candidates have positive selfperception of migrant workers. however, the work quality of indonesian migrant workers in informal sector is in fact still unsatisfactory. realizing those problems, government facilitates trainings for labors who are going abroad to develop competencies and expand opportunities to get jobs. the trainings were offered for 21 days with competency and non – competency materials. the competencies consist of occupational health and safety, language of the host country, information technology, social culture of the host country, and communication technique. meanwhile, the non-competency materials consist of achievement motivation and financial management training (union migrant indonesia, 2016). those trainings were the solutions to the low qualification of migrant workers’ skill that was in line with their formal education and the high rate of dropouts that had to get into job market. the trainings were followed up by competency test. using documentary method, which are the published results of some research concerning salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 1 no. 2, july 2018 126 indonesian migrant workers conducted by both students and lecturers, the research intensely and comprehensively studied how the empowerment programs conducted by government could improve the quality of indonesian female migrant workers. besides, the published research used were the rules related to indonesian migrant workers, data of indonesian migrant workers published by survey institutions, and data from communities that cared about indonesian migrant workers. the map of knowledge development of migrant workers participating in certification programs prospective migrant workers have positive perceptions of migrant workers, whereas the quality of indonesian migrant workers in the informal sector is poor. suparno et al.’s (2012) study of the perception of prospective workers working abroad shows a public’s strong impression that working abroad is easy with relatively high wages. the study also reports that success stories of postemployment overseas workers have shaped the perception that working overseas can change fate and lead to a more successful life than working inside the country. these perceptions stimulate prospective personnel to strive to be employed abroad without thinking and preparing themselves to be qualified migrant workers with certain competencies proven by certificates. the certificates of competence also have legal power associated with the rights and obligations of migrant workers and employers. concerning migrant worker cases, the data at the end of 2014 showed 1,503 cases of rights violations experienced by domestic workers (domestic servants) overseas, such as unpaid wages, exploitation, and physical, psychological and sexual violence. these forms of violations were often experienced by migrant domestic workers, especially in middle eastern countries, such as saudi arabia. among 281 people threatened with death penalty in 2015, 59 were sentenced to death, 219 were waiting for the process and 2 people, siti zaenab and karni, were executed. the deadly execution of two migrant domestic workers in saudi arabia eventually prompted government of indonesia to re-issue a moratorium policy the unpreparedness of migrant workers in terms of knowledge and skills breeds national problems and affects the bilateral relations between indonesian government and governments of the host countries. prospective migrant workers do not know that working abroad is not only their personal affairs, but also the affairs of the sending and host countries. indonesian government, through a diplomatic representative, must be responsible for and solve the problems related to indonesian workers. according to mike verawati's report (migrant care, 2017) the moratorium policy that is aimed at reviewing the sending of migrant workers to a country as a safeguard, has not been effective. this is due to the weak supervision and government's initial commitment to protect and improve the fate of migrant workers. termination of standardized certification for indonesian female migrant workers: … (kiki zakiah & chairiawaty) 127 migrant worker shipments, especially migrant domestic workers shipment to 21 countries in the middle east, came into force on 1 july 2015 through the decree of the minister of manpower no. 260 of 2015. previously, government had also issued a similar moratorium for malaysia (2009) and saudi arabia (2011) due to the large number of cases of violence experienced by migrant workers. it can be concluded that moratorium was issued to protect migrant workers in countries that are often problematic and degrading humanity and indonesia’s dignity. migrant care research on female migrant worker’s communication access found that after the moratorium was enacted, there were still many female migrant domestic workers who went to middle east countries to work. from march 2015 to may 2016, the research team conducted an interview process at soekarno hatta airport. from 2,644 domestic workers (housemaids) interviewed, it was found that 1,020 migrant domestic workers were of new departure status and 1,624 were migrant domestic workers with reentry or re-employed status. the largest destination countries were saudi arabia, united arab emirates, bahrain, oman, qatar, kuwait, and malaysia. prospective domestic migrant workers’ lack of knowledge about working abroad and social culture of the destination country is related to their formal education. singgih susilo's study of the revenue and spreading rate of indonesian workers based on destination country showed that indonesian workers with primary education preferred saudi arabia as the destination country. meanwhile, those who were junior high school graduates chose taiwan, hong kong, and high school graduates chose to work in korea. the choice of destination country shows the revenue they earn. education breeds bargaining power to earn income by selecting the destination country. compared to taiwan and saudi arabia, korea gives the highest payment to migrant workers. education demonstrates one’s knowledge. wilbur schramm in jalaluddin rakhmat (2009, p. 223) describes information as everything "which reduces uncertainty or reduces the number of possible alternatives in situations". this means that the higher migrant domestic workers’ knowledge about their work and social culture of the destination country is, the lower is their uncertainty about them. migrant domestic workers’ knowledge about their work and social culture of the destination country has structured or organized reality. the reality of work and everything related to it appears as a meaningful picture. the picture of reality is called image. image is migrant workers’ picture of jobs. without an image, they will always be in an uncertain mood. image is the world according to people’s perception. walter lippman in rakhmat (2009, p. 223) mentions image as a picture in people’s minds. knowledge can cause prosocial effects. one of the prosocial behaviors is to have skills that benefit both oneself and others. such skills are usually obtained from formal education or training as a medium that performs skill internalization and externalization. salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 1 no. 2, july 2018 128 sri sunarti’s research (2016) states that graduates’ achievement of competency test continues increasing. this means that prospective migrant workers are aware of the importance of following competency test. respondents gave positive responses to the implementation of competency test. this was because prospective migrant workers mastered exam materials, so prospective workers could answer the test questions properly. graduation percentage of competency test was good as it reached above 90 % per month although in august 2013 the graduation rate was below 90%. it meant that the training given was in line with the tested materials and that more prospective migrant workers were declared competent after competency test. education and training program followed by prospective domestic workers must be followed up with competency test. competency certificates will be issued by formal indonesian government institutions, bnsp (national agency for professional certification). larasati budiyani’s study (2014) entitled the role of lpk in improving the quality and accessibility of migrant workers in cilacap regency figured out that prospective indonesian workers must have a competency certificate. this relates to the quality of human resources that refers to knowledge, skills and abilities, loyalty, discipline, cooperation and responsibility. based on that, the training conducted by labor training center does not only improve knowledge and skill, but also discipline, cooperation and responsibility. improving the skills of migrant workers by taking certification programs. indonesian government facilitates training for prospective workers who will work abroad to boost their competence and expand work opportunities. government facilitates the workers with competency and non-competency units in 21 days of training. the competency training includes occupational safety and health, destination country language, information technology, destination country’s social culture, and communication techniques. meanwhile, the non-competency training includes achievement motivation and financial management (union migrant indonesia, 2016). the training is conducted as a solution to the low skill qualification that is in line with formal education level and the dropouts who are forced to get into job market. the training is followed by competency test. comprehensive education and training for migrant workers before being sent to destination countries is very important. this is due to permenakertrans no per.23 / men / ix / 2009 on education and job training for prospective indonesian workers. to prevent abuse, since may 1, 2012, the education and training program has used online system in every management activity of migrant workers. government regulation no. 4 of 2013 article 12 15 regulates the selection of indonesian migrant workers that specifies the provision of a competency test without explaining the need for a standardized certification for indonesian female migrant workers: … (kiki zakiah & chairiawaty) 129 professional certificate ownership. the institutions that assesses migrant workers’ competence before employment is profession certification bodies (lsp) supervised by national agency for certification of professions (bnsp). if the workers do not meet the required competency standard, they cannot be sent abroad. supervision of job training center, which provides education and training for prospective migrant workers, is the authority of the board of migrant workers. if there are training institutions that do not comply with applicable regulations, they may be closed. the competency test conducted by institution for standardized certification for the profession of domestic workers consists of several competency test units. prospective domestic workers must graduate from each unit of competence. the graduates are then recommended to get a certificate by the institution to national board of profession certification. research conducted by muna siva ananda, et al. (n.d.) stated that the increase of indonesian manpower competence was a very important governmental task because superior and competent human resources was one of the main factors that would make indonesia win the opportunity of globalization, such as the asean economic community (mea). in addition, indonesia's good infrastructure, connectivity and governance were also critical factors. mea does not open the market for unskilled labor, so every individual is expected to always upgrade his/her ability. human beings will always learn from others. the way human beings understand a thing can be seen from the theory of social learning. in social learning and clinical psychology (1954), julian rotter states that behavior effect can affect a person's motivation to do the same. individuals tend to avoid something that give negative impacts and to pursue positive results. if one expects a positive outcome of a behavior, or thinks that there is a possibility of getting a positive reward, he/she is likely to behave in that particular way. this behavior is reinforced, with positive output, making individuals tend to repeat the behavior to get reward. the process of improving the skills of migrant workers by taking certified programs can be done with the high frequency of practices and observations on housemaid model, which shows a high quality of work. psychological theories help explain prosocial effects. education and training are bandura’s social learning theory. according to bandura, we learn not only from direct experience, but also from imitation or modeling. behavior is the result of cognitive and environmental factors. that is, we are able to have certain skills when there is a positive relationship between the models we observe and our own characteristics. the education and training program offered to prospective domestic migrant workers is important in showing successful migrant domestic worker models. these models can be used as ideal behavior references for prospective domestic migrant workers. prospective domestic migrant workers learn to practice with the model. social learning theory salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 1 no. 2, july 2018 130 explains that human beings learn by observing others. this theory is based on the fact that human knowledge is derived from other human beings. in other words, what we know is based on the explanations and facts that others give to us. improving the character of migrant workers attending employment training center program. research conducted by abdul zahir, andi srirahayu and baso ali showed that students’ character developed in terms of trustworthiness (93%), respect (87%), fairness (83%), care (88%), sincerity (honesty) (88%), courage (93%), diligence (93%), team work (93%), and integrity (93%). other studies showed that character education could be fostered through fieldwork experience. sidiq triwibowo’s thesis (n.d.) showed that there was a positive influence of character education on work readiness of grade xii students of engineering study program of smk negeri 1 seyegan. both studies show that character education in prospective domestic workers can be grown through fieldwork experience. character education conducted through fieldwork experience exposes prospective domestic workers to the workplace. work environment requires domestic workers to uphold honesty, responsibility, discipline, a high curiosity about something new, more effective and efficient way of working, and good communication skill. fieldwork experience that can be offered to prospective domestic workers is to place them in expatriate families coming from countries the workers want to work in. however, fieldwork experience should also be able to find solutions to obstacles in technical internships. the research conducted by villy eriza putri, arbaiyah prantiasih, and a. rosyid al atok (n.d.) reported several barriers to character education in the implementation of fieldwork experience. first, students were lack of discipline. another obstacle was that students objected to the given responsibility because it was a great mandate to be properly implemented to achieve maximum results. there were students who objected to hard work. second, the supervisor found it difficult to instill the character that should be implemented in fieldwork experience. the efforts made to minimize these obstacles were to familiarize students with the workplace and discipline habit that must be implanted. in addition, to familiarize themselves with the company’s discipline required hard work, such as to throw away laziness. when they got used to it, they would become normal and feel no objection. similarly, in carrying out the responsibility, they must learn to be responsible in terms of being open-minded about criticism. open -mindedness also reflects honesty in a person. the practice also reflects prospective domestic workers when they are doing observational study. this means that an individual develops his/her knowledge by observing others. prospective domestic workers will recognize others’ behavior, adjust it for themselves, and imitate the behavior in society. everything they know comes from people’s behavior around them. prospective domestic standardized certification for indonesian female migrant workers: … (kiki zakiah & chairiawaty) 131 workers can reinforce or weaken a behavior by referring to the response given by people at the workplace. character education is not just an understanding of the character of job but the practice to grow and develop a good character at work. conclusion the map of knowledge development of migrant workers participating in certification programs prospective workers’ perception of working abroad demonstrates the strong impression that working abroad is easy with relatively high wages. the success stories of indonesian workers overseas have shaped community’s perception that working overseas will change their destiny and lead to a more successful life than working inside the country. these perceptions stimulate prospective workers to strive to be employed abroad without thinking and preparing themselves to be qualified migrant workers with certain competencies proven by certificates. the certificates of competence also have legal power associated with the rights and obligations of migrant workers and employers. education level of prospective domestic workers reflects their knowledge. the higher migrant domestic workers’ knowledge of the destination country is, the lower is their uncertainty about them. migrant domestic workers’ knowledge of their work and the social culture of the destination country has structured or organized reality. the reality of work and everything related to it appears as a meaningful picture. the picture of reality is called image. image is migrant workers’ picture of jobs. without an image, they will always be in an uncertain mood. image is the world according to one’s perception. knowledge can cause prosocial effects. one of the prosocial behaviors is to have skills that benefit both oneself and others. such skills are usually obtained from formal education or training as a medium that performs skill internalization and externalization. the prospective indonesian migrant workers are required to have competency certificate. this relates to the quality of human resources that refers to knowledge, skills and abilities, loyalty, discipline, cooperation and responsibility. based on this, the training conducted by labor training center does not only improve quality but also the requirement for migrant workers to be employed. the process that mostly requires various parties’ contribution is the preplacement process of prospective migrant workers. the pre-placement process is the first step in determining migrant workers’ accessibility and is highly vulnerable to possible violations of prospective migrant workers’ rights. in addition, the work of sending labor abroad also requires other actors to create protection for migrant workers during pre-placement, placement and post-placement periods. pre-placement is a very important period. in this phase, prospective domestic workers’ cognitive ability, attitudes and skills are prepared so that they are truly competent in their profession as domestic workers. in addition to salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 1 no. 2, july 2018 132 demonstrating migrant workers’ competence, competency certificates also have power over workers’ rights. competency certificates also connect them with their profession agencies that link them with other workers and employers as clients. clients do not only deal with domestic workers but also law of their professional institution. graduates’ achievement of competency test continues to increase. this means that prospective migrant workers are aware of the importance of following competency test. the training provided by pt.af as one of labor training centers was in line with the tested materials, so more prospective workers were declared competent after competency test. education and training program followed by prospective domestic workers must include competency test. competency test as a series of candidate activities will result in competency certificates issued by national agency for professional certification. improving the skills of migrant workers by taking certification programs. the 21 daytraining facilitated by labor training center consists of competency and non-competency units. the competency training includes occupational safety and health, destination country language, information technology, destination country’s social culture, and communication techniques. meanwhile, the non-competency training includes achievement motivation and financial management. the legal basis of the implementation of education and job training for prospective migrant workers is permenakertrans no per.23 / men / ix / 2009. government regulation no. 4 of 2013, article 12 15 regulates the selection of indonesian migrant workers. the institution that assesses migrant workers’ competence before employment is profession certification bodies (lsp) supervised by national agency for certification of professions (bnsp). the competency test conducted by profession certification institution for the profession of domestic workers consists of several competency test snits. prospective domestic workers must graduate from each unit of competencies. the graduates are then recommended to get certificate by profession certification institution to bnsp. superior and competent human resources are the main factors that will make indonesia win the opportunity of globalization, such as asean economic community (mea). in addition, indonesia's good infrastructure, connectivity and governance are also critical factors. mea does not open the market for unskilled labor, so every individual is expected to always upgrade his/her ability. the process of improving the skills of migrant workers by taking certification programs can be done with the high frequency of practices and observations on housemaid model which shows a high quality of work. psychological theories help explain prosocial effects. education and training is bandura’s social learning theory. according to bandura, human beings learn not only from direct experience, but also from imitation or modeling. the education and training program http://pt.af/ standardized certification for indonesian female migrant workers: … (kiki zakiah & chairiawaty) 133 offered to prospective migrant domestic workers is important in showing successful migrant domestic worker models. these models can be used as ideal behavior references for prospective domestic migrant workers. prospective domestic migrant workers learn to practice with the model. improving the character of migrant workers attending employment training center program. prospective domestic workers’ character education can be done through fieldwork experience. character education conducted through fieldwork experience exposes prospective domestic workers to the workplace. work environment requires domestic workers to uphold honesty, responsibility, discipline, a high curiosity about something new, more effective and efficient way of working, and good communication skill. fieldwork experience that can be offered to prospective domestic workers is to place them in expatriate families coming from countries the workers want to work in. however, fieldwork experience should also be able to find solutions to obstacles in technical internships. the fieldwork experience reflects the observational study undergone by prospective domestic workers. this means that an individual develops his/her knowledge by observing others. prospective domestic workers will recognize others’ behavior, adjust it to themselves, and imitate the behavior in society. everything they know comes from people’s behavior around them. prospective domestic workers can reinforce or weaken a behavior by referring to the response given by people at the workplace. character education is not just an understanding of the character of job but the practice to grow and develop a good character at work. references bptki–disnakertrans jawa barat. (n.d.). balai pelayanan terpadu dinas tenaga kerja dan transmigrasiprovinsi jawa barat. retrieved from http://bptkit.disnakertrans.jabarpr ov.go.id/index.php/slide/index/16 budiyani, larasati. (2016). peranan lembaga pelatihan kerja dalam meningkatkan kualitas dan aksesibilitas buruh migran di kabupaten cilacap. retrieved from http://etd.repository.ugm.ac.id/ind ex.php?act=view&buku_id=96576 &mod=penelitian_detail&sub=pen elitiandetail&typ=html haryati, eny & eudes, w., jannes,. (2005). ironi pahlawan devisa. jakarta: penerbit buku kompas. rakhmat, jalaluddin. (2009). psikologi komunikasi. bandung: remaja rosdakarya. sunarti, sri. (2016). pelaksanaan pelatihan dan pencapaian uji kompetensi penata laksana rumah tangga yang akan bekerja di luar negeri: studi kasus pada pt. arni family. retrieved from http://repository.unika.ac.id/11834/ 1/10.90.0019%20sri%20sunarti%20 cover.pdf http://etd.repository.ugm.ac.id/index.php?act=view&buku_id=96576&mod=penelitian_detail&sub=penelitiandetail&typ=html http://etd.repository.ugm.ac.id/index.php?act=view&buku_id=96576&mod=penelitian_detail&sub=penelitiandetail&typ=html http://etd.repository.ugm.ac.id/index.php?act=view&buku_id=96576&mod=penelitian_detail&sub=penelitiandetail&typ=html http://etd.repository.ugm.ac.id/index.php?act=view&buku_id=96576&mod=penelitian_detail&sub=penelitiandetail&typ=html http://repository.unika.ac.id/11834/1/10.90.0019%20sri%20sunarti%20cover.pdf http://repository.unika.ac.id/11834/1/10.90.0019%20sri%20sunarti%20cover.pdf http://repository.unika.ac.id/11834/1/10.90.0019%20sri%20sunarti%20cover.pdf salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 1 no. 2, july 2018 134 0102_00a_cover.pdf 0102_00b_toc.pdf 0102_04_zakiah.pdf 0102_10_backcover.pdf salasika indonesian journal of gender, women, child, and social inclusion's studies volume 1, number 1 – february 2018 table of content a road to the recognition of home-workers: transformation of pos production modes and roles of home-workers in batik industry in central java: case study in cluster batik in central java arianti ina r. hunga 1 advancing women’s digital skills and economic empowerment through girls in tech indonesia: a case study isyfi’afiani 21 women and batik conservation on muria slopes: a study of female batik crafters in kudus zaimatus sa’diyah 33 against ahok: an analysis of emotion-driven movements and network power in jakarta’s 2017 gubernatorial election subekti w. priyadharma 43 women’s circle approach is an alternative path for gender responsive public procurement system in indonesia sartiah yusran, eliyanti agus mokodompit, & ulfa matoka 59 chief editors dr. ir. arianti ina restiani hunga, m.si. (scopus id: 46161114400; google scholar); dr. phil. dewi candraningrum. (google scholar). executive editors indriretno setyaningrahayu, m.pd. (google scholar); daniel kurniawan, m.pd. (google scholar); andi misbahul pratiwi, m.si. (google scholar). board of editors prof. claudia derichs (scopus id: 14026487800). humboldt universität zu berlin, germany; assoc. prof. dr. ida sabelis (scopus id: 6507181398). vrije universiteit (vu) amsterdam, the netherlands; prof. siti kusujiarti.ma. (scopus id: 56276925900). warren wilson college, usa; dr. ratna saptari (scopus id: 6504610910). leiden university; prof. sylvia tiwon (scopus id: 6506468591). university of california; prof. dr. emy susanti, ma. (google scholar). airlangga university; prof. dr. ir. keppi sukesi, ms. (scopus id: 56025803300). brawijaya university; dr. kristi poerwandari, ma. (scopus id: 25628305200). university of indonesia; prof. dr. willemijn de jong (scopus id: 55258294800). university of zurich, switzerland; prof. lyn parker (scopus id: 56273266700). the university of western australia. reviewers prof. lyn parker (scoups id: 56273266700). university of western australia, perth, australia; dr. elisabet titik murtisari (scopus id: 38161752200; google scholar). satya wacana christian university; dr. wening udasmoro (scopus id: 56493135600; google scholar). gadjah mada university; dr. phil. farah purwaningrum (scopus id: 57205254451; google scholar). the university of sydney & rahayu and partners in association with hfw; alimatul qibtiyah, m.si. ma. ph.d. (scopus & google scholar). sunan kalijaga state islamic university; dr. tyas retno wulan, m.si. (scopus & google scholar). the jenderal soedirman university; dr. titik sumarti, msi. (scopus & google scholar). bogor agricultural university; prof. dr. mien ratoe oedjoe, mpd. (google scholar). the university of nusa cendana, kupang; j. casey hammond, phd. (scopus & google scholar). singapore university of technology and design; dr. phil. ratna noviani (google scholar). gadjah mada university; dr. rina herlina haryanti (google scholar). sebelas maret university; dr. ida ruwaida noor (google scholar). university of indonesia; dr. nurjanah, sp.m.pd. (google scholar). state university of jakarta; dr. ir. evi feronika elbaar, m.si. (google scholar). the university of palangka raya; dr. jendrius m.si. (google scholar). andalas university; dr. grace jenny soputan, se. (google scholar). manado state university; dr. anis farida, s.sos., sh., m.si. (scopus & google scholar). sunan ampel state islamic university surabaya; ira desiaanti mangiliko, s.si,.ph.d. (google scholar). the artha wacana christian university. advancing women’s digital skills and economic empowerment … (isyfi’afiani) 21 advancing women’s digital skills and economic empowerment through girls in tech indonesia: a case study isyfi’afiani school of government and public policy indonesia, sentul afiani.isyfi@sgpp.ac.id abstract the advancing information and communication technology (ict) has massively supported the economy in the digital era as it disseminates, stores, brings added value and manages information to provide unlimited opportunities for economic development. however, ict may contribute to discrimination and existing inequalities reinforcement so-called the digital divide. since all aspects of human interaction with ict are gendered, this study tackles the digital gender divide issue, that is, the gap between men and women regarding access to, content and use of ict. accordingly, in 2016, the gender gap of global internet users was 12% and it grows every year. in response to this condition, a global movement promoting women engagement in ict has emerged. this study, therefore, depicts the role of girls in tech indonesia community as a chapter of global girls in tech movement in advancing women economic empowerment through ict by implementing transformational leadership concepts and longwe’s empowerment framework. in the core of qualitative studies, this study shows that girls in tech indonesia’s leadership performance contributes positively to women empowerment. keywords: girls in tech, ict, leadership, empowerment introduction information and communication technology (ict) is a diverse set of technological tools and resources that creates, disseminates, stores, brings added value and manages information. the basic components of the ict sector are telecommunications, television and radio broadcasting, computer hardware, software and services and electronic media as well as the internet and mobile phone. ict stimulates economic growth via information technology (it) as it enables services, especially in the interconnected world. it, however, does not only provide direct and indirect benefits but also plays a role as a catalyst for economic growth through various networks including microfinance, micro-enterprises and manufacture (unifem, 2003). on the other side, ict may also contribute to discrimination and existing inequalities reinforcement so-called the digital divide. the digital divide is defined as who gets the benefit and shapes the content, development and use of information and communication technology (ict). in a broader mailto:afiani.isyfi@sgpp.ac.id salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 1 no. 1, february 2018 22 meaning, the digital divide is several gaps in one package. first, there is technological divide, which refers to the gaps in infrastructure. second, content divide refers to web-based information that is simply not relevant to the real needs of people, as nearly 70 percent of the world’s websites are in english. and the last one is gender divide; it is the fact that women and girls have less access to information technology than men and boys (anan, 2003). since all aspects of human interaction with ict are gendered, it is challenging to discuss the digital gender gap between men and women regarding access to, content and use of ict. international telecommunication union (itu) reported 12% global internet user gender gap –the difference between internet user penetration rates for males and females relative to internet user penetration rate for males— with 39.5% internet penetration rate for women and 46.1% for men in asia (itu, 2016). in indonesia, apjii (2006) reported (indonesia internet service provider association) that in the past two years, the internet penetration rate for women was 48% and for men was 52%. this trend shows that there is less women’s engagement in ict than in men. accordingly, the digital gender gap is mainly caused by the cultural divide in a patriarchal society. the world bank (2016) reported that women and men’s access to ict is rooted in behavioral, cultural, and religious traditions. some of them are: (1) cultural and social attitudes are often unfavorable to women‘s participation in the fields of science and technology, which limits their opportunities in the area of ict; (2) women are often financially dependent on men or do not have control over economic resources, which makes accessing ict services more difficult; (3) allocation of resources for education and training often favors boys and men; (4) in some societies, women‘s seclusion from the public arena makes access to community telecenters difficult. this condition then results in structural inequalities of literacy, education, employment and income level that contribute to gender inequality and the digital gender gap (itu, 2016). filling the digital gender gap is, somehow, a pressing concern. it is not just about a moral imperative but also a significant opportunity for growth in today’s digital economy and an essential pathway for united nations’ sustainable development goal (2005) no. 5: to “achieve gender equality and empower all girls and women” to progress. therefore, the efforts should lie on education, and promotion of girls’ increased engagement in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (stem) subjects. governments and enterprises also need to be more proactive in helping women thrive in the ict workforce (itu, 2016). to do that, global movements promoting women’s engagement in ict have emerged to counter the solid bias. girls in tech is one of them. known as a global movement to empower women in ict, girls in tech has raised 60 chapters all around the world including girls in tech indonesia (git-id) as a national level community that empowers and creates more woman leaders in ict. this study, therefore, reveals the role of girls in tech indonesia in advancing women’s digital skills and economic empowerment … (isyfi’afiani) 23 advancing woman’s economic empowerment by engaging them with ict through its annual program, womenpreneur digital acceleration. in doing so, the study adopts contemporary leadership concept that specifically refers to transformational leadership to examine girls in tech indonesia’s leadership performance and longwe’s empowerment framework to weigh up girl in tech indonesia’s leadership performance’s impact on women empowerment. methods conducting a case study of girls in tech indonesia community, this study is qualitative research. this study involves two groups of informants; the leaders/initiators and members/participants of girls in tech indonesia. the data was collected through in-depth interviews with selected informants. in selecting the informants, the researcher involved two groups. the first group was girls in tech members consisting of five informants with the following criteria: 1. woman, 2. 19 – 35 years old, 3. has experience in girls in tech indonesia‘s empowerment program: coaching classes, mentor dinners and startup competition, and 4. owns a startup business/digital platform. the second group was girls in tech indonesia’s leaders/initiators: aulia halimatussadiah/ollie (cofounder & chief content officer of zetta media) and anantya van bronckhorst/anan (cofounder & co-ceo of think.web). girls in tech indonesia girls in tech is a global organization initiated by andrea gascoigne in 2007 aiming to give space for women to develop their ideas and careers, as well as to learn new things related to technology. girls in tech provides several activities such as lady pitch night, catalyst conference, coding and design bootcamps, hackathons, xchange, global classroom and git work to empower, educate, engage and empower women in digital tech. nowadays, girls in tech has 60 chapters all over the world including indonesia—girls in tech indonesia. in line with global girls in tech, girls in tech indonesia is a community that aims to empower, educate and engage women and girls who are passionate about ict. girls in tech indonesia was initiated in 2011 by aulia halimatussadiah (cofounder & chief content officer of zetta media), anantya van bronckhorst (co-founder & co-ceo of think.web) and rya aryanie (managing director of talk link). girls in tech indonesia is a nonprofit organization funded by some donors including facebook. girls in tech indonesia has some efforts in increasing women’s participation in ict through its program, womenpreneur digital acceleration (wda). this program is designed for women who have digital platforms for business. wda focuses on maximizing the use of digital technology for women’s business by providing seven classes, mentoring dinner and pitch night within a year. salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 1 no. 1, february 2018 24 1. wda classes wda classes are seven combined classes held every week for two months to coach approximately 50 women to get closer to digital literacy concerning digital marketing knowledge to help them induce their business. the selected women who have already had digital platforms are coached to maximize their platforms by equipping them with knowledge about finance, market promotion and leadership through these following classes: a. digital presence for business b. winning with social content c. finance 101 for small medium business d. social engagement that matters e. think big: optimize your business f. understanding your leadership style g. promo to the right market the seven coaching classes help leaders improve participants’ self awareness and self – management by learning through direct practice. this enables them to make better decisions for themselves and their organizations as well as their business in facing uncertainty since the coaching process allows women to be better at interpersonal, communicating, delegating, time management, emotional self -management, or other soft skills offered by the thematic coaching series given. for instance, with the coach’s help on how to set up social media advertising i.e. instagram and facebook ads (promo to the right market), some feedback loops are created after trying out new creations. it is followed by feedback and reflection and try new creations again to improve the effectiveness of digital platforms for promotion. as a result, participants know better about how to advertise in social media ads, especially in terms of the content developed and other strategies. 2. mentoring dinner mentoring dinner is a mentorship program set up for seven selected mentors who are women pioneers in business with 21 selected participants who are women starting up their business and have digital platforms as the media to develop the business. mentoring dinner aims to facilitate discussion and share knowledge about business between mentors and mentees conducted in an in-depth and intimate sharing between both parties in one and a half hours. this activity facilitates discussion and knowledge sharing about business utilizing digital platforms between mentors and mentees by presenting success woman entrepreneurs as role models to inspire. there are several benefits of mentoring activity such as sharing the experience with other women, recognizing the wide range of diversity among women and gaining realistic feedback (valerio, 2009, p. 41). in fact, mentoring dinner helps mentees to learn from their mentors’ advancing women’s digital skills and economic empowerment … (isyfi’afiani) 25 experiences and background during the session. mentors’ experiences and backgrounds can be inspiring motivation for the mentees. after sharing, the mentors give the mentees feedbacks that women have more power than what they realize. consequently, the mentees will see this action as constructive criticisms to succeed in their business. 3. pitch night pitch night is a competition for women who have digital platforms for their business. in this pitching competition, 10 women are selected to present their digital business platforms in front of judges. the top three winners are picked, awarded a generous amount of facebook ads credit and be mentored to accelerate their startups/business. under the frame of leadership development practice, pitching competition allows the participants to learn a lot since the judges will assess how the presenters respond to challenges, how they make decisions, handle risks, and manage relationships. this can accelerate their development as leaders in ways that no other method can accommodate. the composition of activities in wda program is expected to increase the number of woman entrepreneurs who use digital technology as a media to grow the business, increase the knowledge of woman entrepreneurs about the concept of product marketing (branding) /business, increase the knowledge of woman entrepreneurs about the concept of product promotion via digital platforms (such as instagram, facebook for business), and to increase women’s ability to promote their products/businesses via digital platforms. girls in tech indonesia’s leadership style since the leadership concept of girls in tech indonesia is from women to women, this study adopts contemporary leadership theory that differentiates behavioral leadership styles based on gendered behavioral differences into the dichotomy of transactional and transformational style. contemporary leadership rose in the early 1970s when gender differences theories marked a shift in the leadership literature, as the behavior, skills and attitudes of women were considered, recognized and evaluated. it then perpetuated leadership styles that were evaluated through the perspective of gender differences, and the focus began to shift to a desire to understand how men and women led their followers (avolio & bass, 2002). comprehensive leadership underlying gendered behavioral differences was introduced by james macgregor burns (1978) as he proposed the terms ‘‘transactional’’ and ‘‘transformational’’ leadership. he defined transactional leaders as people who emphasized work standards and assignments and had task-oriented aims. therefore, these leaders’ focal points were believed to be on finishing tasks with rewards or disciplining subordinates in order to influence and improve their performances (burns, 1978). salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 1 no. 1, february 2018 26 transactional leadership is more likely performed in strong masculine qualities, as it is distinguished by ‘‘competitiveness, hierarchical authority and high control for the leader and analytical problem solving’’ (klenke, 1993) which is more typical of male behaviors. in contrast, women more likely fit into a ‘‘feminine model of leadership built around cooperation, collaboration, lower control for the leader and problem solving based on intuition and rationality’’ (klenke, 1993). this style of leadership is closely aligned to transformational leadership with effective leaders being described as those who inspire their followers and enable them to achieve the goals (bass, 1985). in some practices, transformational leaders motivate their followers to do something that they think they cannot by giving them such a challenging expectation with high standard performance. transformational leaders motivate their followers to go beyond their self-interests by addressing each follower‘s sense of self-worth in order to engage the follower in true commitment and involvement in the effort at hand (shamir, 1991). further, bernard m bass (2006) has divided transformational leadership into four performances: idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration. the study uses these four transformational leadership performances to reveal girls in tech indonesia’s leadership style. 1. idealized influence aulia halimatussadiah explained that “trust” is the most important thing to enforce the followers (gitid’s participants) to fight the doubt constructed in women’s minds, to make them believe that they can do the tasks given. the leaders (mentors) then ought to delegate the work to the followers by giving trust that they are able to do the work (aulia halimatussadiah, personal communication, june 23, 2017). from this explanation, it can be assumed that the leader is responsible for assisting and coaching the followers, instead of doing those tasks herself. 2. inspirational motivation inspirational motivation is when leaders motivate followers by creating expectations, setting an example to be followed by setting a high standard of performance and demonstrating determination and confidence by modeling appropriate behavior. role modeling, somehow, is always performed by git-id through its wda program where all the mentors of coaching classes, mentor dinner, pitching night and those who are listed in #whynot success storybook are women in tech. for instance, when git-id participants were introduced to the head of product manager of gojek, who is a woman who manages millions of driver and financial transactions with a very big responsibility, they saw that a woman was able to handle the big responsibility. this role advancing women’s digital skills and economic empowerment … (isyfi’afiani) 27 modeling aims to show more women that digital technology mastery is not difficult. 3. intellectual stimulation intellectual stimulation is when leaders help followers become more creative and innovative by continually challenging followers, giving them respect and consideration (intellectual stimulation). aulia shared her experience when she challenged one of git-id members after git-id‘s mentorship. the member was once a financial talk writer, who is a content writer for rula.com. she is now able to write about not only financial talk, but also other themes like relationship, inspiration, health, beauty, and men‘s corners—the things she had never dealt with before (halimatussadiah, personal communication, june 23, 2017). 4. individualized consideration individualized consideration occurs when leaders pay personal attention to the developmental needs of followers, give them respect and consideration concerning to education and empowerment. girls in tech indonesia leadership’s impacts on empowerment longwe‘s women empowerment framework examines to what extent equality between women and men has been achieved in the conventional sectors of economy and society. longwe’s framework aims to reveal women empowerment and equality in practice and to critically assess to what extent development intervention is supporting this empowerment. furthermore, this framework comes with the idea of women's empowerment as enabling women to take an equal place with men and to participate equally in the development process in order to achieve control over the factors of production on an equal basis with men (march, smyth, & mukhopadhyay, 1999, p. 92). longwe’s framework also enables gender and development workers to analyze the development of organizations’ commitment to women's equality and empowerment in terms of control, participation, conscientization, access and welfare. using this framework, the research examines girls in tech indonesia’s leadership performance by questioning “does git-id’s performance enable women to enhance their control, participation, conscientization, access and welfare? 1. control in this regard, control refers to women's control over the decision-making process through conscientization and mobilization to achieve equality of control over the production factors and the distribution of benefits. according to five participants, the classes equip them with best salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 1 no. 1, february 2018 28 practices through case study and hands-on exercises to understand how best practices work. as a result, they can run their own digital platform/business and manage them for a sustainable period. informant 1: “i run divaart.co with my friends. as one of the founders, i have control over our business’ growth.” informant 2: “as the only founder and owner of etnika.co i have control over the business and growth.” informant 3: “i produce knitting products and manage a digital platform @rajutanotentik to promote my products.” informant 4: “i have and manage siswawirausaha.com; a marketplace for students to market their products. the profits are used to support student’s study cost in pkbm itaco (smk itaco).” informant 5: “i own and manage a digital platform to promote the local richness and i do it by myself. i also build the marketplace for tour guides, i work with a team, and i am involved in the decision making.” 2. participation participation refers to women's participation in the decision-making process, project making, planning and administration. accordingly, equality of participation means involving women in making the decisions by which their community will be affected, in a proportion that matches their proportion in the wider community. central to the womenpreneur digital acceleration’s approach is the idea to accelerate the use of digital platforms. in this case, women must diagnose what they want and need in order to develop their startups. the project gives attention to increasing women's participation in the decision-making processes related to their digital platform development through #whynot initiative campaign. women attend women digital acceleration classes before they are selected to join mentor dinner session. in women digital acceleration classes, they are coached not only on digital literacy but also on leadership and decision making. this activity is considerably successful in enhancing women’s participation in tech. in relation to this, five informants highlighted that there were significant differences they experienced after joining the womenpreneur digital acceleration. informant 1: “after joining wda, i am more engaged with digital platforms as tools for promotion and networking.” advancing women’s digital skills and economic empowerment … (isyfi’afiani) 29 informant 2: “git-id’s facilitators really help us master digital platform, so i can use it more than before.” informant 3: “wda has its continuous activities, the seven correlated combined classes, then mentoring session and pitching competition. the activities are arranged in order, and we do not just stop at a certain program. interestingly, these classes provided in-depth discussion related to how to maximize social media platforms as promotion tools including how to make good social media content. therefore, we can maximize the use of digital platforms.” informant 4: “ollie shares to me how to build a business and how to make it grow, so i can do more with my platforms.” informant 5: “the classes give us good materials to build up our digital platforms; we can learn more to engage digital platform in our business.” 3. conscientization conscientization refers to the raising awareness of gender issues in digital media. as mentioned before, girls in tech‘s objective is to provide women with general education, increase their selfconfidence and awareness, and make them realize that they can use and maximize ict to empower themselves. in empowering women, girls in tech indonesia creates more women role models in ict since cultural divide is considered as the main barrier. according to aulia, indonesia needs more women role models in ict in order to overcome male domination; if more women take part in ict, other women might no longer consider it unusual to see women in ict, which is deemed as men‘s world. role modeling can be seen as a way to strengthen women‘s confidence and gender awareness in using ict. in relation to this role modeling, girls in tech indonesia campaigns #whynot initiative as an effort to raise gender awareness in ict (halimatussadiah, personal communication, june 23, 2017) informant 1: “i am getting to know more that women can do and develop their platforms even though technology relates to men.” informant 2: “git-id’s campaign on #whynot really teaches us that we can deal with tech.” informant 3: “after joining git-id, i know that we can do tech.” informant 4: “technology is not about men, all git-id’s mentors are women.” informant 5: “the mentors are top leading women in tech, so #whynot really impacts us to deal with tech without hesitation”. salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 1 no. 1, february 2018 30 4. access access refers to women's access to economic resources to production factors i.e. access to ict literacy, business information, finance, land, labor, credit, training, marketing facilities and all public services and benefits. as previously mentioned, womenpreneur digital acceleration (wda) program aims to support women to be involved in productive digital activities. in 2017, two-month classes were held, followed by a mentor dinner and pitch competition. here, the program can be seen to be working at the 'access' level of equality, since it is increasing women's access to the source of related information i.e. how to promote their products through digital platforms and access to capital venture as well as investor or funding supports informant 1: “git-id gives us materials on how to master digital platform including promotion and access to finance, and it helps us.” informant 2: “one of the classes provides knowledge about financial access—venture capital—in a corporation delivered by kinara venture capital.” informant 3: “git-id’s wda gives me access especially to networking.” informant 4: “it helps us grow the business as wda opens access to certain information on business strategy.” informant 5: “it provides good materials and how to access them. it offers not only knowledge but also networking.” 5. welfare this term refers to the level of women's material welfare. girls in tech indonesia‘s activities are simply designed to increase women's access to material resources relative to men that might impact their welfare level. for example, womenpreneur digital acceleration (wda) classes provide materials on how to win with social media content. this equips participants to promote their business that will impact their sales and profit. when the women‘s business is growing, consequently, the profit will increase, and it will impact their welfare level. informant 1: “and ollie is my mentor, she really inspires me and helps me develop my school in terms of funding and promote my products.” informant 2: “girls in tech program really helps promote my business and impacts my sales.” informant 3: “as the program provides access to knowledge and information related to digital literacy to develop our digital platform as well as business, it impacts our business financially.” advancing women’s digital skills and economic empowerment … (isyfi’afiani) 31 informant 4: git-id’s program gives an impact on my platform, on how to grow it.” however, the benefit of womenpreneurs digital acceleration classes is not only in the form of financial profit but also other kinds of benefits such as networking, access to related information in order to develop their digital platform. in this context, three participants admitted that they did not get direct financial benefit since their platforms are non-profit. the benefits that they get are in terms of networking and access to the resources. informant 5: “the significant transformation that i experienced is related to social media management skill. i never used instagram, right now i have an instagram account for my business platform. having instagram might significantly promote your business since it also provides ads for promotion. somehow, my startup/digital platform is nonprofit, so it is not affected financially. however, it helps promote my program”. from all the above explanation, it can be concluded that girls in tech indonesia’s leadership performance through womenpreneur digital acceleration program has good impacts on empowerment as it positively enables women to achieve better access, control, participation, conscientization and welfare. hence, we can argue that girls in tech indonesia has succeeded in addressing woman issues through their program, womenpreneur digital acceleration. conclusion digital gender divide caused by cultural divide has segregated occupation into the dichotomy of male and female’s domain. it then impedes women to take part in ict related work (including ecommerce) since it is considered men’s field. in order to counter the gap, girls in tech indonesia, however, has shown a contribution to women economic empowerment through ict education and engagement through womanpreneur digital acceleration. interestingly, by addressing woman issues through womenpreneur digital acceleration, girl in tech indonesia has successfully implemented a transformational leadership performance that impacts positively on women economic empowerment through ict mastery. references annan, k. (2003). kofi annan’s statement in the world summit on the information society. geneva. avolio, b. j. & bass, b. (2002). developing potential across a full range of leadership: cases on transactional and transformational leadership. london, uk: lawrence erlbaum associates publishers. asosiasi penyelenggara jasa internet indonesia (apjii). (2016). infografis penetrasi dan perilaku pengguna internet indonesia. jakarta, indonesia: apjii. bass, b. m. (1985). leadership and performance beyond expectation. new york: the free press. salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 1 no. 1, february 2018 32 bass, b. m & riggio, e. r. (2006). transformational leadership (2nd ed.). new jersey: lawrence erlbaum associates, inc. burns, j.m. (1978). leadership. new york. harper & row. international telecommunication union (itu). (2016). measuring the information society report. geneva, switzerland: itu. klenke, k. (1993). leadership education at the great divide: crossing into the twenty-first century. uk: sage. march, c., smyth, i. a., & mukhopadhyay, m. (1999). a guide to gender-analysis frameworks. oxford, great britain: oxfam gb. world bank. (2006). ict and gender equality. washington, dc: gender and development group, world bank. shamir, boas. (1991). meaning, self and motivation in organizations. sage journals, 12(3), 405-424. retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840691 01200304 united nations (2005). gender equality and empowerment of women through ict. new york, ny: un. valerio, a.m. (2009). developing women leaders: a guide for men and women in organizations. hoboken, nj: wileyblackwell. 0101_00a_cover.pdf 0101_00b_content.pdf 0101_02_isyfi'afiani.pdf 0101_10_backcover.pdf salasika indonesian journal of gender, women, child, and social inclusion's studies volume 2, number 2 – july 2019 table of content ‘bride terrorist’ in indonesia: is she still considered as a peace agency? mia dayanti fajar & elisabeth dewi 95 women's capacity building of informal sector workers in rural areas (case of "boiled corn seller" in konawe regency, southeast sulawesi province) yoo eka yana kansil, nana sumarna & rimba hamid 107 understanding women’s roles in agriculture (study of women in dairy and shallot farming in east java) mely noviryani, wahyu handayani, wike, & keppi sukesi 121 agents in child marriage practice in rural west java novitha syari dhevi pradipta, ekawati sri wahyuni, & titik sumarti 137 social capital based economic autonomy of the fishing communities (study in traditional fishing community kub bino makmur, desa keboromo, kecamatan tayu, kabupaten pati, central java) tri winarni & nur khoiriyah 155 chief editors dr. ir. arianti ina restiani hunga, m.si. (scopus id: 46161114400; google scholar); dr. phil. dewi candraningrum. (google scholar). executive editors indriretno setyaningrahayu, m.pd. (google scholar); daniel kurniawan, m.pd. (google scholar); andi misbahul pratiwi, m.si. (google scholar). board of editors prof. claudia derichs (scopus id: 14026487800). humboldt universität zu berlin, germany; assoc. prof. dr. ida sabelis (scopus id: 6507181398). vrije universiteit (vu) amsterdam, the netherlands; prof. siti kusujiarti.ma. (scopus id: 56276925900). warren wilson college, usa; dr. ratna saptari (scopus id: 6504610910). leiden university; prof. sylvia tiwon (scopus id: 6506468591). university of california; prof. dr. emy susanti, ma. (google scholar). airlangga university; prof. dr. ir. keppi sukesi, ms. (scopus id: 56025803300). brawijaya university; dr. kristi poerwandari, ma. (scopus id: 25628305200). university of indonesia; prof. dr. willemijn de jong (scopus id: 55258294800). university of zurich, switzerland; prof. lyn parker (scopus id: 56273266700). the university of western australia. reviewers prof. lyn parker (scoups id: 56273266700). university of western australia, perth, australia; dr. elisabet titik murtisari (scopus id: 38161752200; google scholar). satya wacana christian university; dr. wening udasmoro (scopus id: 56493135600; google scholar). gadjah mada university; dr. phil. farah purwaningrum (scopus id: 57205254451; google scholar). the university of sydney & rahayu and partners in association with hfw; alimatul qibtiyah, m.si. ma. ph.d. (scopus & google scholar). sunan kalijaga state islamic university; dr. tyas retno wulan, m.si. (scopus & google scholar). the jenderal soedirman university; dr. titik sumarti, msi. (scopus & google scholar). bogor agricultural university; prof. dr. mien ratoe oedjoe, mpd. (google scholar). the university of nusa cendana, kupang; j. casey hammond, phd. (scopus & google scholar). singapore university of technology and design; dr. phil. ratna noviani (google scholar). gadjah mada university; dr. rina herlina haryanti (google scholar). sebelas maret university; dr. ida ruwaida noor (google scholar). university of indonesia; dr. nurjanah, sp.m.pd. (google scholar). state university of jakarta; dr. ir. evi feronika elbaar, m.si. (google scholar). the university of palangka raya; dr. jendrius m.si. (google scholar). andalas university; dr. grace jenny soputan, se. (google scholar). manado state university; dr. anis farida, s.sos., sh., m.si. (scopus & google scholar). sunan ampel state islamic university surabaya; ira desiaanti mangiliko, s.si,.ph.d. (google scholar). the artha wacana christian university. ‘bride terrorist’ in indonesia: is she still considered as a peace agency? (fajar & dewi) 95 ‘bride terrorist’ in indonesia: is she still considered as a peace agency? mia dayanti fajar & elisabeth dewi parahyangan catholic university dayantimia@yahoo.com & elisabeth.dewi@unpar.ac.id abstract isis and al-qaeda are now recruiting women to join terrorism groups. these two large terrorist groups even show the real use of women as suicide bombers in terrorist acts. this is certainly controversial since women have a close relationship with peace. it indicates a shift in traditional feminist thinking saying that women are identical with peace. the involvement of women in terrorism can also be traced in indonesia. in december 2016, indonesia was shocked by the arrest of a prospective suicide bomber with her husband. the phenomenon occurred along with female chechen suicide bombers, black widows, who blew themselves up to avenge their husbands’ death. this paper aims to explain the involvement of women in the world of terrorism and any reason taken by women to commit suicide bombings. the result of this research revealed that women were involved in terrorism because of patriarchal culture and personal factors that was based on religion by doctrinization in indonesia. keywords: women, bride, terrorism, indonesia introduction the declaration of war on terrorism constructed a new perspective in western society about islamic world, particularly islamic extremist groups that were seen as threats. besides al-qaeda, another islamic extremist group is isis (islamic state of iraq and the levant), which is currently the world major spotlight that is also using jihad to motivate act for terrorism. in that case, most of terrorist acts were done by men who kindly sacrificed themselves and became fighters for jihad battle. in the same time, extremist terrorist groups, including al-qaeda and isis, also recruited women to participate in bombing activities as a new strategic move. in indonesia, the increasing threat of terrorism was marked by series of bali i & ii bombings on 12th october 2002 and 1st october 2005. furthermore, in 2016, news of the arrest of four women as potential suicide bombers or the “brides terrorist” who wanted to attack presidential office shocked many people. in addition to being directly involved in the bombing, they also had a desire to participate in jihadist action with isis in syria. previous research has revealed that over 100 indonesian women and children have traveled to syria to join isis since 2013 and most have been mailto:dayantimia@yahoo.com mailto:elisabeth.dewi@unpar.ac.id salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 2 no. 2, july 2019 96 deported (institute for policy analysis of content (ipac), 2017; institute for policy analysis of content (ipac), 2017). indonesia as the largest muslim country has high chances for its women to engage in acts of terrorism for jihad. there are various islamist groups and it becomes a particular reason for women to join extremist groups. indonesian government stated there were around 1,200 indonesian isis supporters, recruited through religious events at mosques and even in educational places, especially universities and islamic boarding school. moreover, alqaeda, isis and other extremist groups also recruit members through social media. before 2009, indonesian women who wanted to be a “cyber jihadist” had to pretend to be a man by using a male name online (institute for policy analysis of content (ipac), 2017) feminist point of view assumed that terrorism activities were relatively done by men. however, this paper will discuss another side of women who are constructed as agents of peace and associated with the opposite side of war. theoretically, based on gendered division of violence, men and women are seen as soldiers – mother, protectors – protected, aggressive – passive, battlefront – home front, batterers – victims. however, in this terrorism act, it is hard to sustain these divisions in the face of women’s greater visibility and activity (peterson, 2014). furthermore, ‘moral feminists’ argued that women’s special relationship with peace was women’s experience of maternity and can be essentialist views on ‘women nature’. peace became one subject on which women were empowered to speak publicly. based on these facts, it is clear that the role of women in the 21st century becomes high. even the view that act is another figure of women’s agency in their political (or even criminal) violence is denied by those perspective who can only see a woman as women in general. women have capacity to commit acts of terror that contradict the current idealized notions of women and femininity. like men, women are rational actors when they commit acts of terrorism (sjoberg, 2009; ortbals, 2013). when the world of terrorism is considered ‘masculine’, women are present side by side with, even replace, men in carrying out the task to conduct acts of terrorism. this paper discusses another perspective of terrorism from women’s point of view, particularly on: (i) how they perceive the current terrorism, as women are now engaged in planned attacks as a new terrorism strategy in indonesia, and the benefit for women’s lives; and (ii) their reason of joining terrorism act. the paper used qualitative research method. in additions, there are various reasons for women to join terrorism as acts of rational political motivations for their crimes. this paper will systematically explain their reasons for conducting series of activities that directly endanger their lives, such as becoming suicide bombers, couriers and fighters. ‘bride terrorist’ in indonesia: is she still considered as a peace agency? (fajar & dewi) 97 feminist perspective on terrorism according to feminist scholars, terrorism has a very large definition in everyday life. many feminists within the scope of social work and psychology link between domestic violence terrorism and terrorism. they find that the threat of domestic violence or threats in creating fear such as coercion or intimidation of a spouse against sex control or domestic work forms a repeated pattern that raises anxiety. feminists also identify wartime rape and general rape as terror tools (sjoberg, 2009). in this paper, the intended terrorism is related to religious terrorism and transnational terrorism. dekmejian states that state and non-state in terrorism become the “spectrum of terror” that goes from genocide and state terrorism to terrorism perpetrated by subnational groups including ethnonationalist, religious or ideological terrorist. thus, the relationship between acts of state violence and terrorists is obvious, terrorism often provokes other acts of terrorism. dekmejian defines religious terrorism as “terrorism by cults, sects, and chiliastic offshoots of mainstream faiths that are propelled by fundamentalist zealotry into the political arena to shape it through violence” (ortbals, 2013). feminist thinkers such as laura sjoberg in the study of feminist interrogations of terrorism, begin by questioning ‘where are the women in terrorism?’ because, in the understanding of terrorism, women are not a part in the study of the actions and consequences of acts of terrorism itself. this is because much work on terrorism treats the terrorist as a subject gendered by male definition. feminist scholar recognizes that women participation in terrorism as terrorists is a phenomenon that is not new. nevertheless, terrorism activities often explicitly characterize women in terrorism as ‘female terrorists’ rather than terrorists in general (men are referred to as ‘terrorists’ only) (sjoberg, 2009). anna j. cooper reveals that terrorism is a bad side of men and women. in addition, cooper argues that female terrorists are the product of classical patriarchal thinking and the view that terrorism is not women’s job because female terrorist have not been content to just praise the lord and pass the ammunition. female terrorists provide evidence that they have a harder side to acting than men (gentry, 2011). de cataldo neuburger and valentini in the analysis of women and terrorism reveal that whatever the case, participation in violent crime never benefits women. moreover, from a socio-psychological perspective, deborah m galvin argues that women in traditional societies have given significant contributions and improvements to female terrorists. women’s decision to engage in terrorist activity or join a terrorist group is often different from men. women are involved in terrorism on their own initiative and according to their own interests. george abeyies states that female terrorists will appear primarily in organizations that support feminist or socialistic principles. on the other hand, the form of feminism is salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 2 no. 2, july 2019 98 essentially passive and, therefore, cannot participate in terrorist activities. the participation of women in terrorist movement shows that in the revolutionary movement and terrorism, feminist and nationalism are interactive. however, female terrorist activities are not incumbent on the presence feminism (gentry, 2011). feminists’ perspective of religious fundamentalism in the devil is in the details: a feminist perspective on a development, women’s rights, and fundamentalisms article by ayesha imam, shareen gokal and isabel marler define religious fundamentalisms as ideologies with: (1) the use of religion to gain political, social and economic power; (2) the use of religion for discrimination, intolerance and violations of human rights; (3) control of women’s bodies as a form of social control; (4) reinforcement of male authority and gender relations in patriarchy; (5) reference to certain religious interpretations and practice as the only truth that exist; (6) the use of coercion and violence in implementing ideology; (7) a shared belief in ‘us’ against all others (ayesha imam, 2017). scott w. hibbard states that religion is a ‘multifaceted’ phenomenon. on the one side religion manifests as an ethnic teaching that advises peace and reconciliation, on the other side it informs religious communalism and it is the source of war and conflict. in indonesia, the islamic world is capable of being represented in the teachings of religion in general that can coexist with contemporary culture and reality. in addition, there is a wave of radicalism and extremism that comes together, simultaneously with the implementation of democratic governance system in indonesia. this leads to religious views that reject diversity, equality and peace. however, it can give freedom to extremist groups for carrying out actions that often lead to violence (ayesha imam, 2017). the presence of strong control over gender relations and religious fundamentalism has a high risk of violence against women. men’s gender identity is increasing, aggressive and ready to participate in armed conflict. women are seen as carriers of culture and religion, and their deportment, dress code and sexuality often form ‘good society’ characteristics (steans, 1998). the debate among male terrorists about female fighters (mujahidaat) is part of a continuing issue of conversation among alqaeda members and other terrorists or rebel groups. it is also a debate between prominent scholars and some muslim scholars on the legal opinion of women’s defenses, but most agree that women have become an important supporting role in terrorist activities (ayesha imam, 2017). women as agent of peace if a series of action related to aggression and violence, such as war and terrorism are associated with men and masculinity, peace is attached to women and feminism. moral feminists recognize that women have a more peaceful nature than men. the motherhood ‘bride terrorist’ in indonesia: is she still considered as a peace agency? (fajar & dewi) 99 of women makes female peace the evidence of superiority than inferiority morale. the nature of motherhood comes from most women’s experience of maternity and the exclusion of women from public power. this proves that women have a special relation with peace (steans, 1998). janet radcliffe richards argues that the position of women who naturally have a peaceful nature than men will limit women’s equality. however, equality and equal rights have never been the sole focus of feminists. on the other hand, feminists also emphasize human connectedness, dialogue and cooperation over dominance and violent confrontation. women are constantly looking for ways to talk for peace, they are not representatives of decision-making in war. therefore, if women do not speak for peace, they will be excused from speaking about all aspects of life and death questions (steans, 1998). women as agent of violence miranda alison reveals that women are violent agents. women are seen as agents who can make their own choices although in hierarchical structures and specific contexts. when women are involved as combatants in combat (military / non-military members/ non-state military members / former military members), they are ready to be trained to do so. the term ‘combat’ is broadly defined to include terrorist tactics such as bomb-making and killing, as well as other conventional combats (alison m., 2004). about female terrorism, cooper states that “typical of the pitiless attitude of many women terrorists are capable of assuming”. their attitude is one that is hard to match. cooper also claims that nonhuman female terrorists are others in their flawed personality and the nature of the ‘super man’ in their strength (gentry, 2011). like the two different sides of a coin’s eye, according to jean bethke elsthain, the other side of woman is depicted in a narrative that justifies the making and fighting of war as “beautiful souls”, innocent souls in war but proper fighters who are responsible for defense. therefore, women at the same time become victims and causes of war. women are expected to fight war and violence, but to cooperate in battles struggling to protect their innocence and virginity. in this way, countries marginalize women as they appear to precede their interests. like men, women are capable of violence. along with women’s freedom, so it is with their violence. women are like men, perpetrating violence for various reasons, some are rational and irrational. women are like men, sometimes acting unreasonably and cruel because of bad morals or socio-economic motivation (gentry, 2011). women in islam radical organization the rise of radical islam in indonesia began at the end of the reign of former president soeharto in 1998. the radical strength of islam at that time appeared in a hard-line model with the form of a whiterobed muslim congregation running through the streets of the salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 2 no. 2, july 2019 100 city to show they were ready to fight against the enemies of islam with jihad. the radical islam action was also colored by arabindonesian scholars threatening to refuse foreigners from coming to indonesia and conduct a series of demonstrations in implementing sharia based public policy (allison k., 2013). darul islam (di) is one of the radical groups in indonesia. di began to recruit women more intensively in the early 1980s. the mechanism of indoctrination had two main agendas: ‘jilbabsation’ or persuading women to wear veil and founding women da’wah groups. moreover, another radical group, jemaah islamiyah (ji) implements a rule for women to wear a longer headscarf and veil over face (niqab). ji is based on conservative perspective of women. women’s activities are limited to households, they teach in pesantren or teach only women. according to ji, a woman has three important roles in life, a daughter who has to obey her father, a wife who has to obey her husband and a mother who is responsible for her children’s wellbeing and education. the nature of motherhood and the subject of marriage become important for ji. this aims to ensure the survival of mujahidin and protect the organizations as well as to build network because women are important to build alliances. in ji marriage arrangements, women have an important prestige role to marry a mujahidin (institute for policy analysis of content (ipac), 2017). islamic radical women have a high probability of engaging in acts of terrorism, especially in suicide bombings. this is because the radical network of islam in indonesia, especially terrorism network, has a strong linkage with al-qaeda network in afghanistan and isis network in syria. this radical islamic network has more militant perspective in carrying out its action. in addition, women, especially women who are involved in family conflicts or divorce who are easier to be brainwashed with radical understanding, can be more easily influenced (tempo, 2017). women recruited in terrorism membership procedures and radical group recruitment are not made public. one survey of radical group members in jakarta shows that 35% of respondents are unemployed or have socioeconomic difficulties. in addition, 97% believe that the country is unfair to its citizen and 53% say that the government does not care about the fate of muslims. however, the people still believe that joining radical islamic groups aims to “combat crime and expiate their earlier sins”. nonetheless, the important role of radical group is occupied by people who come from a well and highly educated background (fealy, 2004). in 2010 and 2014, violence involving religiouspolitical nonstate actors increased by 58% in islamist terror groups, such as jihad fighters and al-qaeda attacks (fealy, 2004). it included indonesia, of which the majority of the population is islam. this became a ‘bride terrorist’ in indonesia: is she still considered as a peace agency? (fajar & dewi) 101 threat for indonesians that they started to fight against the radical teachings easily spread in the public space. indonesia government stated there were around 500 indonesian isis supporters (bbc, 2015) recruited through religious events at mosques and even boarding school. the involvement of women in radicalist groups in indonesia has the potential to lead members to participate in acts of terror committed on the basis of group ideology. for organizations, the use of terrorism act is a part of political strategy. the role of women in terrorist activities is a strategic choice for terrorist organizations. women as propaganda tools provides a new dimension of media for terrorist group. suicide bombings offer low cost, low technology and low risk in maximizing destruction target and threatening terror. the organizations think to use women with training to give a special surprise to the media. this happens because of the assumption that women tend to get more media attention than men. the concept of women as agents of violence supported by images of female terrorists to attract publicity and widely broadcast organizational messages is contradictory to feminist belief (bbc, 2015). in addition, terrorist organizations see that there is a religious justification to manipulate more terrorist women. while islamic religion opposes and is against women in violent acts, terrorist organizations can dramatically alter the position of women. this was conveyed by osama bin laden, al-qaeda leader, who stated that women play important roles as supporters, facilitators and promoters in conducting jihad. female terrorists have a great ability to inspire other women to imitate the actions of their heroes (knop, 2007). the increasing threat of terrorism along with the emergence of isis group supported by women’s ability to advance communication and technology, the threat of women’s involvement in terrorist organizations is increasing. women can participate in radical chat forums, meet with men, read isis or al-qaeda propaganda and find friends with the same vision and mission. in early 2000, the use of jihad internet made it easy for women to engage in radical islamic organizations. the internet opens new opportunities for educated young women from families who have no connection with jihad to find new interest in religion, participate in religious chat forums and also read online channels of islam; therefore, online propaganda is important (institute for policy analysis of content (ipac), 2017). the use of online media increases women’s desire to be more active in religious action. this organization changes the pattern of recruitment and the realization of online dating leading to marriage, like the recruitment by isis. the presence of an encrypted chat application such as telegram makes women, most of whom are indonesian workers and housemaids migrant workers, interested in isis. with english ability, education or international experience, some women have become the center of isis fundraising, propaganda and social networking. in addition, the salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 2 no. 2, july 2019 102 presence of telegram increases online dating and marriage as experienced by nurul azmi tibyani and syahadah (not her real name), indonesian mujahidah who were inspired to do jihad due to the influence of social media (institute for policy analysis of content (ipac), 2017). syahadah used to use a pseudonym of a man to do extremist chats with men from radical islamic groups. nurul married repeatedly to online men who were members of extremist organizations linked with criminal acts of embezzlement to finance terrorist camps in poso. this also occurs in marriages between women and mujahidin candidates (actual fighters in syria) as well as mutual marriage between isis supporters and non-indonesian supporters. this has led to an increase in women emigration (hijrah) to syria. since 2013, more than 100 women have successfully crossed into isis territory (institute for policy analysis of content (ipac), 2017). the reason of women’s engagement in terrorism women who have nurturing nature have complex reasons to join terrorism. the reasons can be seen from the personal experience of the individual (such as: revenge for the death of family member), atonement for sins, interpersonal relationships (father, husband, son, brother), political violence, dedication to the ideology believed by the organization and religious belief. caron e. gentry reveals that the existence of a motherly nature can motivate female terrorists because sometimes it is women who “cannot or cannot have children” or mothers who have the nature of violence who have the belief that they “can be martyr after giving birth to martyr”. gentry defines it as “twisted maternalism”, in which there is a change of direction in the nature of maternalism in women (ortbals, 2013). women are also motivated to join terrorist groups because of their deep attachment to the group’s ideology or culture, the desire for emancipation and security as well as coercion problems. most women are politically motivated to become terrorists in order to end their own suffering and the suffering of their people. this is similar to the case of putri munawaroh, the wife of susilo who refused to surrender after police surrounded her house and opened fire that killed her husband and noordin m. top. at the time of the incident, putri munawaroh was seven months pregnant and refused to leave because she wanted to die as a martyr and wanted to protect her guests and her husband (institute for policy analysis of content (ipac), 2017). patriarchal culture can also be the cause of women’s engagement in terrorist activities. patriarchy is a social system in which men hold control over women and children. women can be terrorist or terrorist facilitators, based on the orders from their husband or husband doctrine. this is experienced by munfiatun who was the second wife of terrorist noordin m. top. munfiatun acquired the doctrine of jihad and helped her husband to hide from the police. furthermore, another reason for women engagement in terrorism is for the sake of love. this is related to the ‘bride terrorist’ in indonesia: is she still considered as a peace agency? (fajar & dewi) 103 stereotype that a female terrorist follows a lover or husband or her father, brother or cousin to a terrorist group. karla cunningham states that this idea is a common theme emphasized by extremist women members themselves. women are attracted to terrorism because of their loved ones. but the idea of terrorism for the sake of love is different in every individual woman who uses political violence after a tragedy or based on personal disappointment or because of loss of love (nacos, 2005). indonesian women as ‘bride terrorists’ the word ‘bride’ is a term for women on the day or during and after the wedding day (oxford dictionary). usually people call the bride and groom as married men and women. marriage certainly aims to build a good household and form a happy family, but the wedding in the concept of jihadist and the word ‘bride’ in this paper refers to female suicide bombers (or the candidate) who want to take the path of jihad. mothers and radical women of islam in general have a duty to support their men and husbands to go to war. women are in charge of preparing for logistical needs of war and mentality to participate in war. women suicide bomber have the purpose to quickly enter paradise, be parts of 72 heavenly angels and cleanse the sins of their 70 relatives (saputro, 2010). this happened to dian yulia novi (27 years old), in december 2016. dian became the first woman candidate for suicide bombing in indonesia. as a bride, dian, instructed and given technical training by her husband, m. nur solikin, who is a recruiter for a suicide bomber, acted as a martyr with a pot bomb in a backpack. the bomb was 3 kg with high explosive power and 4,000 km/hour speed (bbc, 2017). the couple received an order and a transfer fund from bahrun naim, who is an isis follower from indonesia in syria. isis initially banned the presence of female fighters (mujahidah) for some reasons. however, in july 2016, isis removed the ban. isis currently allows married women to become fighters without the permission of their husbands to commit suicide bombings. this concept is similar to the concept of the predecessor terrorist group, alqaeda, which invited women as martyrs in 2005 (speckhard, 2015) dian was a woman from cirebon who originally worked as indonesian migrant worker in singapore in 2011 – 2013 and in taiwan in 2013 – 2016. dian confessed that it was her personal desire to commit suicide bomb, without coercion from anyone. she was inspired by website and social media (especially the facebook of isis sympathizer, ulama binti ghulam) with islamic tausiah content. the most self-inspiring website is millah ibrahim’s website discussing about fiqih, muamallah, aqidah, history of islam in the form of articles and audio (novi, 2013). in accordance with bloom’s statement regarding the involvement of women in terrorism with the closest relative, dian was motivated to commit suicide bombing to save his ailing father from hellfire. in her mind, her self-sacrifice as martyr would save herself and her big family from the wrath of god salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 2 no. 2, july 2019 104 (institute for policy analysis of content (ipac), 2017). dian said, “this is not a suicide bomb based on desperation to end life. but to reach the blessings of allah and get the virtue of jihad fisabilillah” (novi, 2013). dian and m. nur solikin marriage was based on the interest in facilities and needs for suicide bombing strategy. dian tried to find someone who could help her carry out her mission. with the help of tutin, founder of ummahat kitchen charity, whom she knew from facebook, dian got acquainted with solikin (institute for policy analysis of content (ipac), 2017). sidney jones, an observer of terrorism issues, revealed that the kinship would facilitate communication. this became one of the plots of connected radical islamic women to make arrangement between muhajidah and muhajidin. women regard it as part of the process of jihad (saputro, 2010). likewise, dian and solikin married because of the influence of relations between relatives. however, dian and solikin only had long distance relations using telegram, they did not even recognize each other’s faces. all processes were done quickly. in addition, her marriage was also arranged by her husband who was represented by others, without the presence of dian. dian learned that solikin had already had a wife, but the marriage was a way for her to prepare suicide bombings (novi, 2013). dian’s confidence to commit suicide bombing had grown stronger since she and solikin married in october 2016. dian acquired guidance from solikin about technical things that must be done in the field. solikin arranged all necessary things, including establishing communication with bahrun naim. the wife just did the command of the husband without knowing the process in detail (novi, 2013). in indonesia, most women engaged in terrorism act played a role as the protector of the terrorist, like hiding the terrorist. it happened to munfiatun, the wife of noordin m. top, who was sentenced to three years in prison on the basis of hiding information about australian embassy bombing in 2005 (saputro, 2010). dian’s capture became one of the signs of other women’s aggression in indonesia terrorism. this incident led to the arrest of several other female terrorist suspects, such as ika puspitasari who had been prepared to commit suicide bombings in bali. ika is a friend of solikin whom she knew from facebook in 2015. ika is a former indonesian migrant worker in hongkong, who funded the plan of terrorist acts in indonesia with her husband (institute for policy analysis of content (ipac), 2017). conclusion the position of women in the world of terrorism needs to be taken into account. like coins that have two different sides, women serve as agents of peace and agents of violence. the actions and behavior of women in the world of terrorism prove that the traditional feminist thinking, stating that peace is identical with women, has shifted. the current term of ‘peace’ for women is to sacrifice themselves in a tragic way. the emergence of female terrorists in indonesia is triggered ‘bride terrorist’ in indonesia: is she still considered as a peace agency? (fajar & dewi) 105 by variety of complex reasons such as family, fate, environment and influence of propaganda. although we cannot judge their religious views, fundamental beliefs have been chosen by them in their life. this is because women have the right to choose their own path, and they regard it as a form of empowerment. in fact, it becomes very hard to see their reasons. of course, the role of the state in this case is very important. the state needs to pay serious attention to the welfare of people’s lives, so that people do not take shortcuts to end their lives because of the demanding family needs. the presence of ‘bride terrorist’ becomes the latest way for terrorist groups to launch its action by making women as the main actors in suicide bombings. the strong influence of extremist groups motivate women to commit suicide bombings and dare to take any risks. assertiveness and willingness culminated in women can motivate them to do anything to achieve their goals. aware or not, terrorist groups use women who have always been associated with good things to attract other women to follow the path taken by women terrorists as a form of woman heroic act. in indonesia, a country with muslim majority, patriarchal culture still applies. international terrorist organizations, such as alqaeda and isis still make indonesia the target of recruiting terrorist members. the extremist teachings and member recruitment can be spread and done anywhere and anytime. it makes indonesian women easily influenced by religious doctrine. terrorist groups consider it quite easy to influence women to engage in terrorism acts. this paper does not indicate a negative view of women; however, the authors provide only a description of what is happening today with women based on terrorism phenomenon in indonesia. surely, indonesians were surprised by several women who were arrested for involvement in acts of terrorism. the arrest of dian yulia novi is a sign that women now have an important role in acts of terrorism, namely as female suicide bomber candidates. references alison, m. (2004). women as agents of political violence: gendering security. security dialogue, 449. allison, k. (2013). feminism and the war on terror. critical studies on terrorism. ayesha imam, s. g. (2017). the devil is in the details: feminist perspective on a development , women's rights, and fundamentalisms. journal gender & development, 4-17. bbc . (2015). warga negara indonesia mudah gabung isis. jakarta, dki jakarta, indonesia. bbc. (2017). benarkah teroris hendak serang presiden hari ini? dki jakarta, indonesia. bride. (2005). in murray, james (ed.), oxford dictionary. fealy, g. (2004). islamic radicalism in indonesia: the faltering revival? southeast asian affairs, 104. gentry, l. s. (2011). women, gender and terrorism . usa: university of georgia press. salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 2 no. 2, july 2019 106 institute for policy analysis of content (ipac). (2017, june 6). mothers to bombers: the evolution of indonesian women extrimists. jakarta: ipac. knop, k. v. (2007). the female jihad: al qaeda's women. studies in conflict & terrorism, 401. nacos, b. l. (2005). the portrayal of female terrorists in the media: similar framing patterns in the news coverage of women in politics and in terrorism . studies in conflict & terrorism, 441. novi, d. y. (2013, december 13). exclusive interview bersama dian yulia novi. (t. o. news, interviewer) ortbals, l. p.-s. (2013). terrorism and violent conflict: women's agency, leadership, and responses . london: spinger. peterson, a. s. (2014). global gender issues in the millenium 4th edition . usa : westview press. saputro, m. e. (2010). probabilitas teroris perempuan di indonesia. journal of social and political science, 218. sjoberg, l. (2009). feminist interrogation / terrorism studies. journal of international relations, 1. speckhard, a. (2015). bride of isis. australia: advance press. steans, j. (1998). gender and international relations: an introduction. uk: polity press. tempo. (2017). pola rekrutmen teroris jadikan perempuan sebagai pengantin . jakarta, dki jakarta, indonesia. 0202_00_cover.pdf 0202_01_fajar.pdf 0202_10_backcover.pdf salasika indonesian journal of gender, women, child, and social inclusion's studies volume 5, number 2 – december 2022 table of content javanese feminine leadership during the pandemic: a study of sragent regent’s leadership style in overcoming the covid-19 pandemic setyasih harini, riska wirawan 63 analysis of the local wisdom and role of women weavers in samarinda norhidayat 79 constraints and solutions to problems in online learning at sd kristen satya wacana, salatiga fidelis alvin basundara prima, eunice widyanti setyaningtyas 89 government’s responsibilities in handling cases of child sexual abuse in samarinda suryaningsi, edi rachmat, wingkolatin, atika yuliana ichsani 105 “decision to migrate” of female migrant workers in sendang biru, malang regency keppi sukesi, henny rosalinda, yahya, wahyu handayani , jedda ayu inggrida, elok anggraini, rany purnama hadi, rozaila farcha 125 index 141 editorial team chief editors arianti ina restiani hunga, universitas kristen satya wacana, indonesia (scopus id: 46161114400, google scholar) dewi candraningrum, universitas muhammadiyah surakarta, indonesia (google scholar) board of editors claudia derichs, humboldt universität zu berlin, germany (scopus id: 14026487800) ida sabelis, vrije universiteit (vu) amsterdam, the netherlands (scopus id: 6507181398, google scholar) siti kusujiarti, warren wilson college, usa (scopus id: 56276925900) ratna saptari, leiden university, the netherlands (scopus id: 6504610910) sylvia tiwon, university of california, usa (scopus id: 6506468591) emy susanti, universitas airlangga, indonesia (scopus id: 57213142220, google scholar) keppi sukesi, brawijaya university, indonesia (scopus id: 56025803300, google scholar) kristi poerwandari, university of indonesia, indonesia (scopus id: 25628305200, google scholar) willemijn de jong, university of zurich, switzerland (scopus id: 55258294800) lyn parker, the university of western australia, australia (scopus id: 56273266700) technical editors indriretno setyaningrahayu, universitas kristen satya wacana, indonesia (google scholar) daniel kurniawan, universitas kristen satya wacana, salatiga, indonesia (google scholar) suryaningsi, universitas mulawarman, indonesia (scopus id: 57223402854, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1093-810x, id sinta: 5990865, google scholar) agustinus fritz wijaya, universitas kristen satya wacana, indonesia (scopus id: 56461093400, google scholar) stefanus perangin-angin, universitas kristen satya wacana, indonesia (google scholar) reviewers elisabet titik murtisari, universitas kristen satya wacana, indonesia (scopus id: 38161752200, google scholar) asfa widiyanto, iain salatiga, indonesia (scopus id: 56451676900, google scholar) wening udasmoro, gadjah mada university, indonesia (scopus id: 56493135600) farah purwaningrum, the university of sydney, australia (scopus id: 57192369400, google scholar) alimatul qibtiyah, sunan kalijaga state islamic university, indonesia (scopus id: 57200660732, google scholar) tyas retno wulan, the jenderal soedirman university, indonesia (scopus id: 57205341358, google scholar) nurjanah, state university of jakarta, indonesia (scopus id: 57210948418) ira desiawanti mangiliko,the artha wacana christian university, indonesia keiko hirano, ochanomizu university, jepang (orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3258-6072) anik yuesti, universitas mahasaraswati, indonesia (scopus id: 57214104250, google scholar) nurdiana gaus, stiks tamalanre makassar, indonesia (google scholar) yacinta kurniasih, monash university, australia (google scholar) yafet yosafet wilben rissy, universitas kristen satya wacana, indonesia (scopus id: 57221474276, google scholar) constraints and solutions to problems … (prima and setyaningtyas) 89 constraints and solutions to problems in online learning at sd kristen satya wacana, salatiga fidelis alvin basundara prima elementary school teacher education, universitas kristen satya wacana, salatiga, indonesia eunice widyanti setyaningtyas elementary school teacher education, universitas kristen satya wacana, salatiga, indonesia correspondence emails: 292015601@student.uksw.edu, eunice.widyanti@uksw.edu abstract the covid-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on education. therefore, through the relevant ministries, the government made a crucial policy by enforcing distance or online learning. to support this mode of learning, the government also arranged an internet quota program for students, excluding various social media so that students focus on learning. however, it is undeniable that there were obstacles to learning. the results indicated that network constraints affected learning. network problems like intermittent sound disrupted the online learning process. to deal with it, parents changed the internet provider or waited for a stable connection. the dominant solution among respondents was to tailor variations in learning, namely hybrid learning, material recording, and learning applications, so learning could take place despite internet problems as materials were accessible through the cellphones of students or parents. all obstacles could be overcome due to good cooperation between schools, especially teachers, parents, and students. keywords: constraints, solutions, online learning, elementary school introduction at the beginning of 2019, the world was shocked by a new virus from wuhan, china. the virus known as covid-19 hit 215 countries around the world. the virus attacks the respiratory system in humans with acute respiratory distress, fever, cough, and shortness of breath symptoms. it prompted the who (world health organization) to declare a public health emergency on january 30, 2020. the corona-19 outbreak has had a negative impact on all aspects of human life, including education. in line with the statement from who, on march 24, 2020, the minister of education and culture of the republic of indonesia issued circular number 4 of 2020 concerning education policy in the emergency period of the spread of covid-19. the circular emphasized that the learning process must be done online or remotely. salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 5 no. 2, december 2022 90 online learning is learning that requires an internet connection. online learning allows students and teachers more freedom to learn together by choosing a place and time. syarifudin (2020) argues that online learning is a form of learning that can make students independent without relying on others. in addition, isman (2016) explains that online learning is the use of internet networks in the learning process. online learning is a method of education whereby students learn in a fully virtual environment. first introduced in the 1990s with the creation of the internet and utilized in distance learning, online learning (also called e-learning) is most prevalent in higher education, enabling students from different geographical areas to engage with an academic institution and other students online and learn flexibly, at their own pace, while working towards a degree or certificate (glossary, n.d.). online learning refers to an internet-based learning environment connecting students of diverse backgrounds with different perspectives. a higher education institution will use a learning management system, or lms, to facilitate online learning, which can take the form of asynchronous learning (where students are not required to be online at the same time and utilize discussion threads and emails to complete coursework) or synchronous learning (where students must be online at the same time). e-learning, also referred to as online learning or electronic learning, is the acquisition of knowledge that takes place through electronic technologies and media. in simple language, e-learning is "learning that is enabled electronically." typically, e-learning is conducted on the internet, where students can access their learning materials online at any place and time. e-learning most often takes place in the form of online courses, online degrees, or online programs. online learning has numerous advantages over traditional learning methods. some of these include the possibility for students to use selfpaced learning and choose their learning environments. e-learning is cost-effective and cost-efficient, as it removes the geographical obstacles often associated with traditional classrooms and education. there are as many definitions of e-learning as there are educational scientists worldwide. e-learning is used across all sectors of the economy and society – consequently, there are plenty of examples of e-learning being used effectively. e-learning is known as a learning system based on formalized teaching but with the help of electronic resources. while teaching can be based in or out of the classrooms, the use of computers and the internet forms the major component of e-learning. e-learning can also be termed as a networkenabled transfer of skills and knowledge, and the delivery of education is made to a large number of recipients at the same or different times. earlier, it was not accepted wholeheartedly as it was assumed this system lacked the human element required in learning. however, with the rapid progress in technology and the constraints and solutions to problems … (prima and setyaningtyas) 91 advancement in learning systems, it is now embraced by the masses. the introduction of computers was the basis of this revolution, and over time, as we get hooked to smartphones, tablets, etc., these devices now have an important place in the classrooms for learning. books are gradually getting replaced by electronic educational materials like optical discs or pen drives. knowledge can also be shared via the internet, accessible 24/7, anywhere, anytime. for adults, online learning often addresses many challenges adult learners face when trying to continue their studies. online learning allows them to progress at their own pace, submit assignments and take assessments at times best suited for them. this kind of flexibility is especially beneficial for adult learners because, often, they are forced to balance employment, family duties, and online learning altogether. for educational institutions, elearning brings the most potential uses of all. many accredited online colleges offer online degree programs, and more are planning to do so in the coming years. elearning degrees enable universities to accept considerably more students than they would have otherwise been able to due to space and working staff constraints. with e-learning, universities can become more international than ever before. with increased numbers of admitted students and reduced costs, educational institutions that can adapt to the standards of internet learning will undoubtedly see increased profitability. the future of online learning will continue to see exponential growth. as more educational institutions, corporations, and online learners worldwide recognize the importance of online learning, its role in education will only continue to rise. online learning already has numerous educational uses, and its future role will likely be immense. the agendas of the most successful educational institutions worldwide have already recognized that online learning can transform people, knowledge, skills, and performance. other educational institutions will likely follow suit sooner rather than later. however, we must not get ahead of ourselves. while the world of online education is undoubtedly an exciting world to be in, many students who are uncomfortable with online learning still prefer the traditional live, in-person teaching methods which they are used to. all students have unique learning styles, and online learning will likely never be a one-size-fits-all solution to education. online learning is a broad term that includes some instructional environments and approaches. asynchronous online courses. these types of course offerings do not take place in real time. students are provided with content and assignments and are given a time frame to complete coursework and exams. interaction usually takes place through discussion boards, blogs and wikis. as a result, there is no class meeting time. asynchronous online learning environments are effective for students with time constraints or busy schedules. salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 5 no. 2, december 2022 92 synchronous online courses. these course offerings require the instructor and all enrolled students to interact online simultaneously. similar in some ways to a webinar, participants interact through text, video or audio chat. synchronous learning environments enable students to participate in a course from a distance in real-time. hybrid courses. hybrid courses, also known as blended courses, are learning environments that allow for both in–person and online interaction. typically, hybrid courses meet in person several times a semester and provide computerbased communication between those face-to-face sessions. interruptions of courses can occur for a variety of reasons. students may experience confusion and anxiety during an interruption of their classes. it is best to have a plan to inform students about how the class will proceed. some good practices to consider are: communicate proactively: inform students about any changes or interruptions as early as possible. students may not know what your expectations are in terms of their current responsibilities. will they be expected to adhere to the schedule of assignments on the syllabus? if there are group projects planned, will these stay in place? what you communicate will depend upon the duration of the interruption, and this may not be clear early on. initial messages should reassure the students that they will not be held accountable for the interruption and that flexibility and accessibility will be part of any solution. reduce complexity: focus on your course, not the crisis. in the event of an external event that affects the broader school community, central resources will manage crisis communications, so you do not have to provide those kinds of updates. be realistic: develop a communication plan and share it with students. teachers may want to consider the following: how they will communicate with students: it is advisable to craft a group email and send it to the students in the event of a disruption. teachers will also want to consider whether they will communicate synchronously (in real-time), asynchronously (with a delay), or with a combination of both, depending upon the needs. how often teachers will communicate with your students: managing the communication load will be important as students may begin reaching out to teachers individually. it is essential at the outset to let students know how quickly they can expect a response. in a crisis, students may grow anxious if they do not hear back immediately. how teachers want the students to communicate with them: while most students at the outset of an interruption will reach out via email, teachers may want to identify an alternative solution that will make managing messages easier. teachers can create a class discussion board with a frequently asked questions forum which should reduce the need for them to respond to similar questions repeatedly. how students will communicate with each other: in some cases, students may have established working groups that they will want to continue. a discussion board will constraints and solutions to problems … (prima and setyaningtyas) 93 enable students to communicate asynchronously by posting messages to each other. teachers will want to establish communication guidelines for these discussion forums so that their expectations for appropriate communication are clear. how to communicate synchronously: online synchronous communications can be managed through various web conferencing solutions. when setting up a web conference, teachers will need to consider how technically complex the tool will be for them and their students and whether students can attend an online synchronous session. students will need internet access with sufficient bandwidth and the requisite technical ability to participate successfully in an online synchronous session. some students may live in different time zones, so this is also something to consider. distributing materials. in the event of an interruption, teachers may need to provide an updated syllabus that modifies the planned course activities, assignments, content, and due dates. once teachers have established clear communication procedures and pathways, they may want to send updated course materials. considerations when posting new course materials. ensure students know where to find the material: the simplest solution is to email students new course materials as attachments or links to online resources like videos, websites, or podcasts. teachers can also post these items on a discussion forum or a folder on google drive. use mobile-friendly formats. in a crisis, many students may only have access to a phone, so it is best to convert word documents, powerpoint slides, and excel spreadsheets to pdf format, which can be read on a mobile device. creating content. while emailing documents and hosting discussion forums are effective methods to provide continuity, they may not be an effective instructional strategy over more extended periods of interruption. the following are some tools teachers may need to create audio and video lectures. curating content. many multimedia resources are available online, so teachers should not feel the need to create all course materials for students. in an unplanned interruption, teachers may not have the time to master content creation tools and create, edit, and post content. an excellent first step is to search some databases for readings, link to websites, and use existing videos and podcasts to integrate media into the course. fostering collaboration. it is essential to ensure that interruptions in the course do not disrupt existing collaborations or prevent the development of meaningful studentcentred instruction. consider these suggestions when planning for student collaboration: choose asynchronous tools if possible. asynchronous tools are not limited to email and text. voice thread, as an example, allows students to post audio or video comments in an online, mobile-friendly and accessible environment. it is important to remember that students are not in the course to acquire technology skills but rather to focus on the course learning objectives as they relate to the discipline, which is often demanding salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 5 no. 2, december 2022 94 and complex. therefore, it is important to choose tools with low barriers to use so that students do not feel that their inability to master a chosen tool will negatively impact their learning. communicate collaboration outcomes. let students know why they are being asked to collaborate, how their collaboration will be measured, and the learning goals for any required collaborations. similar to teachers' communication plan, a plan for student collaboration will need to be developed and shared that explains the duration and frequency of student-to-student communication. assessing students. assessing students during a course interruption can present several challenges. in the case of written assignments, there are several options. document transfer. it is advisable to refrain from having students email attachments to teachers as this can quickly prove overwhelming and make tracking student submissions difficult. alternatively, teachers can have students upload documents to google drive. in this case, they can create a course folder. if they want to prevent students from seeing each other's work, they can create sub-folders for each student. students can post their work on a discussion forum if anonymity is not essential. document naming conventions. be sure to tell the students the preferred format for the names of documents they will send teachers. otherwise, teachers may get many documents named "doc1." document format requirements. let the students know the preferred document format; otherwise, students may send documents in a format teachers cannot open, and addressing this will add to the communication load. deadline flexibility. teachers may need to be more flexible than usual during a course disruption, as it may take some time for students to acclimate to this new learning style. let students know when to communicate that they are having difficulty with the assignment or the technology as early as possible. tests and quizzes. the preferred method of student assessment may be tests and quizzes rather than writing assignments. teachers can set online tests whenever possible so that each student gets a different order of questions and answers. providing feedback. when giving an assignment, it is best to inform the students when they can expect feedback from teachers and what kind of feedback they can expect. as with the communication plan, it is best to be realistic regarding the turnaround time. selecting tools. when selecting a tool for use online, it is essential to consider the following: suitability. teachers may want to consider if the tools serve their instructional purpose. ease of use. when deciding on a tool to use, be sure to evaluate the tool as a non-user. try to determine how easy or difficult it will be for students to achieve a level of competence with the tool to use it to learn effectively and participate meaningfully. accessibility. be sure to choose tools that are accessible and flexible to support multiple learning constraints and solutions to problems … (prima and setyaningtyas) 95 approaches and engagement for all students and in terms of legislative requirements for meeting the specific accessibility needs of learners with disabilities. required equipment. they may want to survey students' access to technology when selecting tools. for example, all students may not have access to webcams or microphones, which would inhibit their ability to do web conferencing. the role of teachers in learning is to pay attention to all aspects related to the achievement of learning outcomes. kunandar (2013) argues that learning outcomes are certain competencies or abilities, including cognitive, affective and psychomotor, achieved or mastered by students after joining the teaching and learning process. to maximize learning outcomes, learning media is needed. imas and sani (2017) argue that learning media can be interpreted as an intermediary for delivering learning messages from message resources to message receivers so that teaching and learning interactions occur. learning media has two elements: the message or teaching material to be delivered or software and the viewer or hardware. based on the background of the problems above, researchers conducted research on obstacles in online learning and the solutions to improve student learning outcomes during the pandemic. this study aims to investigate the learning obstacles of grade iv students of sd kristen satya wacana salatiga in the semester i of the 2021/2022 academic year and solutions to the use of online learning media to maximize student learning outcomes. this research was expected to create a synergy of all educational actors, schools, teachers, students, and parents, to achieve learning objectives. research method the research employed a descriptive qualitative method. according to nazir (2013), a descriptive method examines the status of a group of people, an object, a condition, a system of thought, or a class of events in the present. this descriptive research aims to make a systematic, factual, and accurate description of the facts, properties and relationships between the phenomena investigated (nazir, 2013). in addition, sugiyono (2016) also explains that qualitative research methods are based on the post-positivism philosophy used to examine the condition of natural objects emphasizing the meaning of generalizations. therefore, qualitative descriptive research is a method that describes a phenomenon through descriptions in the form of sentences and language. in studies adopting a qualitative approach, there are no population and samples as in quantitative research because the research departs from the case of an individual or group’s existence in a particular social situation, and the results apply only to that social situation. according to arikunto (2016), the research subject is an object, thing, or person to which data for research variables are attached. in a study, the research subject has a strategic role because it is the data about the variables the researcher observes. in qualitative salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 5 no. 2, december 2022 96 research, the research subject is called an informant, who provides information about the data the researcher investigates. based on the theory above, the data source in this study is primary data from the questionnaire distributed to 10 informants consisting of five parents, one grade iv teacher, and four students. according to sugiyono (2016), primary data is a data source that directly provides data to collectors. the researcher collected the data from the first source or place where the study was conducted. in this study, primary data came from questionnaires and interviews with informants. the second data source is secondary data. sugiyono (2016) argues that secondary data is a data source that does not directly provide data to data collectors, such as data from other people or documents. in this study, secondary data were from books and the internet. results and discussion research results the results of the study are presented in two tables, 1) questionnaires distributed to four students containing five questions (table 1) and 2) questionnaires distributed to five parents containing five questions (table 2). no statement sum percentage 1 what media or applications are used to facilitate distance learning at school? a. whatsapp group and google classroom b. whatsapp group and google meet c. google classroom and google meet d. whatsapp group, youtube and google meet 1 1 1 1 25% 25% 25% 25% sum 100% table 1. student questionnaire question 1 no statement sum percentage 2 what are the technical issues relating to the use of distance learning media/applications? a. signals and sounds are unclear. b. unsupportive signals. 1 3 25% 75% sum 100% table 2. student questionnaire question 2 table 1 above shows the media or applications students use as distance learning media. each student mentioned four different combinations of media used, including whatsapp, google classroom, google meet, and youtube. table 2 reveals one (25%) student pointing out the problem with signal and unclear sound and three (75%) students reporting problems with unsupportive signal. constraints and solutions to problems … (prima and setyaningtyas) 97 no statement sum % 3 what do you think is the solution to the answers to the previous question? a. face-to-face learning is carried out. b. using several alternative networks. c. buy quota until the network returns to normal. d. change internet provider (sim card). 1 1 1 1 25% 25% 25% 25% sum 100% table 3. student questionnaire question 3 no statement sum % 4 what communication problems occur when using distance learning media/applications? a. the teacher's voice is unclear/intermittent, and attendance is manually checked by monitoring the students joining the google meeting. b. no problem because the teachers are quite quick to respond if there is a whatsapp message from the parents. c. management of internet quotas and signal constraints. d. i don't understand if it's explained through online media. 1 1 1 1 25% 25% 25% 25% sum 100% table 4. student questionnaire question 4 table 3 reveals the solution to the problems in question 2 indicated by the students. each student mentioned different solutions, including a good signal, several alternative networks, quota usage during unstable networks, and internet provider (sim card) change. table 4 reveals students’ answers to the question about communication problems occurring when using distance learning media/applications. all students indicated different answers, including the teacher's voice was unclear/intermittent, attendance was manually checked by monitoring the students joining google meetings, no problem because the teachers were quick enough to respond if there was a whatsapp message from parents, internet quota management and signal constraints, and difficulty in understanding the material if it was explained through online media. salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 5 no. 2, december 2022 98 no statement sum % 5 what do you think is the solution to the problem of using distance learning media/applications? a. no solution since it is only an occasional network problem. b. no solution, all is okay. c. face-to-face learning. d. daily checklist of tasks. 1 1 1 1 25% 25% 25% 25% sum 100% table 5. student questionnaire question 5 no statement sum % 1 what media or applications are used to facilitate distance learning at school? a. whatsapp group and google classroom b. whatsapp group and google meet c. google classroom and google meet d. whatsapp group, youtube and google meet 1 1 1 1 25% 25% 25% 25% sum 100% table 6. parent questionnaire question 1 no statement sum % 2 what are the problems in terms of technology mastery occur when using the distance learning media/application? a. children do not understand, have signal problems, and often open online games. b. until now, there has been no problem with technology mastery. c. it's just an occasional network problem. 1 1 3 20% 20% 60% sum 100% table 7. parent questionnaire results question 2 table 5 indicates that the four students also had different opinions on the solutions to the problems in question 4, including no solution because it was an occasional network problem, no solution because all is okay, face-to-face learning, and a daily checklist of tasks. table 6 describes parents’ answers to the questionnaire. the table reveals parents’ answers to the questions about the media or applications used as distance learning media at school. each parent mentioned a different combination of media, including whatsapp, google classroom, google meet, and youtube. table 7 above points out that one (20%) parent mentioned that children did not understand, had signal problems, and often opened online games, one (20%) parent said that there had been no problems with technology mastery, and three (60%) parents said that it was an occasional network problem. constraints and solutions to problems … (prima and setyaningtyas) 99 no statement sum % 3 what are some suggestions for the solution to your answers to the previous question? a. buy regular quota or change internet providers temporarily until the previously used network returns to normal. b. face-to-face learning is carried out. c. using multiple internet providers. d. upload to youtube. 1 1 2 1 20% 20% 40% 20% sum 100% table 8. parent questionnaire question 3 no statement sum % 4 what communication problems often occur when using distance learning media/applications? a. no problem because the teachers were relatively quick to respond in whatsapp and quickly answered or gave solutions to us (parents), so we were greatly helped. b. children use a lot of online media and often play games. c. management of internet quotas and signal constraints. d. lack of control over assigned tasks. e. the teacher's voice is unclear/intermittent, and attendance is checked manually by monitoring the students joining google meetings. 1 1 1 1 1 20% 20% 20% 20% 20% sum 100% table 9. parent questionnaire question 4 table 8 above shows that one (20%) parent suggested buying regular quota or changing internet providers until the previously used network returns to normal, another (20%) parent recommended face-toface learning, two (40%) parents proposed using multiple alternative providers, and one (20%) parent suggested to upload to youtube. table 9 points out that each parent has different opinions about the communication problems occurring when using distance learning media/applications, including no problems faced because the teachers were helpful as they were quite quick to respond in whatsapp and quickly answered or gave solutions to parents, excessive access to online media and games, internet quota management and signal constraints, lack of control over assigned tasks, and unclear/intermittent teacher's voice and manual attendance check by monitoring the students joining google meeting. salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 5 no. 2, december 2022 100 no statement sum % 5 what do you think is the solution to the problem of using remote learning media/applications? a. provide a separate link for attendance (a special link is made for attendance), and set rules of conduct during google meetings to better manage the question and answer section. b. must spend a lot of time accompanying children when using online media. c. nonoptimal use of google classroom since only limited materials are available. the solution is to provide additional material to help parents understand the materials the children learn. d. daily checklist of tasks 1 1 1 1 25% 25% 25% 25% sum 100% table 10. parent questionnaire question 5 table 10 indicates that all four parents have different solutions to the problem when using remote learning media/applications, including providing a separate link for attendance and setting up rules of conduct during google meetings to manage the question and answer section better, spending considerable time accompanying children when using online media, providing additional materials for parents to understand what their children learn to deal with the nonoptimal use of google classroom as only limited modules were available and setting daily checklist of tasks. discussion kunandar (2013) argues that learning outcomes are specific competencies or abilities, including cognitive, affective, and psychomotor, achieved or mastered by students after joining the teaching and learning process. in addition, the learning outcomes, according to susanto (2013), are changes that occur in students in terms of cognitive, affective, and psychomotor aspects as a result of learning activities. in improving learning outcomes, all elements related to learning are needed, including learning media, methods, and learning facilities that lead to the achievement of learning outcomes. during the covid-19 pandemic, there was a change in the learning system, from offline to online, to anticipate the impact of the pandemic on the education community and society in general. this situation is challenging for schools, especially teachers, students, and parents. the school must sort out learning media to best accommodate the conditions of constraints and solutions to problems … (prima and setyaningtyas) 101 students, parents, and learning materials. a teacher should have an understanding of students' learning styles. determining the learning media used is essential, especially during the covid-19 pandemic. chatib (2014) argues that a child's learning style is like an open door. a child will better understand every item of information entering through a wide-open door. in the end, it will create long-term memories. professional teachers must identify the learning styles of their students. characteristics and traits may reveal student learning styles, including visual (sight/eyes), auditive (hearing/ears), kinesthetic (motion and touch), tactile (groping or touch), olfactory (smell/nose), gustative (tasting/tongue), and combinative (more than one sense) learning styles. the diverse student learning styles challenge teachers in determining the applications used in online learning. the determination of the type of online applications can be seen in table 1 and is confirmed by parents in table 6. online applications benefit distance learning but have limitations, which are obstacles for all involved in learning, teachers, students, and parents. table 2 identifies the obstacles in online learning as unclear sound and unsupportive signals. further, the parents added that the obstacles prevented the children from understanding teaching materials. the problem with signal impacts students' understanding of learning materials. access to the internet increases the tendency to play games. to prevent this from happening, parental assistance is needed during online learning. however, the grade iv teacher argued that internet use could motivate students to learn independently and responsibly even though sometimes learning was disrupted by the unstable network connection. table 8 identifies that one of the solutions to the above problems is carrying out face-to-face learning. affandi madjid, an educational technology & content developer, argues in his blog that the benefits of face-to-face learning include 1) easier interaction and communication, 2) more familiar learning sources and media, 3) no need to connect to the internet, 4) practical character assessment, 5) less stressful and more focused learning, 6)more controlled learning process, and 7) easier and more effective practical activities. tables 4 and 8 indicate that students and parents have the same opinion regarding the solutions. a grade iv teacher added that he asked the students to be patient. he further explained that patience helped students to1) have a sense of gratitude even for a small thing, 2) understand life, 3) be an optimistic person, especially to achieve success, 4) complain less, and 5) be liked by many people, as patient people tend to be helpful. other identified solutions are to buy quota to use until the network returns to normal and change the internet provider (sim card). these solutions reveal the persistence to keep online learning running during a pandemic. through the ministry of education, culture, research, and technology, the government also salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 5 no. 2, december 2022 102 launched a 12 gb/month quota assistance program for elementary school students from september to november 2021. the program was beneficial for students. the ministry excluded social networks, including badoo, bigolive, facebook, instagram, periscope, pinterest, snackvideo, tinder, and tumblr, to ensure the quota given was used appropriately. conclusion distance/online learning implementation requires the cooperation of all elements involved, including the government and schools, especially teachers, students, and parents (wei bao as cited in satrianingrum & prasetyo, 2021). jamaluddin et al. (2020) explain further that a teacher is not only an expert in providing teaching materials or textbooks offline (faceto-face in the classroom) but must also use online learning methods. using online learning media applications is very beneficial for students in online learning. adopting various online applications can increase student learning motivation during and after the covid-19 pandemic. therefore, cooperation between all parties involved, schools, parents and students, is needed to improve student learning outcomes. the findings suggested that online learning succeeded in achieving its goal of implementing learning that can be carried out anywhere. the obstacles were weaknesses but served as a learning process to help students learn during the covid-19 pandemic. references arikunto, s. (2016). prosedur penelitian: suatu pendekatan praktik. jakarta: rineka cipta chatib, m. (2014). human parents: boosting potential and intelligence by appreciating every child's fitrah. bandung: mizan pustaka. glossary. (n.d.). top hat. https://tophat.com/glossary/o/onli ne-learning/ isman, m. (2016). pembelajaran moda dalam jaringan (moda daring). proceedings of the seminar nasional pendidikan berkemajuan dan menggembirakan (the progressive & fun education seminar), 586– 588. http://hdl.handle.net/11617/78 68 kunandar. (2013). penilaian autentik (penilaian hasil belajar peserta didik berdasarkan kurikulum 2013). jakarta: raja grafindo persada. imas, k ., & sani, b. (2017). lebih memahami konsep & proses pembelajaran: implementasi & praktek dalam kelas. jakarta: kata pena jamaluddin, d., ratnasih, t., gunawan, h., & panjiah, e. (2020). pembelajaran daring masa pandemik covid-19 pada calon guru: hambatan, solusi, dan proyeksi. karya tulis ilmiah, lembaga penelitian dan pengabdian kepada masyarakat uin sunan gunung djati, 1-8. nazir, m. (2013). metode penelitian. bogor: ghalia indonesia. satrianingrum a. p. & prasetyo, i. (2021). persepsi guru dampak pandemi covid-19 terhadap pelaksanaan https://publikasiilmiah.ums.ac.id/handle/11617/10991 https://publikasiilmiah.ums.ac.id/handle/11617/10991 https://publikasiilmiah.ums.ac.id/handle/11617/10991 https://publikasiilmiah.ums.ac.id/handle/11617/10991 http://hdl.handle.net/11617/7868 http://hdl.handle.net/11617/7868 constraints and solutions to problems … (prima and setyaningtyas) 103 pembelajaran daring di paud. journal obsesi: journal pendidikan anak usia dini, 5(1). doi: 10.31004/obsesi.v5i1.574 sugiyono. (2016). metode penelitian kuantitatif, kualitatif dan r&d. bandung: alfabet. susanto, a. (2013). teori belajar dan pembelajaran di sekolah dasar. jakarta: kencana prenadamedia group. syarifudin, a. s. (2020). implementasi pembelajaran daring untuk meningkatkan mutu pensisikan sebagai dampak diterapkannya social distancing. metalingua, 5(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.21107/metalingu a.v5i1.7072. https://doi.org/10.31004/obsesi.v5i1.574 https://doi.org/10.21107/metalingua.v5i1.7072 https://doi.org/10.21107/metalingua.v5i1.7072 salasika indonesian journal of gender, women, child, and social inclusion's studies volume 1, number 2 – july 2018 table of content gender and ict usage: self-assessment of critical issues facing indonesia-thai gen y students' future by 2030 leslie retno angeningsih & bangon sirisunyaluck 75 sekar jagad art studio as an agent of citizens’s diplomacy (study of women’s participation in intercultural relations) setyasih harini 93 “aliansi laki-laki baru”: the role of social media in promoting gender equality in indonesia eni maryani, preciosa alnashava j, & detta rahmawan 107 standardized certification for indonesian female migrant workers: towards qualified domestic workers kiki zakiah & chairiawaty 123 pragmatics competence of preschool age children eti setiawati & putri kumala dewi 135 chief editors dr. ir. arianti ina restiani hunga, m.si. (scopus id: 46161114400; google scholar); dr. phil. dewi candraningrum. (google scholar). executive editors indriretno setyaningrahayu, m.pd. (google scholar); daniel kurniawan, m.pd. (google scholar); andi misbahul pratiwi, m.si. (google scholar). board of editors prof. claudia derichs (scopus id: 14026487800). humboldt universität zu berlin, germany; assoc. prof. dr. ida sabelis (scopus id: 6507181398). vrije universiteit (vu) amsterdam, the netherlands; prof. siti kusujiarti.ma. (scopus id: 56276925900). warren wilson college, usa; dr. ratna saptari (scopus id: 6504610910). leiden university; prof. sylvia tiwon (scopus id: 6506468591). university of california; prof. dr. emy susanti, ma. (google scholar). airlangga university; prof. dr. ir. keppi sukesi, ms. (scopus id: 56025803300). brawijaya university; dr. kristi poerwandari, ma. (scopus id: 25628305200). university of indonesia; prof. dr. willemijn de jong (scopus id: 55258294800). university of zurich, switzerland; prof. lyn parker (scopus id: 56273266700). the university of western australia. reviewers prof. lyn parker (scoups id: 56273266700). university of western australia, perth, australia; dr. elisabet titik murtisari (scopus id: 38161752200; google scholar). satya wacana christian university; dr. wening udasmoro (scopus id: 56493135600; google scholar). gadjah mada university; dr. phil. farah purwaningrum (scopus id: 57205254451; google scholar). the university of sydney & rahayu and partners in association with hfw; alimatul qibtiyah, m.si. ma. ph.d. (scopus & google scholar). sunan kalijaga state islamic university; dr. tyas retno wulan, m.si. (scopus & google scholar). the jenderal soedirman university; dr. titik sumarti, msi. (scopus & google scholar). bogor agricultural university; prof. dr. mien ratoe oedjoe, mpd. (google scholar). the university of nusa cendana, kupang; j. casey hammond, phd. (scopus & google scholar). singapore university of technology and design; dr. phil. ratna noviani (google scholar). gadjah mada university; dr. rina herlina haryanti (google scholar). sebelas maret university; dr. ida ruwaida noor (google scholar). university of indonesia; dr. nurjanah, sp.m.pd. (google scholar). state university of jakarta; dr. ir. evi feronika elbaar, m.si. (google scholar). the university of palangka raya; dr. jendrius m.si. (google scholar). andalas university; dr. grace jenny soputan, se. (google scholar). manado state university; dr. anis farida, s.sos., sh., m.si. (scopus & google scholar). sunan ampel state islamic university surabaya; ira desiaanti mangiliko, s.si,.ph.d. (google scholar). the artha wacana christian university. sekar jagad art studio as an agent of citizens’s diplomacy … (setyasih harini) 93 sekar jagad art studio as an agent of citizens’s diplomacy (study of women’s participation in intercultural relations) setyasih harini slamet riyadi university, indonesia setyasih.rini@gmail.com abstract communication technology could increase opportunities for indonesians to develop socio-cultural relations with people from other countries. nowadays interrelations of citizens can support government policy. sekar jagad art studio is group of women from sukoharjo regency, central java who has interest of traditional art and often make international performances. this activity has the purpose to strengthen national identity and national character. the other purpose of this activity is to support diplomacy of government. it is important to promote one of indonesian culture (javanese art) in international level. promoting culture in international performance is one way to increase the positive image of indonesia. the purpose of this research is to explain how women’s intercultural engagement can be an agent of citizens’ diplomacy. the subjects of the research were the women who are members of sekar jagad art studio. as a qualitative project, the data was collected from documentation and interview. the result of this research shows that the women of sekar jagad art studio promote javanese culture through international performances. these activities can be seen to represent citizens’ diplomacy and support the diplomatic efforts of the indonesian government aimed at strengthening relationships with other countries. in summary, this research shows how sekar jagad art studio as an agent for citizens’ diplomacy has promoted javanese culture to foreign countries in order to strengthen national identity and promote a positive image of indonesia. key words: citizens diplomacy, participation, culture introduction communication technology could increase opportunities for indonesian citizens to develop relations with european citizens. developing relations between citizens shows an increase public participation in international relations. these activities impact business, social relations and cultural relations. intercultural relations can be facilitated through cultural performances. some intercultural activities conducted between indonesian and non-indonesian citizens can help develop the indonesian economy. other activities may improve indonesia’s bargaining position. through enhancing indonesia’s image abroad. diplomacy is supported. this article salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 1 no. 2, july 2018 94 examines how sekar jagad art studio, which is a women’s cultural group based in the sub-district of polokarto, in sukoharjo, central java, which maintain kebo kinol art has been effective in strengthening intercultural ties between indonesia and germany, netherland, and england. the indonesian ministry of education and culture has supported kebo kinol performances. it is important to explore the definition of citizen diplomacy concept. citizens diplomacy is part of modern diplomacy. diplomacy is concerned with the management of relations between states and between states and sub-states (non-state government). other actors as agent of diplomacy can be presented by organization, business, media or community groups in society. according to classical diplomacy, the state is the only actor of diplomacy because the state (government) has the power to make relations with other governments. diplomacy is often thought as being concerned with peaceful activity. barston (2013, p. 1) stated before this century that diplomacy as interrelations between state has state perspective. in this perspective, it is concerned with advising, shaping and implementing foreign policy. it means that states through their formal power, organizations and other representatives, could be actors to articulate, coordinate and secure particular or wider interests, using correspondence, private talks, exchanges of view, lobbying, visits, threats and other related activities in the pursuit of national interests. odoh (2014, p. 10) stated that the civil-republican perceives the rights of individuals to become citizens. this statement of odoh is reinforced by other scholars that citizens are not as inherent but as acquired through civil practices (agena, 2004; omemma, 2006; hoffman & graham, 2006). hence, one is not a citizen by simply belonging to a community or residing in a territory. present and future capacity of citizens to influence politics is important (agena, 2004). the liberal conception notion of “citizens” and “citizenship” are inherent in individuals prior to community, and guaranteed with minimal obligations to the community or state. citizenship in the liberal context emphasizes the rights of individuals to be guaranteed and protected by the state. some scholars explain that the rights of citizens include (a) basiccivil rights which entail freedom of speech, freedom to own property, freedom to worship and equality of justice to all; (b) political rights which embody franchise and rights to criticize government; (c) social rights which require that the citizens be protected against poverty, and have access to education and housing (hoffman and graham, 2006; omemma, 2006; odoh, 2014). in a sense, citizens must possess these three categories of rights in the state if their participation, welfare, and security are to be guaranteed in the society. the concept of citizens diplomacy has evolved since it was first developed in 1981. in developing the term citizens diplomacy, american state department officer joseph montville, introduced the term two track diplomacy. following this, the concept of four-track diplomacy emerged. this encompassed conflict resolution professionals, economic sekar jagad art studio as an agent of citizens’s diplomacy … (setyasih harini) 95 actors, private citizens and the media. in 1991, an american louis diamond, known as the father of pediatric hematology, and ambassador john mcdonald added to the definition of multitrack diplomacy by including religion, activism, research, training and education and philanthropy (institute for multitrack diplomacy, 2013, p. 73). handelman agreed that diplomacy is a way to bring peace, stability and long-lasting change to situations of social conflict and participation by the people is essential. citizens diplomacy is also referred to as people-to-people initiatives. initiatives of people-topeople is necessary in building the foundation of a new social order rooted in peace and coexistence (handelman, 2012, p. 163). barston added that as an important feature of modern diplomacy is the enhanced role of personal diplomacy by the head of state or government (barston, 2013, p. 7). barston argument shows that role of citizens in diplomatic activities can increase understanding between multiple countries in order to reduce tensions. citizens diplomacy is based on “track two” diplomacy. it implies activities or efforts done by citizens related to issues which are being worked on by governments. in other words, diplomacy done by citizens supports the diplomacy which is being done by government (lee, 1997, p. 1). according to jos havermas (1999, p. 222), “track two” or the second track, has significant differences with the first track, since it has a role in building mutual understanding between communities of two nations or more with different backgrounds. this second track also made serious effort to build a new way of thinking for societies of other countries, while the first track only tried to inspire decision makers in policy-making based upon rational considerations and interests. referring to such comprehension, the second track is considered as a way where citizens were assumed to be able to make positive contributions towards relationship building between communities. citizens were also assumed to be able to handle conflict prevention, peace building, and conflict transformation (fischer, 2006; pouligny, 2005; barnes, 2006; lieberfeld, 2002). this new multidisciplinary "diplomat" can still partner with governments partner to communicate with and build harmonious relationships with other countries. actor diplomats other than the government can act as targets, and partners as well as independently. non-government actors showed support the government’s diplomatic agenda in their relations with citizens from abroad. these actors have a more independent role than those engaged in formal government diplomacy. the independent role usually leads to the existence of citizens who are able to build relationships at the grassroots level by showing support to the government’s diplomatic agenda in their relations with citizens from abroad. these actors have a more independent role then those engaged in formal government diplomacy. communication may provide understanding to other citizens about their country in the form of trade or friendship. citizens activities to introduce their country salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 1 no. 2, july 2018 96 to other countries can also be realized in the form of a cultural exhibition known as citizens diplomacy. any citizens may play a part in non-government diplomacy regardless of social, ethnic or economic background. more details can be seen in the following figure: figure 1. study of domestic dimension of diplomacy; source: huijgh, 2013 the diagram above shows that citizens’ role in building relations with citizens from other countries are still bound by programs made by government. in practice, this kind of diplomacy was initiated by the citizens. as independent actors, relations among citizens could be made more flexible and not bound by interest, all the while supporting government’s effort to exhibit positive images of international relations. on the other hand, eastwood (2007, p. 29) noticed that nation’s role in implementation of this kind of diplomacy could not be removed yet, especially in terms of funding. but it should be noted that the concept of citizens diplomacy is not always on focus of national capacity but citizens contribution in international relations. in practice, citizen diplomacy varies depending on access granted by nation (government) in domestic politics, also the citizens’ capabilities themselves (odoh, s.i., nwogbaga, & david m.e, 2014, p. 11). issues outside of conflicts and peace-making, such as education and culture, backgrounds at separation between roles of nation and citizens participation were not done since both were supposed to collaborate in practice (eleanor j. brown, w. john morgan and simon mcgrath, 2009: p. 71). monteville argued that citizen diplomacy implies the individual citizens have the rights and responsibilities to help realize the national interests through their interactions to complement official diplomatic activities. hence, though citizen diplomacy has varied interpretations among scholars, it centrally implies the transnational flow of information and ideas through the interaction of private groups and interests of different countries which influence the formation and execution of foreign policies in the pursuit of national interests (odoh, s.i., nwogbaga, david m.e: 2014, p. 11). many scholars assume that varied interpretations and definitions of citizens diplomacy accentuated two critical elements. there are the participation of the citizens in the foreign policy processes and protection of the citizens by the state. the first refers to public activities through international relations that related with pursuit national interests. protection o f t h e c i t i z e n s b y t h e s t a t e r e f e r s t o e f f o r t o f g o v e r n m e n t p r o t e c t t h e c i t i z e n s i n o v e r s e a s . (pac, 2005; ojo, 2007; eke, 2009; eze, 2009). these two elements of participation and protection are very instrumental in the foreign policy of any country towards sekar jagad art studio as an agent of citizens’s diplomacy … (setyasih harini) 97 realizing the stated national interests (aja, 2009: p.231). lee sherry mueller (2012, p. 79) sees citizens diplomacy as "one hand at a time" because in practice there is intensive personal communication between citizens from one country to another. such interactions can actually help or support the relationships made by his country against other countries. there are two purposes of the implementation of citizens diplomacy. first, implementation of citizens diplomacy is to help the government create a more conducive atmosphere and to provide an understanding of the differences in national identity at the grassroot level. second, citizens diplomacy is deemed necessary and able to bridge and complement the unreached government's role in conducting foreign relations. as a result, citizens diplomacy shows the role of citizens sporadically as partner of the government to pursuit national interests through foreign relations. citizens who become diplomat of citizens diplomacy as stated of paul sharp (2001, p. 137-138) distinguished from target and represented parties. there are five types of diplomat citizens. type representative parties target type 1: “citizens diplomat as a go-between messenger” state state type 2: “the citizens diplomats as a representative for a sectoral, regional, or local economic interest” sub-state actor non state type 3: “the citizens diplomat as a lobbyist or advocate for a particular cause” idea state type 4: “the citizens diplomat as a subverter of transformer of existing policies and/or political arrangements, domestic and/or international” idea non state type 5: “the citizens diplomat as an autonomous agent in international relations” individual state and non-state figure 2. typologies citizens diplomats of paul sharp from the figure above, paul sharp explains that the first type refers to citizen d i p l o m a t a s a gobetween messenger. it means citizens become diplomat when crisis, conflict or tension in intergovernmental relations. the role of the citizens is to reduce tension between governments. the second type refers to the citizens diplomats as a representative for a sectoral, regional, or local economic interest. citizens who become diplomats represent of sub-state actor such as business, group of culture, scholars, etc. they make communication and influence between non-state actor to pursue specific interest. the third type involves citizen diplomat as a lobbyist or advocate for a particular cause. they promote specific idea like peace, go-green, save the earth, etc. citizens diplomat of third type salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 1 no. 2, july 2018 98 also influence other government to agree with their idea. activities of this citizens diplomat through lobbying and campaign in international level. fourth, the citizen diplomat as a subverter of transformer of existing policies and/or political arrangements, domestic and/or international. target of diplomacy of this citizens diplomat not the other government but the non-state actor. fifth, the citizens diplomat as an autonomous agent in international relations. this implies that one can only claim to be citizens diplomat when they have initiative to solve certain issue. they also influence other government or non-state government to change their policy. there are three criteria regarding citizens diplomacy in international relations activities, namely: first, the existence of ordinary citizens participation: facilitated or voluntary. this participation can be done through government initiation representing the state as well as voluntarily. citizens participation is a general characteristic of the implementation of citizens diplomacy, especially related to state-based diplomacy. second, complementary to statebased diplomacy. the activity of citizens diplomacy is said to be complementary to state-based diplomacy, meaning that the lobbyists act as actors that encourage the success of inter-country diplomacy. here citizens diplomacy also acts as an instrument to initiate interstate diplomacy which is subsequently undertaken by the government. third, it requires global awareness. citizens diplomats or citizens ambassadors do not have to be from the start as having global awareness as required for professionals acting as diplomats do. the global awareness possessed by individuals who later act as citizens diplomats only arises when they have understood the global issues and are able to act strategically to respond. global awareness is shaped through experience-based learning from citizens as well as training processes facilitated by others. the implementation of citizens diplomacy shows the power of soft power, as stated by joseph nye. this power of soft power becomes an essential component of national power of diplomacy with other countries. in the view of joseph nye, the power of soft power shows interrelations between non-state actors from diverse background (michael murphy, 2009, p. 201). a universal culture is one issue and easier to be accepted by people from diverse backgrounds. harini (2017) supports the idea of clifford geertz that culture is a system that can be expressed into various symbolic forms by means of mobilizing and educating from generation to generation. as a result of human inventiveness, intention, and taste, culture is able to influence life such as knowledge, the system idea, value and habits. on the other hand, the results of human creation, intention, and think are also formed in real, sensitive forms to help humans. hence, culture becomes an integral part of human life because it affects all individual activities both in terms of thinking and actions and the results of these activities. globalization also affects increasing public participation. thus, public participation is a symbol of the implementation of democracy in which there is public sekar jagad art studio as an agent of citizens’s diplomacy … (setyasih harini) 99 involvement in the formulation of policies to solve state problems (creighton, 2005, p. 101). the opinion of pimbert and wakeford (2001, p. 121) shows that democracy without citizens deliberation and participation is ultimately an empty and meaningless concept. the idea is quite reasonable considering the concept of democracy itself ie from, by and for the people so that the involvement of the citizens is believed to facilitate the work of the government. the advantages of public participation are: first, providing opportunities for open communication between policymakers and the public. second, public involvement as a party who is well aware of the real conditions can provide accurate information to policymakers. third, two-way communication between citizens and policymakers gives positive contributions to sustainable decisions as people expect. on the other way, the involvement of such citizens requires readiness, awareness and openness among citizens with decision makers. the existence of public participation is sometimes considered too timeconsuming. public participation, although it takes time and cost is not small but its existence is very helpful to the government both internal and external scope. the participation of citizens of internal scope will strengthen unity and maintain national identity of the nation (ellen, 2013, p.87). externally, the involvement of citizens can help the process of negotiation diplomacy by the government. bryson (2002, p. 3) expressly give credence to this perception of public participation that it can build better relationships by asking, considering, and involving people in work and decisions and affect them naturally create and enhance relationship with other people. citizen diplomacy expressly as public participation. diplomacy conducted by diverse aspects of all national identity can facilitate understanding among the international community in relation the unique characteristics of the country concerned. diplomacy is expected to minimize the tendency of countries toward conflict and war given the magnitude of disasters resulting from previous world wars. this research is qualitative research. the source of data of this research was primary data. the collecting data method used interview and documentation. the majority members of sekar jagad art studio are women. the members are 25 but 17 of them are women. they have different background like farmers, traders, and housewives. the education background is also different. ten members were graduated from primary schools, five members from elementary and vocation schools. the location of this research was bakalan village, of polokarto, sukoharjo regency. sekar jagad art studio as cultural community in sukoharjo regency sekar jagad art studio is one of the cultural groups since 2005. this art studio is located in bakalan village, of polokarto sukoharjo regency. sekar jagad art studio preserves traditional art, kebo kinol. kebo kinol is an indigenous art of sukoharjo in which dialogue, dance, ritual ceremony and with the accompaniment of gamelan. kebo kinol art has been held as symbol of salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 1 no. 2, july 2018 100 harvest ceremony. this art is ritual and magic ceremony. the leader of this ceremony is usually a certain man. the majority members of sekar jagad art studio are women. the members are 25 but 17 of them are women. the background of those women are traders, housewives, and farmers. the education background of those women are primary, elementary and vocation schools. women who joined this studio act as dancers, gamelan players and groups who prepare the ritual ceremony. they have more interest and concern with traditional art. sekar jagad which means world flower and has a philosophy that through this culture it can promote sukoharjo and indonesia to the international level. the instructure of sekar jagad, joko ngadimin (56), who graduated from sekolah tinggi seni indonesia surakarta (isi surakarta), said that he has initiative to promote traditional culture of sukoharjo in overseas. it is important because this activity is a way to strengthen indonesia identity and increase positive image. joko ngadimin also makes closer communication with cultural group from england, netherland, switzerland and germany. joko ngadimin also said that they have good communication with the cultural groups from those countries because of his experience during his education in isi surakarta. furthermore the goverment of sukoharjo regency and indonesia ministry of education and culture support this activity, especially on funding. from the interview with sujiyem (54), a farmer and graduated from primary school who become a member of sekar jagad since 2010, she said that the reason why women from bakalan village participated to maintain traditional art (kebo kinol) and make performance in overseas. sujiyem said that all members come from bakalan village. first, as javanese, women they have the responsibility to maintain traditional art because it is one of sukoharjo culture. with traditional art, people of sukoharjo must promote this culture in local, national and international performance. this activity has positive impact to sukoharjo and indonesia. this activity also means to strengthen national identity. sumiyem (50), a housewife and graduated from vocational school who joined sekar jagad since 2005 added that communication technology give opportunities to make closer relationship with other people. international communication must be increased to promote the culture of indonesia. it is important for indonesian because with intercultural relations, indonesia can invite foreign parties to build infrastructure. furthermore, it can increase welfare of the indonesian citizens. it means that promoting traditional culture can be a way to gain national interest. lestari (49), a trader and graduated from elementary school suppose that through promoting art in international performance can reduce tension between countries. maintaining traditional art within sekar jagad needs supports from men. it is related with most members of sekar jagad have family. from an interview with joko lelono (58), one of the male members of sekar jagad, it was understood that all husbands agree with the women activity in sekar jagad. joko lelono also explained sekar jagad art studio as an agent of citizens’s diplomacy … (setyasih harini) 101 that their activity to maintain traditional art within sekar jagad studio is conducted only twice a week in the evening. some of their husbands support with this activity and join with this studio when they make performance overseas. yohanes sri raharjo (57), an officer of the department of education and culture of sukoharjo regency said that promoting traditional culture of sukoharjo needs public participation. this participation does not only come from the members of sekar jagad but also from the other community members who have the concern in traditional culture as root of national identity. international performance art of sukoharjo culture (kebo kinol) increase the positive image of this regency and indirectly popularity of indonesia as multicultural country. the statements above show five main notions with respect to the promoting traditional culture. there are national identity, positive image, public participation, national interest, and diplomacy. this is important activity for multicultural country such as indonesia. first, culture is one national identity. indonesia is one of multicultural countries in the world. indonesia has dynamic relations with other countries. promoting culture can be a reason to promote national identity and increase good communication or relations with other countries. second, after the terrorism attacks, indonesia needs to improve its image. several countries like united state, france, and germany, netherland, and england accuse indonesia as a place of terrorists. people believe that culture has universal value. culture can also be a tool to make soft diplomacy. promoting culture through international performance is one of the efforts to make soft diplomacy. the purpose of this effort is to improve indonesian image. third, promoting culture is not only the program of the government. nongovernment actors have opportunities to support this program. citizens have the responsibility to support government policy. one way to support government policy is to maintain national identity within promoting in international level. fourth, as developing countries, indonesia needs foreign investment. this foreign investment helps the development of of infrastructure. for the indonesian government, foreign investment is needed to increase society welfare. this is the national interest of indonesia. fifth, to gain the national interest, government and non-government actor must cooperate to make diplomacy. the role of sekar jagad as agent of citizen diplomacy according to handelman, diplomacy is a way to bring peace, stability and long-lasting change take place in situations of social conflict, participation by the people is essential. citizens diplomacy is a concept, known also as people-topeople initiatives. it is necessary in building the foundation of a new social order rooted in peace and coexistence (handelman, 2012: p. 163). barston added that as an important feature of modern diplomacy, the enhanced role of personal diplomacy i s by the head of state or government (barston, salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 1 no. 2, july 2018 102 2013, p. 7). the argument of barston shows that the role of citizen diplomacy activities can increase understanding between multiple countries in order to reduce tensions in countries relations. the activities of citizens diplomacy have coincidentally started when artists communicate with their counterparts abroad. incidentally the dance art coach of the kebo kinol fragment is a graduate of an art school that was once sent to perform abroad. the activity of citizens diplomacy by promoting culture can be called as people-to-people communication in an effort to establish sustainable relationships. people-to-people communication usually include “scholars, senior journalists, former government officials, and former military officers” (agha et al., 2003, p. 1), but can also simply include people communicating with people in productive ways that ensure and further develop understanding and mutual respect (payne, 2009, p. 580). track-ii diplomacy provides participants with settings and conditions that are essential to achieve an effective dialogue, and are rooted in engagement and relationship building targeted at cultivating trust and mutual understanding between peoples (kelley, 2009, p. 79). furthermore, people-to-people communication that also means as track-ii diplomacy (unofficial state diplomacy) initiatives are related to promoting national identity, reducing tensions or facilitating the resolution of a conflict, but differ in their nature, context, and leaders. citizens diplomacy as track-ii diplomacy usually takes place in informal settings in a manner which does not involve government officials (at least not from its inception). moreover, citizens diplomacy does not require the parallel conduct of official and formal negotiations by the government (track-i diplomacy), and can be held independently and separately from any official negotiations. additionally, track-ii diplomacy can be “hard” or “soft”. while “hard” track-ii diplomacy is aimed at negotiating an agreement between the parties involved, “soft” track-ii diplomacy is aimed at “dialogue, familiarization, exchange of information, assessments, and security concerns” (agha et al., 2003, p. 4). thus, track-ii diplomacy aims at creating a positive relationship between both sides involved for which the fundamental requisite is the establishment of trust between citizens of other countries. thus, in order to build a solid foundation of a harmony relations between two or more countries, to build a new social order, civil society must be involved in this process. harmony relations between citizens through intercultural relations is important. sekar jagad art studio as a cultural group makes good relations with other citizens through performance art. since 2005 this studio has held international performances in germany, netherland, and england. according to bimo hernowo (41), citizens from dortmund, germany, netherland, and england said that performance art from sekar jagad is interesting. promoting traditional culture from central java can make harmony relations between indonesia and germany, netherland, and england. this promoting culture is very important sekar jagad art studio as an agent of citizens’s diplomacy … (setyasih harini) 103 for indonesia as a developing country. bimo hernowo added that foreign investment is very important for developing country to gain national interest (economy). warsito (50), an officer governor of central java said that the government supports this citizens activity to promote javanese culture. central java government and the indonesia ministry of education and culture support this promoting specially on funding. one officer of the ministry of education and culture becomes the translator and manages the overseas activities. promoting traditional culture from sukoharjo has positive impacts. after sekar jagad art studio made performances in germany, netherland, and england, indian artists and ambassadors visited bakalan village in 2007. two years later, margareth, one of unesco's directors watched kebo kinol art in sekar jagad. kaingatzu, one of the cultural groups of kaigan japan also came to this studio in 2011. a year later, some tourists from france and students from the middle east (qatar and united arab emirate) came to sekar jagad art studio. the philosophy of sekar jagad, meaning world flower, has been proven. this art studio can be an agent to promote one of indonesian culture in international level. when some tourists come to this studio and watch kebo kinol, it influences to increasing the income of sukoharjo. sekar jagad art studio has become an agent of citizens diplomacy. the role of sekar jagad as citizens diplomat is considered as the second type of paul sharp (2001, pp. 137-138) that refers to the citizens diplomats as a representative for a sectoral, regional, or local economic interest. citizens who become diplomats represent the sub-state actor such as business, group of culture, scholars, etc. they make communication and influence between non-state actors to gain specific interest. though citizens diplomacy has varied interpretations among scholars, it centrally implies the transnational flow of information and ideas through the interaction of private groups and interests of different countries which influence the formation and execution of foreign policies in the pursuit of national interests. first, as a society and citizens of sukoharjo regency, women from sekar jagad art studio maintain kebo kinol traditional art as part of the indonesia culture. women of this studio show their participation in building society. it means indonesia people have opportunities to pursue foreign investment in order to increase the welfare of the society. second, promoting kebo kinol through international performance shows positive activity in maintaining and strengthening national identity. third, sekar jagad art studio becomes an agent of citizens diplomacy or citizens diplomat. women activity through international performance art implies women participation to support government diplomacy. women participation also implies that culture can be a tool of soft diplomacy to make good relationship with citizens from other countries. furthermore, making good relationship can reduce tension among countries. conclusion salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 1 no. 2, july 2018 104 as a democratic country, indonesia gives opportunity for women to participate in building the society. this participation is conducted in intercultural relations. intercultural relations are tools to gain national interest such as pursuing foreign investment to increase society welfare. it is important to create public opinion about the positive image of indonesia. some important things to note in this research are: 1. women of sekar jagad art studio are citizens of bakalan village, sub-regency polokarto, regency sukoharjo. their activity is to maintain traditional art (kebo kinol) as real culture of regency sukoharjo. this activity means to strengthen national identy. 2. women of sekar jagad art studio become agents of citizens diplomacy. they promote one culture of indonesia through international performance. this activity supports government diplomacy. it implies that this activity has been done to influence citizens and government of germany, netherland, and england. it also means that women participation through international performance can create positive image of indonesia. 3. as agents of citizen diplomacy, women of sekar jagad established on pursuing good relationship among indonesia, germany, netherland, and england. creating good relationship between four states can anticipate political tension. references agena, j. e. (2004). citizensship education in nigeria: a fundamental approach. enugu: john jacob's classic publishers ltd agha, h., feldman, s., khalidi, a. & schiff, z. (2003). track-ii diplomacy: lessons from the middle east. cambridge, ma: the mit press. barston, r.p. (2013). modern diplomacy. routledge: new york bryson, john m, et al. (2002). the what, why, who, how, when, and where of public participation. review and action planning handout, institute of public affairs and the university of minnesota extension service. creighton, james l. (2005). the public participation handbook: making better decisions through citizens involvement. san francisco: john wiley & sons eastwood, brent m. (2007). a note on the new face of citizens diplomacy: education city and american university in the meddle east. american foreign policy interests. handelman, s. (2012). two complementary settings of peacemaking diplomacy: political elite diplomacy and public diplomacy. diplomacy & statecraft. harini, setyasih, (2017). pelaksanaan citizens diplomacy sebagai upaya penguatan identitas bangsa di era asean community. research faiur, unisri, 1(1). hoffman, j., and graham, p. (2006). introduction to political concepts. london: longman. huijgh, ellen. (2013). changing tunes for public diplomacy: exploring the domestic dimension. exchange: the journal of public diplomacy, 2(1). sekar jagad art studio as an agent of citizens’s diplomacy … (setyasih harini) 105 insanally, rudy. (2013). multilateral diplomacy for small states. guyana, south america: guyenterprise advertising agency. insititute for multitrack diplomacy. (2013). what is multitrack diplomacy? retrieved from http://www.imtd.org/index.php/ab out/84-about/131-what-is-multitrack-diplomacy kelley, r. j. (2009). between ‘take offs’ and ‘crash landings’: situational aspects of public diplomacy. in snow, n & taylor, p. m. (eds.), routledge handbook of public diplomacy (pp. 72-85). new york, ny: routledge. mueller, sherry lee dan mark rebstock. (2012). the impact and practice of citizens diplomacy”. pd magazines. usc annenberg press. murphy, michael. (2009). globalization as a tool to protect nation state sovereignity: a conceptual examination of nation state export culture and public diplomacy. dissertation. phillosophy faculty universitas albert ludwigs omemma, t. j. (2006). the crisis of nigerian citizensship: issues and problems. in odo, s. i. and onuoha, j. (eds.). peace and conflict studies in africa. enugu: jones communications publishers. payne, j. g. (2009). reflections on public diplomacy: people to people communication. american behavioral scientist. sharp, paul. (2001). making sense of citizens diplomats: the people of duluth minnesota, as international actors. international studies perspectives, 2. 0102_00a_cover.pdf 0102_00b_toc.pdf 0102_02_harini.pdf 0102_10_backcover.pdf salasika indonesian journal of gender, women, child, and social inclusion's studies volume 2, number 2 – july 2019 table of content ‘bride terrorist’ in indonesia: is she still considered as a peace agency? mia dayanti fajar & elisabeth dewi 95 women's capacity building of informal sector workers in rural areas (case of "boiled corn seller" in konawe regency, southeast sulawesi province) yoo eka yana kansil, nana sumarna & rimba hamid 107 understanding women’s roles in agriculture (study of women in dairy and shallot farming in east java) mely noviryani, wahyu handayani, wike, & keppi sukesi 121 agents in child marriage practice in rural west java novitha syari dhevi pradipta, ekawati sri wahyuni, & titik sumarti 137 social capital based economic autonomy of the fishing communities (study in traditional fishing community kub bino makmur, desa keboromo, kecamatan tayu, kabupaten pati, central java) tri winarni & nur khoiriyah 155 chief editors dr. ir. arianti ina restiani hunga, m.si. (scopus id: 46161114400; google scholar); dr. phil. dewi candraningrum. (google scholar). executive editors indriretno setyaningrahayu, m.pd. (google scholar); daniel kurniawan, m.pd. (google scholar); andi misbahul pratiwi, m.si. (google scholar). board of editors prof. claudia derichs (scopus id: 14026487800). humboldt universität zu berlin, germany; assoc. prof. dr. ida sabelis (scopus id: 6507181398). vrije universiteit (vu) amsterdam, the netherlands; prof. siti kusujiarti.ma. (scopus id: 56276925900). warren wilson college, usa; dr. ratna saptari (scopus id: 6504610910). leiden university; prof. sylvia tiwon (scopus id: 6506468591). university of california; prof. dr. emy susanti, ma. (google scholar). airlangga university; prof. dr. ir. keppi sukesi, ms. (scopus id: 56025803300). brawijaya university; dr. kristi poerwandari, ma. (scopus id: 25628305200). university of indonesia; prof. dr. willemijn de jong (scopus id: 55258294800). university of zurich, switzerland; prof. lyn parker (scopus id: 56273266700). the university of western australia. reviewers prof. lyn parker (scoups id: 56273266700). university of western australia, perth, australia; dr. elisabet titik murtisari (scopus id: 38161752200; google scholar). satya wacana christian university; dr. wening udasmoro (scopus id: 56493135600; google scholar). gadjah mada university; dr. phil. farah purwaningrum (scopus id: 57205254451; google scholar). the university of sydney & rahayu and partners in association with hfw; alimatul qibtiyah, m.si. ma. ph.d. (scopus & google scholar). sunan kalijaga state islamic university; dr. tyas retno wulan, m.si. (scopus & google scholar). the jenderal soedirman university; dr. titik sumarti, msi. (scopus & google scholar). bogor agricultural university; prof. dr. mien ratoe oedjoe, mpd. (google scholar). the university of nusa cendana, kupang; j. casey hammond, phd. (scopus & google scholar). singapore university of technology and design; dr. phil. ratna noviani (google scholar). gadjah mada university; dr. rina herlina haryanti (google scholar). sebelas maret university; dr. ida ruwaida noor (google scholar). university of indonesia; dr. nurjanah, sp.m.pd. (google scholar). state university of jakarta; dr. ir. evi feronika elbaar, m.si. (google scholar). the university of palangka raya; dr. jendrius m.si. (google scholar). andalas university; dr. grace jenny soputan, se. (google scholar). manado state university; dr. anis farida, s.sos., sh., m.si. (scopus & google scholar). sunan ampel state islamic university surabaya; ira desiaanti mangiliko, s.si,.ph.d. (google scholar). the artha wacana christian university. women's capacity building of informal sector workers in rural areas … (kansil, sumarna & hamid) 107 women's capacity building of informal sector workers in rural areas (case of "boiled corn seller" in konawe regency, southeast sulawesi province) yoo eka yana kansil, nana sumarna & rimba hamid faculty of teacher training and education, halu oleo university, kendari, indonesia. ykansil@yahoo.co.id, nanafkipunhalu@gmail.com & rimbahamid@gmail.com abstract the number of women local workers, most of whom live and work in poverty, in the informal sector increases. one of the common jobs is selling corn on the cob. the women who sell corn on the cob are known as boiled corn seller (bcs) women. these bcs women sell their corn along the provincial axis road in pondidaha sub-district of konawe district, indonesia. bcs women phenomenon has generated the researcher’s interest to conduct a study of the issue. studying the social condition of bcs women, this study is a case study with qualitative approach. the data collection techniques used were observation methods, in-depth interviews, and fgds. the results showed that (1) bcs women still had access to capital resources, production facilities and labor, but faced difficulties in production equipment, labor, training and money; (2) the processing, marketing and distribution of corn on the cob were dominated by bcs women; and (3) the conceptual model planned for capacity building was a local food diversification program. keywords: boiled corn seller (bcs) women, capacity building, informal sector workers introduction the number of women living and working in poverty who work in informal employment in rural areas and in the informal sector as women local workers are increasing. labor force survey in indonesia reported that the informal sector employed between 61% and 70% of the total workforce (alatas & newhouse, 2010; firdausy, 2000). these female workers can provide an opportunity to earn income, but the work is not a decent job for most women who are engaged in it since it is without legal protection. therefore, they are invisible to the "public eye" because their job is considered to be a regular female occupation, not a 'real' one, even if the work is very important to family income insurance. these female workers have less access to formal employment than men, and they are more likely to work informally. in addition, rural communities are segmented in the context of the poor. these poor and marginalized segments of the community are particularly vulnerable to side effects salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 2 no. 2, july 2019 108 of climate change because they tend to have limited resources. this makes their adaptation and livelihoods depend heavily on climate-sensitive natural resources (fao, 2011; dankelman, 2010; women watch, 2009). analysis of trends over time suggests that there is a trend of dilemmas, as to why women are outside the workforce due to family obligations or enter the workforce as unpaid family workers in agricultural or trade sector throughout the year. this trend indicates that women are very vulnerable and comparatively have a weak position in the labor market due to gender-based division of labor within households and the difficulty in shifting from work at home to work outside the home. from gender perspective, hiring another part-time “housewife” poses a number of normative dilemmas that have been given scant attention (vollenweider, 2013). nevertheless, the choice of women to work in the informal sector outside the house is one of the most difficult choices to avoid. informal sector workers are not guaranteed in any context, because the work of this sector is unorganized, unregulated, and unregistered, even though it is mostly legal. widodo (2005) states that about 30-70% of the urban workforce in developing countries is working in the informal sector. the informal business sector is a form of business undertaken by uneducated, small-capitalized, lower class society that has neither fixed place of business nor business permit and does not require formal education with special expertise. most womenowned firms are small-scale, selffinanced, low-technology, and laborintensive operations (klapper & parker, 2011). it is often argued that female entrepreneurs prefer the informal sector due to their family responsibilities, lower level of education, or the type and size of enterprise (world bank, 2009, p. xiv). the context of today's global restructuring provides a great opportunity for women to enter the workforce context, especially informal work with household workload, lower mobility, education and skills. this needs to be criticized proportionately. one of informal job types is corn on the cob seller, which is mostly run by women, who will be referred to as boiled corn seller (bcs) women throughout this paper. these bcs women sell their corn along the provincial axis road in pondidaha sub-district of konawe district. this road access connects two regencies / municipal government areas, kendari and konawe, which are the districts / cities within the country of indonesia. the phenomenon of bcs women occupying taverns on the shoulders of the road along ± 2 km has grown in line with the density of transport flows that pass through the highway, which has amounted to about 150stores / stalls. the context provides an illustration that rural women workers are increasingly showing their difficulties in struggling to survive on the periphery. the issue eventually arises with some information from online media stating that there are hidden transactions behind boiled corn stores serving as the magnet, such as "hidden prostitution business". there, the bureaucracy to date corn seller girls is not too complicated. the communication can be done via cell phone. the practice of women's capacity building of informal sector workers in rural areas … (kansil, sumarna & hamid) 109 prostitution is not too obvious. the women show a little part of their body while removing the lid of the corn pan (jpnn.com, 2016). although difficult to prove, the solution of this problem will not be simple as it is related to various social variables that are quite vital to the necessities of life, such as job negligence, low income, poor working and living conditions, and lack of access to public or private support services. the reality for most of these workers is that they do not have the capital to invest, have no access to loans and do not have the potential or prospect to develop their corn business into a viable business, and etc. the purpose of this study is to determine the extent to which bcs women are able to develop their capacity. in detail, the study aims to (1) explain gender role distribution of households, (2) explain the extent of bcs women access to and control of capital and skill resources, (3) explain the effect of gender inequality on capacity building, and (4) develop a capacity building strategy through a development model of capacity building. the benefit of this research is to help bcs women understand the capacity of gender inequalities in their households. in addition, it also helps formulate strategies for improving their welfare through efforts to develop business capacity and individual capacity. capacity building is an abstract and multidimensional concept. this concept is related to the process of intervention and change. for example, enemark & ahene (2002) define capacity building as the development of human resources (knowledge, skills, individual and group attitudes) for the purpose of developing and managing certain areas in society. oecd has also defined capacity development as the process by which individuals, groups, organizations, institutions and societies increase their abilities to (i) perform core functions, solve problems, define and achieve objectives; and (ii) understand and deal with their development needs in a broad context and in a sustainable manner (enemark, & williamson, 2004, p. 640). brown, lafond & macintyre (2001) offer some definitions from international ngo training and research center. the approach has been named capacity development, which is defined by lavergne (2004) as the process where individuals, groups, organizations and societies enhance their capacities in terms of human, organizational, institutional and social capital. as an abstract and multidimensional concept, intervention process of capacity building needs to be given indicators. typically, capacitybuilding interventions focus on organizational level or human resource / personnel and literature, and their measurements are approached with those areas. the measurement approach is usually derived more from field experience than from theoretical literature (brown, lafond & macintyre, 2001). a summary by merinoa & carmenado (2012) of the indicators presented by several experts can be seen in the table below. salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 2 no. 2, july 2019 110 table 1 organization capacity characteristics level competence & authors level competence & authors individual capacity leadership (2,3,4, 5,8,9,10, 11,14,15,16, 17) entrepreneurshi p (2, 7, 11) financial skillseconomic literacy (2,3,5,12, 14,6,17) technology skills (2,14) political skills : (communication; organizational; electoral) (2, 5) planning skills (2, 9, 10, 12, 14, 17) management skills, changes management (9, 12, 14, 16.17) social capacity participation and cooperation (2, 9, 10, 12, 15, 17) commitment (4, 12, 17) trust (2, 4, 7, 10, 12) communication (5, 7, 8, 9, 11, 14, 15, 17) network building (1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15) entrepreneurship (2, 7) norms (9, 12, 17) team work (7, 9, 11, 17) group process skills (problem/ conflict-solving skills; consensus building, decisionmaking)(1,2,4,9, 10, 14, 17) sense of community, shared values (3, 4, 9, 10, 12, 14, 15) vision and strategy (8, 9, 13, 16, 17) note. 1armstrong et al. (2002); 2aspen institute (1996); 3brown et al. (2001); 4chaskin (2001); 5cheers et al. (2005); 6coleman (1988); 7diallo (2005); 8flora et al. (1999); 9foster-fishman et al (2001); 10goodman et al. (1998); 11innes & booher (2003); 12kwan et al. (2003);13liou (2004);14lusthaus (1995); 15maclellan-wright et al. (2007); 16undp (1998); 17wri (2008) merinoa & carmenado (2012) further mention that some of the above experts, such as brown, lafond & macintyre (2001) have described four components to analyze capacity at different levels: inputs, processes, outputs and outcomes. the inputs represent resources that are required for producing capacity at each level that transform resources into capacity outputs and outcomes. maclellanwright et al. (2007), also focusing on health, develop an instrument with 9 domains and 29 items that provide quantitative and qualitative information on community capacity within the context and scope of community-based funding programs. they are participation, leadership, community structures, asking why, resource mobilization, links with others, role of external supports, skills, knowledge and learning, and sense of community. wri (2008) proposes a set of dimensions for assessing the strength of local organizations and their potential to drive local development, namely vision and women's capacity building of informal sector workers in rural areas … (kansil, sumarna & hamid) 111 strategy, leadership, inclusiveness and gender balance, physical participation, process participation, internal processes, technical capacity, administrative capacity, financial control, and funding. kwan et al. (2003) also conceptualize community capacity as knowledge and skills, public participation, functional organizations, community infrastructure, and collaboration. other authors have established a distinction between micro, meso and macro level analysis (enemark & williamson, 2004; foster-fishman et al., 2001; liou, 2004). the micro level is related to individuals and families and their skills, education, job training and social cares. the success or viability of a capacity initiative is invariably linked to the capacity of leadership and management. the entity/organizational level is also called the meso level (liou, 2004). the dimensions considered within this level are mission and strategy, effective leadership, relationships, and vision to transform individual interests into a dynamic collective force, culture/structure and competencies, processes, human resources, financial resources, information resources, and infrastructure (liou, 2004; fosterfishman et al., 2001). the macro level is the highest level within which capacity initiatives may be considered and it refers to action environment (socio-political, government/public, economic/technological, and physical sectors). some of the results of interventions carried out in capacity building show that the capacity building evaluation process is analyzing the specific capabilities required for the effective functioning of individuals, organizations, or systems that are based on certain intervention logics entailing their internal components and links with the context (drn, 2012; ecorys, 2011; huyse et al., 2012). the study is a case study with qualitative approach. through case studies, researchers can maintain holistic and meaningful characteristics of real-life events. the adoption of gender perspective also involves a feminist approach to methodological designs and this usually results in a preference for qualitative and participatory methods. a case study strategy with a qualitative approach allowed researchers to obtain an empirical and objective picture of bcs women's social condition in pondidaha sub-district of konawe district. in this way, the problems faced by bcs women to increase their capacity can be known holistically. strategies in the design and modification of the program could be conducted in a participatory and gendered manner involving stakeholders related to the program, such as the husbands of bcs women, community leaders, village government, and others who were thought to be related to the context of the problem. the location of the study was at the center of corn sales in pondidaha district of konawe regency. the focus of the study was bcs women. the data collection techniques used were observation methods, in-depth interviews, and fgds. the researcher developed an interview salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 2 no. 2, july 2019 112 guide based on prior needs assessment (gwede et al., 2010) and revised it based on recent literature review. the analysis tools used were harvard framework and swot framework. the harvard framework was used to analyze the division of gender roles and access to and control over resources and benefits. swot framework was used to assist bcs women in understanding the strengths, weaknesses, potentials, and threats they had in capacity building efforts. characteristics of respondents research respondents indicated that boiled corn sellers had common rural area characteristics. in the context of educational level, most of the respondents were in high school or below, while the age of boiled corn sellers varied from 17-50 years old. in detail, the data are presented below. table 2 characteristics of respondents the data shows that sellers of boiled corn along kendari-kolaka axis road in konawe district were untouched by government service system that was capable of improving their capacity. one indication is the absence of location permit (known as surat izin tempat usaha) ownership as one of the requirements for business establishment even though this business started in 2002. the problem became a constraint because, according to the seller, the location permit was difficult to obtain since the business place was on the land prohibited for business, namely the land along the roadside of kendari-kolaka. the logical consequence was that there was no financial institution (bank) that could provide financial assistance under these conditions. in relation to this, the initial funds owned by boiled corn sellers came mostly from selffinancing and family loans (75%) while others came from koperasi (cooperative) loans (25%). capacity of boiled corn seller (bcs) women selling boiled corn is an effort in the informal sector with various characteristics. in essence, this business is described as a business with a very small scale. the results showed that the income profile (revenue) obtained by boiled corn women's capacity building of informal sector workers in rural areas … (kansil, sumarna & hamid) 113 sellers ranged from 4 to 12 million rupiah. the amount of income (revenue) was highly dependent on transport flow density that crosses this region. it can be assumed that the more the flow of transport is, the more customers who stop to rest while enjoying corn on the cob. typically, the sellers had bus driver customers who would park their vehicles in front of each stall. the average distribution of income (revenue per month) is presented in the following table. table 3 average revenue per month, labor and source of capital revenue per month (million rupiah) labor (people) source of capital 0 1 2 3 owner s loans (family and koperasi) 4 6 10 35 10 0 10 0 7 9 0 0 25 0 0 70 10 12 0 0 0 20 5 15 total 10 (%) 35 (%) 35 (%) 20 (%) 15 (%) 85 (%) table 4 the distribution of the reason for selling corn on the cob based on revenue revenue per month (million rupiah) the reason to sell corn on the cob providing a job continuing family business fulfilling the cost of daily living willingness to own a business total 4 6 10 10 35 0 55 7 9 0 0 20 5 25 10 12 0 0 20 0 20 total 10 (%) 10 (%) 75 (%) 5 (%) 100% bcs women tended to have multiple barriers in capacity building. in addition to the low level of education, access to capacity building efforts was not developed. in terms of access to capital and raw material resources, the corn seller women could deal with them because the daily business management was done by them. another thing that usually affected the women’s capacity development was their underlying reasons of doing the business. the following table gives an overview of the linkage. the data above show that daily needs fulfillment was the main reason for bcs women to do this business. this illustrates that bcs women were working to fulfill their daily needs. this condition is quite ironic when compared to the assumption that wives are working to take care of the husbands and children, not focusing on the issue of family livelihood. this context ca not be separated from the working salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 2 no. 2, july 2019 114 conditions of the husbands who generally work as farmers and rough laborers. this also causes the corn seller women to have a high bargaining position in running the business. the flexibility and authority in decision-making over access to and control of resources is considerable. the data gathered showed that most boiled corn sellers (75%) had power in decision-making over access to and control over resources and benefits they had, while the remaining (25%) were done jointly with the husbands. no corn seller women were involved in the process of capacity building through skill upgrading (training). this was because the production process did not need to have its own expertise and did not involve high technology. the sellers only maintained the quality of the product, and it did not require special treatment that required expertise. gender roles distribution analysis the division of roles referred to in this analysis is the division of productive roles and reproductive roles between bcs women and their husbands or other household members. the productive role undertaken by bcs women ranged from preparing venture capital, raw materials, production process, marketing and business promotion. meanwhile, the reproductive role consisted of parenting, preparing meals, washing, ironing, cleaning the house, and shopping for everyday needs. research data showed that most bcs women had a productive role and a dominant reproductive role within the community and outside the community. pattern of daily activity profile can be seen in the following table. table 5 daily activity profile patterns of all respondents in relation to productive and reproductive roles no. activity profile type of daily activity activity actors time (hours) location wife husband wife husband 1 productive venture capital √ √ 14 6 inside / outside the community raw material √ √ production process √ marketing √ promotion √ 2 reproductive parenting √ 10 2 inside / outside the community preparing meals √ washing √ ironing √ cleaning the house √ √ shopping for everyday needs √ women's capacity building of informal sector workers in rural areas … (kansil, sumarna & hamid) 115 from the table above, it is seen that all corn seller women had a dominant role in productive or reproductive roles. this dominance is due to several things, such as the absence of someone else in the household who can be invited to share a productive role and feeling that this effort is a must do effort to improve the welfare and continuation of family life, especially children. when the husband as the heads of households are unable to earn income to support their households, women are taking over this role. in this context, many studies posit that the informal sector is well-tailored to the needs of female entrepreneurs because it provides greater flexibility in terms of working hours, pace of work, and proximity of the job to one’s home (bahramitash & salehi esfahani, 2011; chen, 2001) the dominant role of bcs women in performing productive roles was also accompanied by the dominance of their role in performing biological, labor, and social reproductive roles. in some cases, there were some respondents who performed their own reproductive roles, as if the role could not be substituted by others. they assumed that the reproductive role of labor was the nature of a woman and had become the risk of a wife. this condition is also closely related to the cultural structures of ethnic that inhabit the research area, most of which are tolaki ethnicity. in this context, tolaki women still highly appreciate the duties of a wife in the household so that all household chores are still done outside the home. the visible condition indicated that the largest proportion was the productive role. viewed from time aspect, the biggest time spent was on the production and marketing process in each stall. on average, women corn sellers managed the business from 5 am to 9 pm, so that, sometimes, productive and reproductive roles were done simultaneously in the stall. access to and control of bcs women over resources access (opportunity) is an opportunity to use the resources or the results without having the authority to make decisions on how to use them. the control (mastery) is the full authority to make decisions on the use and results of resources. the harvard framework can be used to view access to and control profiles of resources and benefits. the access to and control profiles of resources and benefits can be seen in the following table salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 2 no. 2, july 2019 116 table 6 description of access to and control patterns of bcs women over resources and benefits no. component access control women men in women domination equal in man domination 1 resource capital √ √ √ production tools √ √ √ labor √ √ √ cash / money √ √ √ savings √ √ √ 2 benefits assets of ownership √ √ √ education √ √ √ basic needs √ √ √ the data above show that bcs women had access to all capital resources, production equipment, labor, cash and savings. the issue of access was not really considered by the women because the work involved was the one that must be undertaken every day so that they could easily access business components. however, in terms of control, some components, for example the tools of production and labor, must be carried out jointly with men. in capacity building process, such as access to training and information, bcs women were not able to provide an overview because they had not done the process. access to information that was beneficial to the women’s capacity development was very limited. some women even did not have any access to the information. in terms of benefits, there was generally no gender difference in terms of access to and control over the benefits of resources. bcs women could access revenue and had controls to utilize the revenue. most women used their income to maintain business continuity and survival of their families. although no training had been conducted, the interviews showed that bcs women had access to and dominant control over skills and training resources. they could decide when they needed new training or skills and where they could get it. the constraint was that when such training or skills must be acquired outside the community, they had limitations of their domestic role, both their productive and reproductive roles. it was quite difficult for bcs women who had small children to leave home in a relatively long time to attend training. this was related to a sense of responsibility for keeping the children and was associated with the economic value that should be sacrificed if they abandoned the business. women's capacity building of informal sector workers in rural areas … (kansil, sumarna & hamid) 117 the influence of gender inequality on capacity building managing business while fulfilling family responsibilities and dealing with gender discrimination are the most frequently highlighted obstacles (singh, reynolds, & muhammad, 2001; tambunan, 2009). this research also takes such issues in the form of gender inequality. in relation to this, the data indicated dominant division of productive roles in women. in production systems, for example, bcs women held full control over the stages of the production process so that other household chores, such as keeping and watching children, could still be done. even though it was not uncommon for bcs women to go directly to find raw materials, the provision of raw materials was done by the men because it required big enough energy in the cultivation and was done outside bcs community. this condition is a strategy that must be done in an effort to maintain the business and the survival of the family. the double burden on bcs women can be minimized by substituting some of its role with others. nevertheless, this gender inequality is sometimes perceived as one of the obstacles for them to develop their capacities. one of the effects of gender inequality on women entrepreneurs is the low average turnover. strategies taken to reduce these forms of gender inequality is to substitute some of women’s reproductive roles. bcs women who delegated some of the reproductive roles to husbands and others tended to have higher turnover. this indicates that moving some of the reproductive roles to others allows bcs women to have wider access to and be able to make decisions regarding the use of resources and benefits for capacity building. the existence of gender equality role embodied in gender equality has a significant impact on bcs women capacity building in developing their business capacity. bcs women capacity building strategy capacity building strategy is an ongoing process that is based on the problems and potential of bcs women in the research location. through the swot analysis, several things were obtained as the potential to support bcs women, such as the amount of raw materials available throughout the year because the farming communities in this region had agreed to plant corn in turn. in this way, raw materials could be provided throughout the year. the number of consumers increased due to increased transport flow density between districts. on the other hand, constraints such as the lack of real activity in their efforts to improve their capacity made bcs women's motivation to develop capacity low. most of them accepted what had been achieved without any effort to develop capacity in market segment, skill, and network marketing. this could change significantly due to this capacity building program. in this case, network becomes quite important in capacity building because sustainability of the network is powered by leveraging partnership to expand resources, funding and capacity-building efforts (simmons, v.n. et al., 2015). women informal workers tend to be over-represented in the more salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 2 no. 2, july 2019 118 precarious and less remunerative segments of informal work. they are more likely to work as own-account workers, domestic workers, and unpaid contributing workers in family enterprises than men (nordensvard, j., 2014). the above potential can be realistically developed through a strategic diversification of local foodstuff made from corn. conclusion from the study, it can be concluded that (1) the division of gender roles shows that productive roles such as borrowing capital, processed foodstuffs, and marketing are more dominantly done by women. men's productive role is in the preparation of food to be brought to the stalls; (2) access to capital resources, means of production, labor, and money were positive because bcs women had no obstacles in dealing with them. however, in the context of training, it was still negative. bcs women had an easy access to the controlling aspect of capital and money resources, , but not to production equipment, labor, training and money. this condition is closely related to the characteristics of respondents with low education level and does not have the ability to access required information; (3) gender inequality is seen in the dual roles of productive and reproductive roles. the processing of corn on the cob, the marketing and distribution process were dominated by bcs women. those women also performed household tasks such as preparing meals and keeping and supervising the children; and (4) the process of women capacity building strategy of bcs women as a marginalized community has so far provided a conceptual model that is the diversification program of local foodstuffs with corn basic ingredients. acknowledgment this research was jointly funded by the ministry of research, technology and higher education. references alatas, v., & newhouse, d. (2010). indonesia jobs report: toward better jobs and security for all. washington, dc: main report, world bank. bahramitash, r., & salehi esfahani, h. (2011). veiled employment: islamism and the political economy of women’s employment in iran. syracuse: syracuse university press. brown, l., lafond, a., & macintyre, k. (2001). measuring capacity building. measure evaluation. university of north carolina at chapel hill: carolina population center. chen, m. a. (2001). women and informality: a global picture, the global movement. sais review, 21, 71–82. dankelman, i., ed. (2010). gender and climate change: an introduction. london: earthscan. drn. (2012). evaluation methodology & baseline study of european commission technical cooperation support. final report. retrieved from http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid /how/evaluation /evaluation_reports/reports/2012/ 1310_en.pdf ecorys. (2011). assessment of administrative and institutional capacity building interventions and future needs in the context of european social fund. final women's capacity building of informal sector workers in rural areas … (kansil, sumarna & hamid) 119 report. retrieved from http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp ?catid=701&langid= n&internal_pagesid=616&moredo cuments=yes&tablename=inter nal_pages enemark, s., ahene, r. (2002) capacity building in land management implementing land policy reforms in malawi. fig xxii international congress. washington, d.c. usa. enemark, s., williamson, i. (2004). capacity building in land administration. a conceptual approach. survey review, 37(294), 639-650 firdausy, c.m. (2000). the social impact of economic crisis on employment in indonesia. report center for economic and development studiesindonesian institute of sciences. retrieved from http://www. ismea.org/asialist/firdausy.html food and agriculture organization. (2011). the state of food and agriculture. rome: italy foster-fishman, p. g., berkowitz, s. l., lounsbury, d. w., jacobson, s., & allen, n. a. (2001). building collaborative capacity in community coalitions: a review and integrative framework. american journal of community psychology, 29(2), 241-261 gwede, c. k., menard, j. m., martineztyson, d., lee, j. h., vadaparampil, s. t., padhya, t. a., et al. (2010). strategies for assessing community challenges and strengths for cancer disparities participatory research and outreach. health promotion practice, 11(6), 876–887. huyse h, molenaers n, phlix g, et al. (2012) evaluating ngo-capacity development interventions: enhancing frameworks, fitting the (belgian) context. evaluation, 18(1): 129–50. klapper, l., & parker, s. (2011). gender and the business environment for new firm creation. world bank research observer. 26, 237–257. kwan, b., frankish, j., quantz, d., & flores, j. (2003). a synthesis paper on the conceptualization and measurement of community capacity. ubc institute of health promotion research lavergne r. (2004). capacity development: conceptual framework and key issues. presentation in tokyo international symposium on capacity. liou, j. (2004). community capacity building to strengthen socioeconomic development with spatial asset mapping. 3rd fig regional conference. jakarta, indonesia. maclellan-wright, m. f., anderson, d., barber, s., smith, n., cantin, b., felix, r., & raine, k. (2007). the development of measures of community capacity for community-based funding programs in kanada. health promotion international, 22(4), 299306 merino, s.s. & carmenado, i. de loa r. (2012). capacity building in development projects. procedia social and behavioral sciences. 46, 960 – 967. nordensvard, j., (2014). gender and education policy in ghana: the impact of informal citizenship and informal labour markets on the formal education of girls. women's studies international forum. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.201 3.12.010 simmons, v.n., klasko, l.b; fleming, k., koskan, a.m., et al (2015). participatory evaluation of a community–academic partnership to inform capacity-building and sustainability. evaluation and program planning, 52, 19-26. salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 2 no. 2, july 2019 120 singh, s., reynolds, r., & muhammad, s. (2001). a gender-based performance analysis of micro and small enterprises in java, indonesia. journal of small business management, 39, 174–182. tambunan, t. t. h. (2009). smes in asian developing countries. new york: palgrave macmillan. vollenweider, c. (2013). domestic service and gender equality: an unavoidable problem for the feminist debate on basic income. basic income studies 2013, 8(1), 19– 41. widodo, t (2005). peran sektor informal terhadap perekonomian daerah: teori dan aplikasi. a paper presented in diskusi “sektor informal” by pusat studi ekonomi dan kebijakan publik. yogyakarta. women watch. (2009). women, gender equality & climate change. fact sheet. world bank (2009). increasing formality and productivity of bolivian firms. washington, dc: the world bank. world resources institute (wri) in collaboration with united nations development programme, united nations environment programme, and world bank. (2008). world resources 2008: roots of resilience growing the wealth of the poor. washington, dc: wri 0202_00_cover.pdf 0202_02_kansil.pdf 0202_10_backcover.pdf salasika indonesian journal of gender, women, child, and social inclusion's studies volume 2, number 1 – february 2019 table of content stigmatized identity in the myth of dewi ontrowulan mutiara andalas 1 the magic of dukun jani and the revival of neo-saminism in sedulur sikep: political economy of grobogan farmers against the cement industry dewi candraningrum 15 an early childhood sex education model: deconstructing symbolic meanings of sintren dance based on gender perspectives rangga asmara & widya ratna kusumaningrum 39 the sustainability of women's leadership in maengket makamberu performance jultje aneke rattu 61 the nature of papuan women indigenous entrepreneurship in informal agricultural sector (a case of papuan women traders in manokwari and surrounding areas of west papuaindonesia) ludia t. wambrauw, sandra martin, & ramzi addison 77 chief editors dr. ir. arianti ina restiani hunga, m.si. (scopus id: 46161114400; google scholar); dr. phil. dewi candraningrum. (google scholar). executive editors indriretno setyaningrahayu, m.pd. (google scholar); daniel kurniawan, m.pd. (google scholar); andi misbahul pratiwi, m.si. (google scholar). board of editors prof. claudia derichs (scopus id: 14026487800). humboldt universität zu berlin, germany; assoc. prof. dr. ida sabelis (scopus id: 6507181398). vrije universiteit (vu) amsterdam, the netherlands; prof. siti kusujiarti.ma. (scopus id: 56276925900). warren wilson college, usa; dr. ratna saptari (scopus id: 6504610910). leiden university; prof. sylvia tiwon (scopus id: 6506468591). university of california; prof. dr. emy susanti, ma. (google scholar). airlangga university; prof. dr. ir. keppi sukesi, ms. (scopus id: 56025803300). brawijaya university; dr. kristi poerwandari, ma. (scopus id: 25628305200). university of indonesia; prof. dr. willemijn de jong (scopus id: 55258294800). university of zurich, switzerland; prof. lyn parker (scopus id: 56273266700). the university of western australia. reviewers prof. lyn parker (scoups id: 56273266700). university of western australia, perth, australia; dr. elisabet titik murtisari (scopus id: 38161752200; google scholar). satya wacana christian university; dr. wening udasmoro (scopus id: 56493135600; google scholar). gadjah mada university; dr. phil. farah purwaningrum (scopus id: 57205254451; google scholar). the university of sydney & rahayu and partners in association with hfw; alimatul qibtiyah, m.si. ma. ph.d. (scopus & google scholar). sunan kalijaga state islamic university; dr. tyas retno wulan, m.si. (scopus & google scholar). the jenderal soedirman university; dr. titik sumarti, msi. (scopus & google scholar). bogor agricultural university; prof. dr. mien ratoe oedjoe, mpd. (google scholar). the university of nusa cendana, kupang; j. casey hammond, phd. (scopus & google scholar). singapore university of technology and design; dr. phil. ratna noviani (google scholar). gadjah mada university; dr. rina herlina haryanti (google scholar). sebelas maret university; dr. ida ruwaida noor (google scholar). university of indonesia; dr. nurjanah, sp.m.pd. (google scholar). state university of jakarta; dr. ir. evi feronika elbaar, m.si. (google scholar). the university of palangka raya; dr. jendrius m.si. (google scholar). andalas university; dr. grace jenny soputan, se. (google scholar). manado state university; dr. anis farida, s.sos., sh., m.si. (scopus & google scholar). sunan ampel state islamic university surabaya; ira desiaanti mangiliko, s.si,.ph.d. (google scholar). the artha wacana christian university. the sustainability of women's leadership in maengket makamberu performance (rattu) 61 the sustainability of women's leadership in maengket makamberu performance jultje aneke rattu faculty of humanities, university of sam ratulangi nike_rattu@yahoo.com.au abstract maengket makamberu is one of many oral traditions that is often performed to introduce minahasan ethnic identity, so people who know minahasa usually know it. although some forms have already changed, minahasan ethnic peculiarity remains. from observations on several occasions of some groups in minahasan communities, it appeared that although some elements have changed, several other elements are still being maintained. one of the elements that still sustains its quite dominant existence is women’s leadership in both the overall performance (in literature, music, and dance) and the vocal music. the sustained element becomes the uniqueness of minahasan ethnic’s performance. this phenomenon attracted the author to do deeper research into the mentalité behind it. further, the author examined the performance in relation to previous developments. the development was the sustainability of tradition passing down orally from minahasan people’s ancestors (from several generations earlier) to the next generations. this study focused on verbal, non-verbal, material texts, co-text and contexts. the above phenomenon led to the following research questions: how maengket makamberu sustains its existence in the changes of performance’s context and how women’s leadership of minahasan ethnic sustains its existence in today’s minahasan groups. to answer the research questions above, the study was conducted with two objectives. the first was to show forms of the performance in accordance with its context by analyzing the forms that were influenced by culture, society, situation, and ideology. the second was to show women’s leadership sustained in minahasan performance by analyzing women’s leadership in text and cotext related to context of performance. this study used ethnography method preceded by the collection of existing data. empirically, it found an interesting phenomenon, a cultural distinctiveness of society. the concept sustained in the performance is a religious and democratic walian or woman leader. the performances are different because of the cultural, social, situational, and ideological context. however, generally they have narrative and formal structures surviving until today. they carry minahasan mentalité that has manifest functions (poetic, emotive, conative, referential) and latent ones (religious, social, knowledge/education, culture, entertainment). they are documentations to awaken and preserve minahasan religious values as well as to endow and preserve the sustainability of minahasan women's leadership. keywords: leadership, minahasa, performance, sustainability, women salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 2 no. 1, february 2019 62 introduction maengket is a dance on tiptoe while swinging hands with a handkerchief (palm, 1961). in addition, warokka (2004) explains that the etimology of maengket is taken from a prefix ma, meaning doing that is added to a basic word engket, meaning raising voice to begin a song. based on these two different meanings, maengket can be defined as a dance or song, but it is better to term it as a performance. maengket performance consists of three babak (‘rounds), namely makamberu (harvesting rice), marambak (house-warming), and lalaya'en (making friend). the performance is often shown to introduce minahasan ethnic identity, in this way, outsiders who know minahasan ethnic know maengket performance. although some elements have changed, the ethnic’s distinctiveness still survives. the studies of maengket text in particular have been written by minahasan people, such as these three researchers, jessy wenas, hendrik oroh and also aubrey rattu. their studies are about history of maengket (wenas, 2006), tondanonese maengket with its literature (oroh, 2006), and performance of maengket in minahasa (rattu, 2006). these three studies were published in national seminar of maengket dance handbook in 2006. the term of maengket performance from rattu is considered limited in meaningbecause the term used is limited only to art performance in many occasions. maengket is an oral tradition that is not only an art, but also a religious performance. it is religious performances of minahasan ethnic and christianity and catholicism. based on this, the term performances are considered more appropriate in this study because the term includes activities in terms of art and religious forms. literature such as makamberu, rumaba', and lalaya'an (tondano) or kamberu, marambak, and lalaya'an (tontemboan) were discussed by these three researchers. additionally, an explanation of mangorai literature and imageres was added by wenas. the difference in literary designation lies on the origin of their sub-ethnic creators and the three sub-ethnics used as examples namely tondano, tontemboan, and tombulu’s literature. maengket's literature, such as owey kamberu, rumambak, and lalaya'en from sub-ethnic versions of tombulu, is more often used in today's events in minahasan ethnic events. therefore, it is often performed at some events outside this sub-ethnic community’s areas. it has also performed not only locally and nationally, but also internationally. as a result, it is often used as a reference by other subethnic creators to develop theirs. this is why the version was used in this study. in addition to the study of maengket’s text, especially the form described above, the study of its contents has also been described by researchers in emic perspective. it was described by some minahasan researchers, such as suoth, rumengan, and kaunang. their studies are about cultural values of maengket dance (suoth, 2006), maengket music and dance (rumengan, 2010), and the sustainability of women's leadership in maengket makamberu performance (rattu) 63 commodification of maengket dance (kaunang, 2010). the term dance from suoth and kaunang are considered very limited in meaning because the content of maengket is limited only to the elements of dance. in fact, maengket as an oral tradition is not only a dance, but also literature and song. based on the reason above, the term of performance is considered more appropriate because it includes literary, music, and dance forms that support the content. therefore, it is more suitable to be used in this study. ceremonies that are related to agriculture, art, and culture of minahasan people as well as the history or origin of maengket dance are discussed by these three researchers. some values of performance’s dance element such as religion, mapalus, ethics, art, and association of minahasan people tradition are added by suoth. value differences lie on the difference in literature content. for example, maowey kamberu, marambak, and lalayaan have different literature values. additionally, the different value of dance at the performance is a result of different literature content. however, the content of maengket makamberu is not only examined in its song, but also in the literature and song that are associated with the performance’s context. the content that is examined in the overall performance will reveal the value of the combination of the three elements, including the value of women’s leadership. therefore, this study dug minahasan women’s leadership by examining the combination of overall performance elements associated with its context. performance bauman (1977) explains that performance can be defined as a unifying series that binds aesthetics of several genres marked and separated from other areas of verbal behavior. area of verbal behavior that becomes the concept of verbal art in general is various ways of everyday speaking from a person or a group of speakers as a performer in societies. a few years later, bauman (1992) added to his explanation that performance is a model of behavior and type of activity that is communicative in all societies at their everyday lives. the term performance is used in a neutral sense that aesthetically refers to an actual (parallel to communicative) model of behavior in their everyday lives. performance is also a communication model that is marked as having high aesthetics, specially framed, and sometimes it is also exhibited to be enjoyed by audience. therefore, performance in general is an actual practice as a counterpart in capacity, models, or other factors that are communicative. according to finnegan (1992), the term performance opens a unique interest in rhetorical and aesthetic delivery techniques in specifications and audiences elements. interestingly, it serves as another notion saying that performance is not just a mere context, but a nucleus, too, whose term is sometimes used to imply a rejection of a textual term. salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 2 no. 1, february 2019 64 academically, duranti (1997) emphasizes that performance is an important topic in addition to indexicality and participation in the study of language, culture, and other aspects. therefore, the concept of performance (language) is understood as a process of activities/actions that is communicative and requires creativity of social actors in society. the concept of index (indexicality) is applied to the expression of language or linguistic act, including pronouns and references or adverbs of time and place as several parts of linguistics. the concept of participation (language) is seen as a social activity that includes the parties involved, both speakers and listeners as social actors. to complete the terms above, sims and stephens (2005) define that performance is an expressive activity that requires participation and leads to have fun and response. researchers in this study use the term performance in general to distinguish it from show in analyzing traditional expressive activities of minahasan ethnic community. therefore, the term performance is used in this study of maengket makamberu. gender according to american heritage dictionary of the english language (1992), traditionally, the term gender is usually used to refer to grammatical category in linguistics. however, in recent years, it refers to categories in phrases, such as gender gaps and politics. its use is supported by anthropologists returning to sex to refer to biological categories and gender to refer to social and cultural categories. gender is not just a concept referring to a classification system that is based on biological men and women sorted, separated, and socialized into some equivalent sex roles. the term gender also reveals some universal imbalances between men and women. when we talk about gender, we also talk about hierarchy, power, and injustice, not just the difference (kimmel, 2004). in general, the concept of gender is usually placed in or opposed to the concept of sex. sex (female/male) is related to biology, whereas gender (feminine/masculine) is related to culture. gender can therefore be used to refer to all behavioral patterns and actions, as opposed to biology that becomes the determined patterns of study in this performance research. however, it is crucial that biology should not be used to determine the sex of a person. in fact, the right way for women to express something (femininity) and for men to express something (masculinity) varies from one culture to another. the stereotyped qualities are usually associated with women and men in western culture (generally greater emotional expression in women, but greater violence and aggression in men). the focus of the sustainability of women's leadership in maengket makamberu performance (rattu) 65 gender on sex (which sees gender differences in biological way) is understood as the justification of ideological patriarchy (edgar and sedgwick, 2006). the concept from oakley (1972, p. 16), which identifies gender as a cultural problem that refers to the social classification, is used by elfira (2008) as a theory for her paper on women. based on oakley's opinion, elfira associates gender with prevailing cultural norms and social classification of men and women in society in her research on minangkabau ethnicity. it means that the position of men and women in one society can be different from the other societies, depending on cultural values. mentalité the term mentalité was first used by braudel (1993) that conceptualized it as a worldview, especially the one that was collective and dominated a particular society in the civilization. views that dictate the attitude of society, guide its choice, justify its prejudices, and direct its actions can be said as a fact of civilization and also can exist in a long period of time. the fact of civilization coming from the past in the form of old beliefs or thoughts that have been settled unconsciously has been transmitted from generation to generation. such old beliefs can influence the reactions from society to a particular events, pressures, and decisions in the present fact of civilization in particular society in a long period of time. the settled thing is something that is lacking or beyond logic because it is a response to the stress arising from unconsciousness. according to braudel (1993), mentalité of belief is the strongest trait and motif in a civilization, both in the past and at present, in a particular society. almost all civilizations are settled in a belief or the supernatural and become the most powerful motives drawn, sometimes unconsciously, into human psychology. movements or events in society discussed in the past may fade from memory when the phenomenon is permanent/semi-permanent and consciously/unconsciously contemplated. however, the underlying belief structure of civilization cannot die (braudel 1993: 28). generally, mentalité of beliefs is dominant and centralized in a civilization, so the history, narratives, and myths of trust are unconsciously constructed centrally in a long period of time. christianity and catholicism are considered to be conceptualized as foso's ethnic minahasan beliefs and suffer the same fate as beliefs that affect civilization. christianity / catholicism as a new belief seizes existing civilization and gives new spiritual breaths into the civilization (braudel, 1993). mentalité is a very dominant and central belief in the civilization of minahasan ethnic salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 2 no. 1, february 2019 66 society that is analyzed through the performance of maengket makamberu oral tradition. mentalité of beliefs that has the potential as the strongest trait and motive in maintaining minahasan ethnic civilization is analyzed through its oral traditions. therefore, the concept of mentalité is used to express its survival. performance of maengket makamberu as previously explained, maengket makamberu is a traditional performance of thanksgiving because the background that supports it is a thanksgiving event/ceremony of rice harvest. this oral tradition is performed because of abundant minahasan rice crops; therefore the tradition represents activities of happy people in minahasan ethnic society. this oral tradition is performed indoor or outdoor for about ten minutes. the performance shows women’s leadership, which is one of minahasan mentalité, especially when a kapel (female leader) moves around on her tiptoe while raising both hands. her goal is for the members to look at her as the leader in the team who prays to and thanks god. nowadays, in minahasan ethnic people, thanksgiving performance is facilitated by those who make the request. in accordance with the background supporting minahasan oral tradition performance, it is special because it conveys minahasan people’s gratitude for receiving god’s blessing. nowadays, the oral tradition is performed in various presentations of minahasan society because it is not just limited to the thanksgiving of rice harvest only. therefore, the oral tradition is performed in various ceremonies, such as the birthday or anniversary of a person or organization and when a person is promoted at work. even so, the oral tradition still performs the activities of rice farmers with friends and families who are grateful for rice harvest. in addition to the victory over their work/business, they are also grateful for the cooperation and unity among the people involved inthe harvest. these themes can be seen in some examples of fragments of poetic texts sang in the oral tradition performances, as shown in figure 1. research questions 1. how does maengket makamberu's form change based on performance context of minahasan ethnic? 2. how is female leadership in maengket makamberu inherited in minahasan ethnic performance? research design the research of maengket makamberu oral tradition performance was an analytical descriptive research based on philosophy of phenomenology (see moleong, 2006). in relation to philosophical foundation, the oral the sustainability of women's leadership in maengket makamberu performance (rattu) 67 tradition data of performance were presented in verbal form, especially poetry of song or the form of dance’s movements. meaning analysis of the data was special and deep because it was given directly by the target by drawing the reality underlying the performance. linguistic units used in oral tradition performances were meanings depicting the reality of minahasan worldview. figure 1. maengket makamberu in festival seni budaya (culture ad art festival) in tompaso in answering the problems investigated in the performance research questions, a thorough understanding is necessary in order to generate the conclusion of this research. the conclusion corresponded with the context of time and situation of performances in discourse. this research was conducted based on factual data concerning the performance of oral tradition and data presented in accordance with the reality experienced by minahasan people. this research of performance was an ethnographic research because it described the conceptualization of minahasan culture according to what was said by its people. generally, it was in accordance with minahasan ethnic’s way of acts in the context of ritual tradition and artefacts or means they used in oral tradition performance. researcher in this study captured the viewers of minahasa speakers, their relationship with life, and the realization of the vision of the world depicted in the oral tradition text. the essence of message content revealed minahasa's conceptualization of the existence of god, nature, and creations other than human beings in relation to these two supernatural powers and women leadership. selection the first process was done (considering the data from maengket makamberu oral tradition diverse texts) by doing the selection of data salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 2 no. 1, february 2019 68 that was already recorded before. the purpose of data selection was to get good and clear basic data from oral tradition. selection was also done to reduce the ambiguity of meaning in interpretation. the conformity of data with the conceptualization of minahasan ethnic community and the relevance of data to maengket makamberu performance was a common criterion. selected data were performances from observation, interview, note, recording, and documents. the data component included background, type, topic, intent, function, participant, form or message content, action sequence, interaction rules, and interpretation norms. transcription transcription is the transfer of speech in the form of sound to written text. specifically, one of the transcriptions is phonemic transcription that uses a single symbol to describe a phoneme regardless of phonetic differences in a study of oral tradition. orthographic transcription is also used in using standard or conventional orthography (danarek, 2015). there were two types of transcriptions that were relevant to the performance. firstly, a gesture transcription was used to record gestures or notations containing gesture information in the dance displayed in performances or dances only. secondly, kinetic transcription was used to systematically and communicatively record the efficient use of eye movement, facial, and body with notation. the transcription of the performance was helped by two highly skilled key informants, those who had skills in singing and dancing, or only singing or dancing. transcription of song was assisted by a composer, john mapaliey, and transcription of dance was assisted by a choreographer, sarto loho. form of maengket makamberu performance culture generally, cultural context concerns with the purpose of maengket makamberu performance, so the performance form differs according to religion and art in minahasan ethnic society. the explanation concerning the cultural context is that the execution of this oral tradition performance is aimed at the present cultural ceremonies of minahasan ethnic communities. the cultural objectives herein are cultural events involving oral tradition performance pertaining in life cycle rituals and livelihoods of minahasan ethnic. the research found that there were two cultural objectives identified in the oral tradition performance in the present life of minahasan ethnic community. the first goal was christian/catholic worship or celebration, and the second was celebration of minahasan ethnic community. this research was the introduction of cultural context and the identification of tperformance, religious and artistic contexts as well as existing and endangered ones. therefore, the cultural context of the existing or endangered oral tradition performance in minahasan ethnic communities must be recognized to see its survival. it shows how the oral tradition is closely related to real life of the sustainability of women's leadership in maengket makamberu performance (rattu) 69 community performance. additionally, the cultural context shows that the goal is not only entertainment, but also religion that plays a direct role in the life of the owner. the cultural context of the performance, both religious and artistic ones, concerns the present life cycle and livelihoods of minahasan ethnic wherever they live. it indicates that cultural context surrounds the performance, both in christian / catholic culture and minahasa traditional culture. the cultural context surrounding the performance will be explained in accordance with the form of religion and art. martin (1984) explains that, generally, the culture of a community or society is seen in every circumstance when there is interaction and is seen verbally in the context of performance. language activities undertaken by a community in a particular culture have a specific goal. the culture of the community with its distinctive purpose is seen in social interaction, especially in the language activities undertaken by the community. social social factor affects oral tradition of maengket makamberu in minahasa ethnic community. it generally includes some differences in society, such as gender differences, social stratification, ethnic groups, education levels, age groups, political interests, and others. social factor difference is regarding participants or people involved in the oral tradition. genders sometimes follow the requirements in the oral tradition performance, so there are those who may or may not be or common participants in the performance. in one particular performance, there are usually a man, woman, and man behaving like woman. in the performances, the identified men, women, or both can be involved as performers (players) or audience. in this case, gender does not apply to members only, but the manager/leader as well. generally, the manager or leader relates to social cognition that produces, distributes, and consumes oral tradition performance as a collective heritage (dijk, 1985). therefore, the variables or social differences as managers also need to be explained in this study. understanding of social variables or social factor differences is useful to understand the performance of oral tradition, such as the one in minahasan ethnic communities. identification and description of the social class of actors, leader, managers, and connoisseurs, or the persons involved in oral tradition performance is very important. the importance lies not only on understanding the form and content of performances, but also understanding the process of performance’s inheritance. generally, a social factor is easily understood in oral tradition performance because a social variable is often easily seen in the performance of minahasan ethnic. the difference in participants involved in the oral tradition can be easily and clearly seen when the tradition performance is carried out or presented in communities. the social factor that contributes to performance understanding will be in accordance with the following religious and art performances. salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 2 no. 1, february 2019 70 situation the context of situation in terms of time, place, and atmosphere also influences the way to perform maengket makamberu oral tradition in the present minahasan ethnic society. references pertaining in the context of the situation affect the performance of oral traditions carried out by the leader and members of minahasan ethnic societies. an example can be clearly distinguished in the performance. description of context of time situation executes timing of the performance of oral tradition. receipt time determines day division (morning, noon, or night, week / month (beginning, middle, or end), and season (planting, growing, or picking rice). nowadays, different time division from morning to night, from the beginning to the end of week or month, even planting time until harvesting time can be performed by oral tradition. situation sometimes exhausts the execution of oral tradition performance in society. situation is important for players, attendees, doers and audience to perform. if electricity or building does not exist, performance location will be different. therefore, the situation context will also be different. atmosphere of situation concerns with performance’s function in today's minahasa. the context of event describes performance’s function of the tradition, such as religious worship or family gratitude in minahasan ethnic communities. the atmosphere affirms the state of performed oral tradition, whether it needs to be in a solemn, peaceful, serious, happy, lively, or relaxed atmosphere. description of situation context relates to how to produce the state of oral tradition performance in today's minahasan ethnic communities or societies. differences in this way will be revealed by explaining the social context that, either partially or a wholly, affects the form of religion and art. ideology ideological ideas of knowledge, beliefs, understandings, strengths, or forces affect the performance of maengket makamberu in minahasan ethnic communities or societies. ideology is a culture owned by community, so it is very emic (view of indigenous peoples). therefore, the context can only be accessed through the perspective of local people or insiders, such as minahasan ethnic community itself. ideology is the understanding, flow, belief, and value shared by a community or society. an example is minahasan ideology that was inherited from generation to generation. religious, artistic, local, global, traditional, modern, cultural, gender, and other ideals can influence the performance of minahasan ethnic community/society’s oral tradition. this ideology becomes a sociocultural concept that directs minahasan society. this ideological understanding has power that can influence, control, and demean society. ideology is used as a way of thinking, talking/communicating, behaving, and acting of the arrangement of people’s life order. some of these ideological spaces, which can be seen through performances exhibited by all participants of the performance, are the sustainability of women's leadership in maengket makamberu performance (rattu) 71 presented in the oral tradition. the ideology can be seen from the way performers perform the oral tradition, whether they sing and dance solemnly, peacefully, seriously, happily, lively, or in a relaxed manner during the exhibition. the ideology of participants, both presenter and audience, is expressed or acted in the tradition. ideology is intrinsically related to the extraordinary presentation in oral tradition performance. if the content of the performance of this minahasan oral tradition ideology is analyzed, it is clearly centered around the earth, as it relates to life on earth, like rice field cultivation. they request to the great god in the heaven all pleas concerning their life. their life on this earth is filled with abundant blessings from heavenly god on the day, growth of new rice, breeze of the wind, and satisfying harvest. there is no single plea for eternal happiness in heaven. content of maengket makamberu performance the concept of "religious leaders" before the seventh century, minahasan ethnic society had matriarchal kinship system. minahasan ethnic societies were led by walian, a religious women leader, who had a power to run the government of makarua siouw (nine times two) in minahasa. they were the council of eighteen ancestors of the three pakasa'an or puritan walak purba (paassen, 2006) however, in the seventh century, there was a change of leader in minahasan society. at that time, minahasan ethnic society that was previously lead by the walian women began to turn to minahasan man leader who was called tona'as, religious village guard. since then, minahasa society that used to be matriarchal (maternal law) has changed into a patriarchal society (paternal law). nevertheless, some signs show that minahasan society is egalitarian in terms of women’s rights. the high position of women in minahasan society was obvious when they inaugurated the first female christian pastor in 1968. additionally, there was also the first female mayor in manado, madame waworuntu. in many other areas, marriage occurs because the decision of the parents, but in minahasan ethnic, relationship between men and women occur because they like each other. the philosophy behind it is democracy, that is, equality of human dignity, which inspires similarity between male and female association in minahasan ethnic community. before the gospel was preached in minahasa, their ancestors had already believed in a creation story similar to the one in genesis 1: 26-27: "and god said, let us make man in our image, in the likeness of the fish of the sea, and upon the earth, and over all the creeping things that creep upon the earth: and god created man in his image, in the image of god he created him, man and women, created them." minahasan people’s ancestors were more consistent in applying the principle of equal dignity of all people. it was applied to both men and women as well as adults and young people in minahasa. this can be seen in the report of this study. salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 2 no. 1, february 2019 72 the concept of democratic kapel or democratic leader the concept of democratic leader describes the leadership of women who have better and more religious dominant character. this character has an impact on various symptoms of minahasan oral tradition, especially on the functions associated with female leadership. conative conative function focuses on speaker's desire for interlocutors to have similar action or thought to the speaker when they are involved in a two-way communication. some functions can be seen from easily identifiable grammatical expressions. additionally, conative functions can also be seen from the sound of chant and dance movements that support grammatical expression. in religious maengket makamberu, a form of poetry indicates in its literature a conative function that exists only in an implicit stanza of data 4-06 with three phrases. conative function in phrases is characterized by the existence of vocative using imperative form. the phenomenon depicts the use of an imperative vocative form, which is the word ya (come on). additionally, the imperative form of ya, come on, precedes a verb kuana (it’s said). the phrase is sung with the main tone by female participants, while the tone of ornament is sung by male participants with various tones to complete the female tone. in conative function, the description shows that the voice of women serves as the leader in the performance. in artistic maengket makamberu, a conative function appears in six stanzas. data 4-14 contains "let's plant in new paddy fields" and "new seeds let owey". conative function in phrases is characterized by the existence of vocative use that has imperative form. the phenomenon depicts the use of an imperative vocative form, which is the word ya (come on). the expression is sung in the main tone by female participants and is danced with a movement that is guided by the kapel, the female leader in traditional performance. finally, it shows the role of women as the leader in the conative function. referrals referential function focuses on the referential meaning of news conveyed by a speaker to an interlocutor in a communication process during the performance. although the analysis is more oriented to the context of traditional performances, other functions are still taken into account in reviewing referential function. the textual form of language in democratic leader concept in religious maengket makamberu has a function of reference that can be found in the data (4-06). phrase of i ka'ayo i ka'ayomo, meaning when arrived when it arrived, is followed by ya kuana mapangeilek, yes he asked for, and also sa turuan maileilek, if it is shown, so be careful. the phrase contains news to young congregation, like what is found in some expressions such as when it arrives (i ka'ayo), yes he said (ya kua "na"), and ‘ask’ (mapangeilek). the pronoun of the third person singular "he" here refers to the great god or more specifically the god who promises guidance for those who always pray to him. young men as the recipients of the message are not represented or not mentioned in the the sustainability of women's leadership in maengket makamberu performance (rattu) 73 sung phrase. the phrase contains news from the leader that the religious ceremony is the first communion ritual performed not of their own accord. the textual form of the linguistic unit in the concept of democratic leaders that also bear a referential function is seen in the performance of artistic maengket makamberu. data 4-11 consists of the expression of poetry that is sung, such as unendo i naria e, meaning today when it is happy e, and naria e endo wangko tamoma pelenge e, cheer e big day for all e. the phrase contains news, such as it is a big day (endo wangko), followed by for (tamoma), and closed by entirely e (peleng e), for the fellow of minahasan ethnic community. the plural pronouns here refers to the whole society, specifically fellow farmers, who are invited to rejoice and to enjoy the blessing from god for all of them. ethnic community of minahasa as recipient of the news is represented in the song expression. the phrase contains news for all invited fellow community to cheer up. conclusion the analysis of maengket makamberu performance is based on several layers, the context, co-text, text and the contents of function and meaning. an analysis of the layers of the three elements is useful for expressing the underlying contents of minahasan ethnic community's philosophy inherited from their ancestors. based on the results of the analysis of the form and content of minahasan ethnic performances, several things can be concluded. maengket makamberu performances have different forms in accordance with the context that surrounds it, such as culture, society, situation, and ideology of performance. these four contexts surrounding the performance have changed the form from religious ceremony to art show that is more favorable for today’s society. however, there are some performances that return to their religious forms, so that there are religious and artistic forms. in general, maengket makamberu performances, both as religious and artistic form, are almost the same because there are only some differences in context elements. both performances are inseparable traditions performed together in the form of dance and music (both vocal and instrumental) as well as literature. specifically, there are a poetry text with linguistics characteristics in vocal music and a melodic poetry with artistic characteristics in instrumental music. religious and artistic maengket makamberu have narrative and formal structures. the narrative structure was analyzed using the concept of genette (1980) which states that there are five components (order, duration, frequency, atmosphere, sound) in performance. the formal structure was analyzed using critical discourse analysis paradigm (dijk, 1985), which includes macro, superstructure, and micro structures. narrative structure in maengket makamberu text, both religious and artistic ones, is shown by the singing of a female leader for other members/participants in team. the two related elements, participant and song elements, determine the wholeness of the song’s text structure as a part of the whole tradition performance. the salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 2 no. 1, february 2019 74 narrative mood is shown by the mood and perspective speech. references bauman, richard. (1977). verbal art as performance (pp. 5). massachusetts: newbury house publishers, inc. bauman, richard (ed.). (1992). folklore, cultural performances, and popular entertainments: a communicationscentered handbook (pp. 41). oxford: oxford university press. braudel, fernand. (1993). a history of civilizations (pp. 22-23, 28, 41) (richard mayne, trans.). new york: penguin books. danarek, stefan. (2015). modul: tradisi lisan nusantara dan warisan budaya (pp. 65-68). transkripsi dalam mpss pudentia. jakarta: asosiasi tradisi lisan. dijk, teun a. van (ed.). (1985a). handbook of discourse analysis: disciplines of discourse (vol. 1, pp. 18). london: academic press. dijk, teun a. van (ed.). (1985d). handbook of discourse analysis: discourse analysis in society (vol. 4, p. 10). london: academic press. duranti, alessandro. (1997). linguistic anthropology (p. 14). cambridge: cambridge university press. edgar, andrew and peter sedgwick. (2006). cultural theory: the key concepts (2nd ed., p. 158). london and new york: routledge. elfira, mina. (2008). vasilisa maligina karya a. m. kollontai: sebuah rekonstruksi atas konsep maskulinitas rusia (pp. 40-49). jurnal wacana, 10(1), finnegan, ruth. (1979). oral poetry: its nature significance and social context (pp. 13). london: cambridge university press. genette, gerard. (1980). narrative discourse: an essay in method (pp. 3585). new york: cornell university press. kaunang, ivan robert bernadus. (2010). komodifikasi tari maengket minahasa, sulawesi utara di era globalisasi. denpasar: universitas udayana. kimmel, michael s. (2004). the gendered society (p. 1). oxford: oxford university press. martin, j. r. (1984). language, register and genre (pp. 21-30). in f. christe (ed.), langauge studies: children writing reader. geelong: deakin university press. moleong. lexy j. (1990). metodologi penelitian kualitatif. bandung: remaja rosdakarya oakley, ann. (1972). sex, gender, and society (p. 16). london: temple smith. oroh, hendrik l. (2006). maengket bahasa tondano (dengan segala permasalahannya). in buku panduan seminar nasional tari maengket. jakarta: panitia seminar nasional tari maengket. paassen, jan van. (2006). filsafat kebudayaan minahasa (p. 222). in buku panduan seminar nasional tari maengket. jakarta: panitia seminar nasional tari maengket. palm, hetty. (1961). ancient art of the minahasa (p. 20). jakarta: gita karya. rattu, aubrey. (2006). sendratasik maengket di minahasa. in buku panduan seminar nasional tari maengket. jakarta: panitia seminar nasional tari maengket. rumengan, perry. (2010). maengket, seni tradisional orang minahasa: perkembangan dan permasalahan (vol. 1). yogyakarta: program pascasarjana isi. sims, martha c., & martine stephens. (2005). living folklore: an introduction to the study of people and their traditions (p. 128). utah: utah state university press. the sustainability of women's leadership in maengket makamberu performance (rattu) 75 suoth, anneke j. (2006). kajian nilai budaya tarian maengket. jurnal hasil penelitian jarahnitra, 4(7), 89142. manado: balai kajian sejarah dan nilai tradisional manado. warokka, djery. (2004). kamus bahasa daerah manado – minahasa: indonesia-manado-tountembantolour-tonsea-tombulu (p. 71). jakarta: alfa indah. wenas, jessy. (2006). sejarah maengket. in buku panduan seminar nasional tari maengket. jakarta: panitia seminar nasional tari maengket. salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 2 no. 1, february 2019 76 0201_00a_cover.pdf 0201_04_rattu.pdf 0201_10_backcover.pdf salasika indonesian journal of gender, women, child, and social inclusion's studies volume 1, number 1 – february 2018 table of content a road to the recognition of home-workers: transformation of pos production modes and roles of home-workers in batik industry in central java: case study in cluster batik in central java arianti ina r. hunga 1 advancing women’s digital skills and economic empowerment through girls in tech indonesia: a case study isyfi’afiani 21 women and batik conservation on muria slopes: a study of female batik crafters in kudus zaimatus sa’diyah 33 against ahok: an analysis of emotion-driven movements and network power in jakarta’s 2017 gubernatorial election subekti w. priyadharma 43 women’s circle approach is an alternative path for gender responsive public procurement system in indonesia sartiah yusran, eliyanti agus mokodompit, & ulfa matoka 59 chief editors dr. ir. arianti ina restiani hunga, m.si. (scopus id: 46161114400; google scholar); dr. phil. dewi candraningrum. (google scholar). executive editors indriretno setyaningrahayu, m.pd. (google scholar); daniel kurniawan, m.pd. (google scholar); andi misbahul pratiwi, m.si. (google scholar). board of editors prof. claudia derichs (scopus id: 14026487800). humboldt universität zu berlin, germany; assoc. prof. dr. ida sabelis (scopus id: 6507181398). vrije universiteit (vu) amsterdam, the netherlands; prof. siti kusujiarti.ma. (scopus id: 56276925900). warren wilson college, usa; dr. ratna saptari (scopus id: 6504610910). leiden university; prof. sylvia tiwon (scopus id: 6506468591). university of california; prof. dr. emy susanti, ma. (google scholar). airlangga university; prof. dr. ir. keppi sukesi, ms. (scopus id: 56025803300). brawijaya university; dr. kristi poerwandari, ma. (scopus id: 25628305200). university of indonesia; prof. dr. willemijn de jong (scopus id: 55258294800). university of zurich, switzerland; prof. lyn parker (scopus id: 56273266700). the university of western australia. reviewers prof. lyn parker (scoups id: 56273266700). university of western australia, perth, australia; dr. elisabet titik murtisari (scopus id: 38161752200; google scholar). satya wacana christian university; dr. wening udasmoro (scopus id: 56493135600; google scholar). gadjah mada university; dr. phil. farah purwaningrum (scopus id: 57205254451; google scholar). the university of sydney & rahayu and partners in association with hfw; alimatul qibtiyah, m.si. ma. ph.d. (scopus & google scholar). sunan kalijaga state islamic university; dr. tyas retno wulan, m.si. (scopus & google scholar). the jenderal soedirman university; dr. titik sumarti, msi. (scopus & google scholar). bogor agricultural university; prof. dr. mien ratoe oedjoe, mpd. (google scholar). the university of nusa cendana, kupang; j. casey hammond, phd. (scopus & google scholar). singapore university of technology and design; dr. phil. ratna noviani (google scholar). gadjah mada university; dr. rina herlina haryanti (google scholar). sebelas maret university; dr. ida ruwaida noor (google scholar). university of indonesia; dr. nurjanah, sp.m.pd. (google scholar). state university of jakarta; dr. ir. evi feronika elbaar, m.si. (google scholar). the university of palangka raya; dr. jendrius m.si. (google scholar). andalas university; dr. grace jenny soputan, se. (google scholar). manado state university; dr. anis farida, s.sos., sh., m.si. (scopus & google scholar). sunan ampel state islamic university surabaya; ira desiaanti mangiliko, s.si,.ph.d. (google scholar). the artha wacana christian university. women’s circle approach is an alternative path for … (yusran, mokodompit, matoka) 59 women’s circle approach is an alternative path for gender responsive public procurement system in indonesia sartiah yusran, eliyanti agus mokodompit, & ulfa matoka faculty of public health, haluoleo university & faculty of economy, haluoleo university s.yusran@gmail.com, elimokodompit@yahoo.com, ulffa.matoka@gmail.com abstract public procurement is a strategic public-sector function that has been recognized as a vehicle in supporting the government to achieve social goals and sustainable economic development. in line with this, gender inequality can be a significant constraint to economic growth and poverty reduction. women procurement specialists have experienced inequality access and poor participation in the capacity building program and lack of contribution being leaders in public procurement managerial positions. most females who attended the training have returned their certificates due to the challenges of being the procurement committee. these indicate female gaps, barriers, and obstacles in working as procurement specialists. the main purpose of this study is to identify the importance of women’s circle initiative to obtain additional support in increasing women’s capacity to provide services better and succeed in the profession; to improve skills and networking of women and access, participate and perform their tasks as the procurement professional. the study reveals that the issue of female procurement specialist is still ‘underground’ and programs related to female procurement profession remain ‘absent’. gender stereotypes and discrimination indicate the main gaps to promote to the manager position, even though they have a high level of education, smart and also a good commitment to their work. women are still recognized as the second group and are not allowed to play a leadership role, to some extent. this is due to the burden of domestic responsibilities that eventually catch up with them, making it difficult to remain in that role for an extended period of time. as a consequence, they have lack of self-confident, self-respect, self-esteem and also lack of capacities in communication and leadership skills and no motivation to promote themselves to the higher position. they agreed for the women’s circle initiative and this forum plays a vital role in supporting female professional capacity, enhancing the bargaining position and, empowering women to negotiate career development. women’s circle approach is a strategic path and potentially being an educational and training-based forum or learning-based forum; an agent of reform-based forum and as a networking-based forum. for a long-term benefit, women’s circle becomes an agent of change among women procurement specialist that finally led to being champions for indonesian government procurement in reaching the quality of being more equitable, transparent and accountable. this approach is one of the indicators for increasing the quality of procurement modernization program with a gender perspective. keywords: women’s circle, procurement, gender and women procurement specialist. salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 1 no. 1, february 2018 60 introduction indonesia is facing many problems in sustainable development, following a deep fiscal crisis in the late 1990s due to mainly the explosion of public debt (world bank, 2001). the government of indonesia has moved with some efforts to address the crisis and one of the steps indicated public procurement as a tool to improve the efficiency and the effectiveness of public spending. nowadays, there have been some progress, especially in the improvement of public procurement management as a strategic activity and a resource to improve the quality of government services (sadikin, 2007, p. 597). the important role of public procurement is now become more and more recognized and give special attention in developing the concept, regulations as well as institutional building (kirton, 2013). the government of indonesia has officially established the national public procurement agency in 2007 and it has been seen as a strategic public-sector function; a fundamental component that increasingly being recognized as a vehicle to support governments in order to achieve social goals and sustainable economic development; and as one of the efforts in reducing the burden of public debt (undp, 2010, p. 5). the national public procurement agency also plays a vital role to assist government to enhance economic growth by achieving cost savings for the public sector for procured goods and services, while maintaining or enhancing the quality or value of those goods and services (mcaindonesia report, 2014). public cost savings could enhance growth to the extent that such savings are utilized to procure additional growthenhancing goods and services. this is a significant effort to modernize its public procurement system (kirton, 2013). national public procurement agency has signed memorandum of understanding (mou) with millennium challenge account (mca) –indonesia and agreed to sign implementing entity agreement (iea) for procurement modernization project in august 2013 in supporting 29 procurement service units for the whole period of procurement modernization as a pilot project 2013-2018. procurement professionalization program has conducted human resources training and has been trained 154 public procurement specialists and only 32 women participants among them at the first phase. this shows that about 20% only women procurement staff who had attended the training. nevertheless, it was a very first stage of the training program of the project intervention. the above data indicates the gap between men and women participants, whereas women have less access and participated in the training. this means gender inequality still become major concern in public procurement policy (mcaindonesia, 2014). although national public procurement agency does not explicitly discriminate against women, procurement realm is still men dominated profession. for example, previous professional training reported that most women who attended the training have returned their certificate due to the challenges of being procurement committee. these two issues have indicated women’s barriers and women’s circle approach is an alternative path for … (yusran, mokodompit, matoka) 61 obstacles in working as procurement specialist. in addition, the involvement of women in procurement committee may also influence by policy makers who less sensitive and understanding about gender mainstreaming policy (sgip, 2014). lack of comprehensive study on public procurement professional looking at gender perspective in procurement and limited data are available on issues of female procurement involvement and contribution. the only one, gender vendor survey (2013) conducted on access to procurement, key barrier and trends reveals a number of gaps, barriers and obstacles became entry points to encourage and improve the ability of both male and female procurement professional to equally participate in procurement process. this first study in public procurement also found that procurement realm is dominated by male profession in which women are employed at lower positions, with the similar levels of education. in addition, lack of representation of women among procurement committee bodies may lead to missed opportunities to integrate gender perspectives or women’s exclusion from available opportunities (mca-indonesia, 2014). these above gaps and barriers justify that women procurement need some supports. the main purpose of this study is to identify the importance of women‘s circle formation for female procurement specialists to obtain additional support in reducing the existing gaps and barriers and increasing their capacity in order to serve the procurement process better and succeed in the profession. the long-term objective of women’s circle aiming to improve skills and networking of women procurement specialists to access, participate and perform their tasks as the procurement professional. therefore, this study was conducted to follow up the initiation of women’s circle formation in supporting women as a special function and role in procurement services and to find out the appropriate framework suits the needs of women procurement profession. this study was conducted in 29 procurement service units (psu) as a pilot project of mca-indonesia all over indonesia. the total sample was sixty four (64) women as initiators who were public procurement employment from these 29 psus pilot and have been selected as the respondent of this study. ten (10) key informants, 4 men and 6 women, were representation from different profession such as private procurement, women activist, ministry of women empowerment, national public procurement agency, ngo and women leader. this study applied a qualitative descriptive analysis and the data was collected through; 1) focus group discussion (fgd); 2) in-depth interview; 3) expert group meeting (egm); and 4) workshops and seminars in order to determine the needs of women procurement specialist in increasing their capacity through women’s circle approach. focus group discussion (fgd) with procurement specialist and carrying out either in jakarta, neither outside of jakarta with government and nongovernment institutions, including salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 1 no. 1, february 2018 62 the indonesia association of procurement professionals based on national public procurement agency’s recommendations to collate direct experiences and the needs in designing scope of the women’s circle program and activities. indepth interview were conducted in bali, bandung and jakarta with different participants representing easter indonesia region, western indonesia and central indonesia or regional indonesia. another data were collected from expert group meeting, seminar and workshop in capturing data from different sources. these bring a description of women’s circle formation with comprehensive descriptive qualitative. gender equality, women empowerment and public procurement policy gender equality is a universal goal that is found through some of the world’s commitment and in many international instruments. for example, the charter of the united nations, the universal declaration of human rights (1948) and the convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women (cedaw, 1979; untac, 2004). laws and regulation require to measures on non-discrimination both international and national and have the same opportunity for equality treatment. these are being recognized as a cornerstone of public procurement. this principle strongly encourages avoiding any discrimination in any part of the world (coc. he el, 2006). this means that all nationalities shall be treated in the same manner, unless the difference is agreed and objectively justified. both direct and indirect discrimination is prohibited, and no national preferences are allowed. this principle applies in public procurement system which contracting authorities must remain non-biased and impartial toward all procurement specialists both men as well as female (kirton el, 2013). internationally, gender inequality and women’s lack of empowerment have been recognized as one of the reasons in blocking economic development and poverty reduction (world bank, 2012). although the term used is gender equality and women empowerment in practice, these often refer to affording women equal access and participation by seeking to improve their capabilities, since most societies tend to follow a patriarchal tradition. therefore, the linkage between gender equality, women empowerment and public procurement policy investigates the inclusiveness government procurement policy and program with the effective management of very standard resources. how the issue of gender equality and women empowerment can be integrated internally in order to accelerate sustainable economic out comes in line with the concept of human capital development (world bank, 2012). adding a gender dimension to public procurement issue represents a commitment to achieving gender equality where it matters most in policies governing the flow of economic resources (unctad, 2004). at the same time, gender inequality is also the challenge, if the analysis based on the indonesia women’s profile. the picture of women in 2015, availability of the data shows that 4.467.982 thousands women’s circle approach is an alternative path for … (yusran, mokodompit, matoka) 63 public servants and 47.79 percent are women and 52.21 percent are men. this suggests that there is an equal opportunity for both men and women access to be public services including public procurement, whereas women represent 48 percent of all the staff. however, data also shows that only two percent of all women workforces in the public servant having managerial level comparing with seven percent of the women of the workforce. women’s overall representation in decisionmaking positions is twenty eight percent, but they are much more numerous at the lower echelons where they comprise twenty five percent of echelon iii and iv each. in echelon i and ii women only constitute nine percent and eight percent respectively http://www.bkn.go.id. the above data indicates that women have less access and participation to be leaders in government bodies. while the number of women and men being public servants are almost equal. however, a gap remains between ‘de jure’ and ‘de facto’ implementation of a gender component in public procurement policy, as well as in the success of the efforts to achieve the stated goal of gender equality (kirton el, 2013, p. 17). at the same time, the authority on human rights perspective and public procurement law underlines that the use of public procurement to achieve social outcome is widespread, however, in the context of indonesia its use to promote equality on the basis of ethnicity and gender. while closing gender gaps is a matter of human rights and equity, it is also one of efficiency of public procurement issues (kirton, 2013). on the other hand, the government of indonesia’s national development plan (2010-2025) includes gender as one of the three cross-cutting issues to be addressed across all development sectors and other two cross cutting issues are sustainable development and governance (mca-indonesia, 2014). indonesia has a national gender mainstreaming strategy in national and development panning and programming based on the presidential instruction no 9/2000. the regulation underlines that gender mainstreaming direct all government ministries and agencies to adopt a gender mainstreaming strategy (mcc, 2011). this law requires all government agencies at the national and sub-national levels to integrate gender perspectives into planning and budgeting, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies, programs, projects and activities of the ministries/non-departmental government, agencies, governors and mayors (asian development bank, 2015). the law states explicitly that gender mainstreaming’s strategy is essential part in achieving gender equality and equity and this implies that men and women should have equal opportunities in fulfilling the same position at all level of the civil services (world bank, 2012). in the context of public procurement system, there is no comprehensive gender works in public procurement professional and limited data are available on issues of women procurement involvement and contribution. a gender study conducted on access to procurement and key findings reveal a number of gaps, barriers and obstacles may become an entry points to encourage salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 1 no. 1, february 2018 64 and improve the ability of both men and women procurement professional to equally participate in procurement process. in addition, lack of representation of women among procurement committee bodies may lead to missed opportunities to integrate gender perspectives or women’s exclusion from available opportunities (mcaindonesia, 2014). this first gender survey reveals some gaps and barriers to access and participate into procurement services among women procurement specialist. the study also recommends that these gaps and barriers could become an entry point to integrate gender dimension into procurement program and activities. however, this gender survey mostly focused on men and women-owned firm (mca-indonesia, 2014). despite the lack of data from previous studies focusing on the issues of women procurement involvement and contribution, a number of barriers also discussed during the gender coordinating meeting in west nusa tenggara. the fgd discussed issues of women’s access and participation in their works, and identified a small number of women who included in procurement committee in procurement service unit. this is not because of lack of understanding of their works, but due to cultural barrier and having less confident to work as part of decision-making team. it was also found approximately 90% of women procurement specialists who participated in professional training and have qualification, they returned their certificate due to lack of motivation being involved as decision maker and hold responsibility as head of procurement service unit. the study also claimed that although women have rights to access and to participate to the higher position, unfortunately, the data indicates strong under-representation of women in the profession, especially at the highest echelons, even though some women are down in the 3rd echelon level. in the context of public procurement policy, a presidential decree no. 70/2012 on government procurement gives emphasis on the principles of transparency, openness, equity and non-discriminative to all parties and accountability (mcaindonesia, 2014). this decree clearly underlines non-discrimination between men and women who deal with public procurement process. however theoretically, public procurement has been introduced as a gender-neutral concept. a number of literatures indicated that gender discourse only comes out in the context of domestic economy perspective including women-owned firm issues. however, there are gender responsive procurement effects in the public procurement policy (ppp) including the social issue of women as public procurement specialist (sadikin, 2007). the substantial steps in the public sector procurement legal reform process were; first, presidential decree no 18/2000 and this decree’s existence was supported by amendments, since 1994. second, a higher level of the development of law and regulation was enacted in 1999 for several aspects and the main issue was the procurement of civil works and related consulting services. new directives for this construction law were also issued in 2000. furthermore, other laws, women’s circle approach is an alternative path for … (yusran, mokodompit, matoka) 65 either enacted or in draft, in respect to state finance, treasury, audit, and small-scale business all make reference to, and impact on public procurement (indonesian public procurement, 2007). historically, some progress provided a promising success to improve the process of public procurement management reform and steps that have been done before are as follows; firstly, consultative group on indonesia had a meeting in tokyo in october 2000, the government of indonesia confirmed its commitment to reforms of the public procurement system; secondly, some initial recommendations provided by world bank (2001) through a country procurement assessment report in 200 had been contributed to a dialogue with the government of indonesia focusing on the ways to make the public procurement system economic, efficient, transparent and more predictable with those recommendations mentioned. the government of indonesia has committed in three main points particularly for; firstly, ensuring the same standards for procurement and financial management are applied at national, provincial and district levels; secondly, establishing a national public procurement office in formulating procurement policy, enhancing and monitoring compliance; and supporting national public procurement office in the formulation of a public procurement law/regulation. the last, national planning and development board was responsible for procurement reform and has established a steering committee to follow up the consultative group on indonesia’s commitment in developing a national public procurement office. this effort was supported by a secretariat and three working groups responsible for legal and policy, institutional, and human resource development (cgi, 2001). in line with gender responsive public procurement policy, previous survey mostly focused on femaleowned firms and limited information about their opportunities to engage in business transactions through procurement biding. the previous survey underlined that only approximately 5% of women entrepreneurs who successfully won the bid related to procurement modernization by the indonesian government. the survey also found that most often faced discrimination and harassment in biding with government staff (adb, 2015). however, very limited studies focused on women procurement specialist as the decision-making team in implementing gender responsive public procurement policy. at the same time, the purpose of the procurement modernization project is to alleviate poverty. the project must be done effectively and transparently in understanding directly how much influence women officials in the public procurement. therefore, it can be argued that in the concept of human capital development, public procurement cannot be focused the good sector only, but also in services issues. the result of interview conducted for this study found that although the government of indonesia has a gender mainstreaming and women empowerment policy and program, but the issue of women procurement specialist is still ‘underground’. it can be argued that gender equality and salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 1 no. 1, february 2018 66 women empowerment are also integrated into public procurement policy and follow that protocol. for a long-term benefit, women’s circle is expected to be sustained as an official independent organization for women public officers, once the step of intervention had been working properly. in the era of women in development, several women’s organizations managed to provide support to women and but most of them varies greatly; such as non-governmental organization or civil society organization, women’s professions (joseph s, 2014). indonesia has also recognized two women’s organization under government’s body. however, the main focus is basically for empowering the wives of male public officers, and some female public officers may become members. another women’s professional organization are association of indonesian women entrepreneurs and indonesian women’s association for justice and none of these organizations concentrate to women public officer’s as an independent organization that support women’s capacity development. therefore, women’s circle will be the only one female government officers’ association supporting their career development including the issue of women in leadership. gaps, barriers and challenges of women in procurement system the global gender gap report (2014) reported by the world economic forum underlined that women’s participation and opportunity in economic sector is the most significant gender inequality challenge for indonesia. in the issue of public procurement, respondent who represented ministry of women empowerment claimed that programs related to women procurement are almost absent. the only intervention is focused on the issues of women business activities. for example, in the bidding process, the announcement identified participants of tender are eligible for both women and men entrepreneur and they are encouraged to participate. this simple statement obviously confirms the support for women as well as men without discrimination on the basis of sex in procurement issues. although this statement still underlines women enterprise only, but this also indicates that women participation in working force is still low including in public procurement setting. however, sadikin (2007) reported that; in few cases like ministry of transportation, it is a good example on women empowerment perspective in public procurement issues. they changed the technical specification on ramp access for ‘bus-way’ of trans-jakarta. at present, there are seven corridor routes to be more slopes, so women, kids and elderly are more comfortable and more secure to use the ramp access. while the design needs more spacious land, women and elderly participation in traveling by trans-jakarta has increased (p. 604). this is one path or another strategy to execute the bidding transaction and how public procurement professional use gender mindset to see the priority of public women’s circle approach is an alternative path for … (yusran, mokodompit, matoka) 67 procurement services. on the other hand, the empowerment of public procurement officers for quality of services, especially women officer is another angle that needs to take into account in order to support the gender responsive procurement services. despite the lack of studies in indonesia focus on how women procurement professional contribute to the implementation of public procurement, several assessment shows a number of gaps and barriers in procurement system such as fewer women participate in procurement committee, lack of understanding of their works; they are not ready yet to be decision makers on the head of procurement service unit due to less confident, lack of skill as well as cultural barriers. this preliminary data suggests that there is a strong under-representation of women in their profession. therefore, gender requirement issue in public procurement is one of the approaches in involving more women in public procurement services. it is a question both of ensuring that all citizens are offered equal services regardless of gender but also a matter of increasing efficiency and quality of services. the study of kirton (2013) recommends that there is a need to widen policies beyond the local to the global arena and encourage women to take on more leadership roles within procurement. in addition, there is also a need to increase women networks nationally and internationally and to enhance the capacity of women to take on decision making roles in order to effect any significant change. this suggests that policy makers are unlikely to know the extent to which women entrepreneurs to successfully with government contracts. at the same time, the policy makers also need to make sure the involvement of women procurement specialist to support the improvement of services. therefore, indonesia public procurement policy, program and activities in line with women empowerment issue cannot just focus on women entrepreneur only. there is a need to consider and to improve the quality of women procurement specialist who provides services. this study found that women’s circle approach has come for a number of specific reasons and some of which are discussed related to women procurement’s gaps such as lack of access, participation and contribution in decision making position, lack of involvement in procurement committee bodies and lack of communication, negotiation, and decisions making skills as well as lack of representation in human resource development training program that lead them have lower level of leadership skills comparing with men procurement profession. this was not merely because of men do not provide access and promote women as decision makers, but it was due to internal issues of women in some cases. they have lack of self-respect, confidence and selfesteem, lack of capacities in communication, negotiation and decision-making skills. in some cases, they do not want to be included in procurement committee due to the intervention from decision makers who have less sensitive towards women’s role and responsibilities. they are also afraid of having a legal problem related to the procurement mechanism because of third party’s intervention including the issue of salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 1 no. 1, february 2018 68 corruption. although, in some cases, female can access and participate to be decision making team in their career pathways, the numbers of them are very small. this study identifies women access and participation in public procurement indicating as a main problem, and they are mostly in lower level position. ratio of women in managerial position is very low comparing with their participation rate. this is due to several reasons; respondents from western indonesia and more developed region claimed that women have equal access and opportunity as men in leadership position, however women experience more challenge than men, and one of them stated; in my office, women play an important role in procurement service; men even see women have good opportunities as potential leaders, especially among smart women, well-educated and have high level commitment and responsibility for their work, therefore i cannot see any cultural discrimination and stereotype in terms of women in leadership, however, women face a challenge in public procurement only because of over loaded (sri, east java). this suggests that opportunities in promoting women to the top manager is not strongly because of a cultural barrier, and this does not indicate as the main gap for javanese ethnic and other tribes in western indonesia. internal capacities including lack of confident are the main reasons for promoting women public procurement in the higher position. on the other hand, several places in eastern indonesia indicate cultural differences, gender discrimination and stereotype about women in leadership have been the main barriers and challenges. women are still recognized as the second class in society and less opportunity to play a leadership role, although policies, regulation and initiatives should make people understand societal priorities and reach a higher level of consensus on women leadership role. fgd’s participant from eastern indonesia expressed her experience: in my place, it is difficult to promote women as leaders, even though they have high level of education, smart and having good commitment due to strong gender discrimination and stereotype in our society (ina, west nusa tenggara). the level of formal education has no longer become a gap between men and women in procurement issues nationally. however, in relation with leadership and decision-making position, most women are placed in a lower position comparing with men. while few women who have higher positions in procurement workplace, the burden of domestic responsibilities such as childcare and other domestic works, eventually catches up with them. it is claimed that cultural barrier especially the issue of gender discrimination and stereotype make them difficult to remain in that role for an extended period of time. these mostly seem to be cultural differences in some places. while in another places, leadership issue is actually from women’s internal motivation. although they have a high level of formal education, they are reluctant to be promoted due to gender stereotype of women having women’s circle approach is an alternative path for … (yusran, mokodompit, matoka) 69 double burden. this has been influenced in daily life both in the office and also at home. these are the most challenging gaps and obstacles among women procurement specialist. issue related to lack of understanding and knowledge on procurement system might occur for those who just appointed to be procurement staff and they do not have any procurement background. this is common for public officers who always mobilize and move from one sector to another sector, therefore, public procurement staff needs to be trained. the gap can be found in this situation when women have lack of access and participation in professional training. in most cases, women are put in the second row or second priority to be participant in certain professional training. then, the opportunity to increase their knowledge and understanding on their work are limited and many women procurement specialist are far behind due to the fact that they lack of skills and less professional. as a consequence women experience lack of opportunities to be promoted into higher level position. this case has become an obstacles and place women in difficult position to increase their skills and for their career development. then, women’s leadership position ends up with questionable. therefore, sustaining policy, regulation and program attention to women empowerment and gender equity require concerted and systematic effort for them to be translated into action. this strategy provides the framework for how women’s circle promotes women empowerment and gender equity objectives, and achieving program results. the framework of women’s circle the rationale of women’s circle formation is equity or ‘closing the gaps, barrier and challenges’ as an overriding goal provides high level entry point in women empowerment, gender and social equity across procurement. women’s circle initiative responds to government policies, recognition that disparities undermine progress in achieving indonesia’s gender equity and also concern that the gaps and barrier are widening. this initial study has provided positive steps about women’s circle formation and the framework of the forum has been formulated based on the expectation of the respondents. women’s circle is defined as a forum for ongoing dialogues among women procurement specialist where they can meets regularly, sustained formal and informal gathering and create a conducive place for professionalism to congregate for confidences, selfrespect, self-esteem, increasing capacities to reduce the gap in terms of knowledge, experiences and perceptions of government procurement; and enhance bargaining position and empowering women procurement specialist to negotiate career development. in another word, women’s circle is ‘a place to meet, to have dialogue and networking on a regular basis, either formal or informal way to increase professionalisms, to reach for career development and to stay for leadership position. salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 1 no. 1, february 2018 70 the ultimate objectives of the women’s circle have been formulated into a short-term and a long-term objective with series of interventions in assisting and supporting women procurement specialist to reduce the gaps, barriers and challenges of women access and participation in public procurement services. at the same time, increasing women’s capacities, decision making and negotiations skills, self-respect, confidence, self-esteem and career development path as procurement professional for a long-term benefit are the major concern, including changing women’s mind set for being minority group. this is related to gender stereotypes as underlined in previous discussion. women’s circle is also expected to be a change agent for enhancing gender perspective in procurement system through a gender inclusive and transparent process once women procurement specialist participated in women circle. for a long-term benefit, the forum becomes an agent of change among women procurement specialist that finally led to be champions for indonesian government procurement in reaching the quality of being more equitable, transparent and accountable. in summary, women’s circle framework was developed based on the result of this study, as shown in figure 1. figure 1 underlines that women’s circle has been initiated as the first layer intervention to minimize gender inequality issue public procurement. this approach is also another path to empower as well as to strengthen the individual capacity among women procurement specialists. women’s circle plays different vital roles for sustainability of the forum with the following approaches; a learning-based approach; capacity building activities have been figure 1. an overview of indonesia women procurement specialist forum women’s circle approach is an alternative path for … (yusran, mokodompit, matoka) 71 categorized two different focuses; the first target is activities focusing on reducing gaps, barriers and challenges, enhancing women’s internal capacities (self-respect, confident and self-esteem) and increasing their knowledge and skills: communication, negotiation, decision making and leaders. these activities have to create societal common understanding and awareness that underline importance of women equality and leadership starting from women themselves. the second target is to increase the organizational capacity such as training of trainer (tot) and developing some module and tools of organization such as education, communication and information tools. this strategy could support sustainability of the forum, enhancing professionalism and also promoting the forum program implementation. an agent of reform: the implementation of bureaucracyreform’ needs to take into account in order to apply procurement reform system including policy, regulation and initiative on gender-based procurement modernization through comparative study. disseminating information in sharing knowledge both national and international level and addressing the best practice on gender-based procurement reform is also another intervention that leads women to be more knowledgeable. an agent of networking: an urgent need to develop some communication tools (training materials, brochure, leaflet and online material through blog and web of forum) in assisting women’s networking. in another concept, sharing experience with women procurement specialist who works in non-government procurement agent is another strategy to gain exchange program, sharing information and mentorship issues and the status of being independent forum for a longterm benefit. this approach also benefits to the membership point of view that more flexible to recruit both government and nongovernment procurement staff. practicing the concept of genderresponsive procurement reform through ulp pilot is also another strategy in building a network in all level; national, regional and local level and for a long-term target is reaching an international networking procurement agent, especially related to center for capacity building programs. conclusion this study draws several conclusions in the need of women’s circle approach as an alternative path for reaching gender responsive procurement policy and program. firstly, the gaps, barriers and challenges experienced by women procurements specialist are mainly due to a) internal capacities of women; b) cultural barrier in the point of cultural discrimination and gender stereotype; c) women are reluctant to join procurement committees and take up decision making positions due to management, cultural and political influence. these are the underlining issues that have limited opportunity of women procurement specialists to access and participate fully and contribute in the procurement services. secondly, women’s circle initiative has been identified as one salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 1 no. 1, february 2018 72 of ‘the promising solution’ since the national public procurement agency needs to ensure that women’s equitably benefit from the opportunities arising, and its intervention requires additional efforts as an alternative solution for reaching the goal of gender responsive public procurement system. building a strong institutional capacity and creating a cadre of and career streams for women procurement practitioners as well as professional project managers through selecting procurement staff from the pool of trained personnel certifies in public procurement. at the same time, it also provides support to integrate gender mainstreaming intervention to reach the consensus of gender responsive procurement system through women’s circle forum. thirdly, women’s circle’s initiative has formalized in achieving both a short-term and a long-term objective of the forum’. it was found three major function of the forum; they are 1) being a learning-based strategy facilitates learning process to change women’s perspective, to be more confident, to be more respect and to increase their capacities as well as their competencies, their leadership skills through capacity building activities; 2) being a reformbased agent support women in changing their paradigm to involve as decision makers in procurement services and to achieve gender-based procurement reform and women friendly procurement service unit; and 3) being a networking-based forum encourages women having a network for both government and non-government procurement professional with mentor relationship. finally, a political will and commitment to support women who are less skills and access in public procurement services is timely through women’s circle approach. the women’s circle engagement inform the future capacity building program for women procurement professionals that might be formally adopted by government ministries and institutions particularly by the procurement service unit. references bickley, maureen. (2010). women in leadership strategies for change. cgi. (2001). concultative group of indonesia had a metting in tokyo 2000. coche, i, b kotschwar and j-m salazarxirinachs. (2006). gender issues in trade policy-making. gtz. (2011). gender disparities in the civil service in aceh: a case study. joseph s. (2014). women’s organization in indonesia. kpi was established by the indonesian congress in december 1998. kementrian pemberdayaan perempuan dan perlindungan anak dengan badan pusat statistik. (2013). pembangunan manusia berbasis gender. kirton, raymond mark. (2013). gender, trade and public procurement policy: kenya, india, australia and jamaica. mca-indonesia. (2014). a market research study to assess the readiness of government of indonesia. mca-indonesia. (2014). gender and government procurement in indonesia: summary on survey findings on access to procurement opportunities, key barrier and trends. women’s circle approach is an alternative path for … (yusran, mokodompit, matoka) 73 mca-indonesia. (2014). social and gender iintegration plan (sgip) annual review 2014. millinium challenge compact. (2011). gender policy report. national civil service agency. (n.d.). badan kepegawaian nasional. retrieved from http://www.bkn.go.id/in/profil/uni tkerja/inka/direktoratpengolahan-data/profil-statistikpns/pertumbuhan-jumlah-pnsdirinci-menurut-jenis-kelamintiap-tahunnya.html potter, c., & r. brough. (2004). systemic capacity building: a hierarchy of needs. health policy and planning. 19(5), 336-345. sadikin s.r. (2007). public procurement sustainability in indonesia: environmental, social or economic tradeoffs. snapshot assessment of indonesia’s public procurement system. (2007). the country procurement assessment report for indonesia. (2001). unctad. (2004). trade and gender: opportunities and challenges for developing countries. usaid. (2007). public procurement manual. undp. (2010). public procurement capacity development guide. world bank. (2012). world development report (2012) on gender equality and development. world bank. (2014). global partnership for youth employment. international youth foundation (iyf). retrieved from www.worldbank.org/childrenandy outh 0101_00a_cover.pdf 0101_00b_content.pdf 0101_05_yusran.pdf 0101_10_backcover.pdf salasika indonesian journal of gender, women, child, and social inclusion's studies volume 2, number 2 – july 2019 table of content ‘bride terrorist’ in indonesia: is she still considered as a peace agency? mia dayanti fajar & elisabeth dewi 95 women's capacity building of informal sector workers in rural areas (case of "boiled corn seller" in konawe regency, southeast sulawesi province) yoo eka yana kansil, nana sumarna & rimba hamid 107 understanding women’s roles in agriculture (study of women in dairy and shallot farming in east java) mely noviryani, wahyu handayani, wike, & keppi sukesi 121 agents in child marriage practice in rural west java novitha syari dhevi pradipta, ekawati sri wahyuni, & titik sumarti 137 social capital based economic autonomy of the fishing communities (study in traditional fishing community kub bino makmur, desa keboromo, kecamatan tayu, kabupaten pati, central java) tri winarni & nur khoiriyah 155 chief editors dr. ir. arianti ina restiani hunga, m.si. (scopus id: 46161114400; google scholar); dr. phil. dewi candraningrum. (google scholar). executive editors indriretno setyaningrahayu, m.pd. (google scholar); daniel kurniawan, m.pd. (google scholar); andi misbahul pratiwi, m.si. (google scholar). board of editors prof. claudia derichs (scopus id: 14026487800). humboldt universität zu berlin, germany; assoc. prof. dr. ida sabelis (scopus id: 6507181398). vrije universiteit (vu) amsterdam, the netherlands; prof. siti kusujiarti.ma. (scopus id: 56276925900). warren wilson college, usa; dr. ratna saptari (scopus id: 6504610910). leiden university; prof. sylvia tiwon (scopus id: 6506468591). university of california; prof. dr. emy susanti, ma. (google scholar). airlangga university; prof. dr. ir. keppi sukesi, ms. (scopus id: 56025803300). brawijaya university; dr. kristi poerwandari, ma. (scopus id: 25628305200). university of indonesia; prof. dr. willemijn de jong (scopus id: 55258294800). university of zurich, switzerland; prof. lyn parker (scopus id: 56273266700). the university of western australia. reviewers prof. lyn parker (scoups id: 56273266700). university of western australia, perth, australia; dr. elisabet titik murtisari (scopus id: 38161752200; google scholar). satya wacana christian university; dr. wening udasmoro (scopus id: 56493135600; google scholar). gadjah mada university; dr. phil. farah purwaningrum (scopus id: 57205254451; google scholar). the university of sydney & rahayu and partners in association with hfw; alimatul qibtiyah, m.si. ma. ph.d. (scopus & google scholar). sunan kalijaga state islamic university; dr. tyas retno wulan, m.si. (scopus & google scholar). the jenderal soedirman university; dr. titik sumarti, msi. (scopus & google scholar). bogor agricultural university; prof. dr. mien ratoe oedjoe, mpd. (google scholar). the university of nusa cendana, kupang; j. casey hammond, phd. (scopus & google scholar). singapore university of technology and design; dr. phil. ratna noviani (google scholar). gadjah mada university; dr. rina herlina haryanti (google scholar). sebelas maret university; dr. ida ruwaida noor (google scholar). university of indonesia; dr. nurjanah, sp.m.pd. (google scholar). state university of jakarta; dr. ir. evi feronika elbaar, m.si. (google scholar). the university of palangka raya; dr. jendrius m.si. (google scholar). andalas university; dr. grace jenny soputan, se. (google scholar). manado state university; dr. anis farida, s.sos., sh., m.si. (scopus & google scholar). sunan ampel state islamic university surabaya; ira desiaanti mangiliko, s.si,.ph.d. (google scholar). the artha wacana christian university. understanding women’s roles in agriculture (study of women … (noviryani, handayani, & sukesi) 121 understanding women’s roles in agriculture (study of women in dairy and shallot farming in east java) mely noviryani, wahyu handayani, wike, & keppi sukesi brawijaya university noviryani@ub.ac.id abstract this research studied the roles of women in dairy farming in ngantang and karangploso and shallot farming in pare and probolinggo, east java. the objectives were to identify the role and function of women farmers in all stages of dairy and shallot production and to examine the role and level of involvement of women farmers from social and economic aspects, local wisdom and knowledge used on the farm as well as the driving and inhibiting factors of women farmers’ participation. applying harvard analytical framework, this study identified the division of labor between men and women on the farm, women’s access and control over the benefit of the farm and its influencing factors. the results confirm that women have significant and vital roles in almost all stages of dairy and shallot farming although their roles are mostly related to the construction of women’s roles held generally within indonesian traditional societies. however, women still have limited access and control over the process of production results from the farm. the inhibiting factors for women’s participation in farming is dominated by psycho-cultural aspect that hinder women’s access to knowledge, information, networks and control over family’s income. nevertheless, women also show their potential to empower themselves through women groups that can encourage women's awareness in accessing economic resources and knowledge as well as helping them to gain more control over the process of production from the farm. keywords: gender and agriculture, women’s role in agriculture, gender equality in agriculture introduction it is estimated that, by 2050, global population will expand to 9.7 billion and 11.2 billion in 2100 (unidesa, 2015). with this number of people, food demand is projected to increase enormously. most countries in south east asia, south asia, east asia and sub-saharan need to accelerate agricultural production to end poverty and hunger to reach the new sustainable development goals (sdgs). this requires a well-performing agriculture sector to ensure food security. however, strategies for agricultural development do not always benefit the whole population and women in particular. women are discriminated against the access salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 2 no. 2, july 2019 122 to resources needed to develop this sector. globally, due to legal and cultural constraints, only 20% of women can be the landholders (fao, 2012). only 20% of total aid for agriculture, forestry and fishing goes to women. female farmers receive only 5% of all agricultural extension services in 97 countries. in the meantime, 79% of economically active women in developing countries spend their working hours producing food, working in agriculture (fao, 2017). they provide 60 to 80 percent of the food for household consumption in most developing countries, mainly as unpaid laborers (unido, 2012). women are responsible for half of the world’s total food production, but have less access to assets, credit, services, markets and information on new technologies and consumer preferences. this limited access reduces their development opportunities. according to its report, fao also claims that if women had the same access to productive resources as men, they could increase yields on their farms by 20%-30%. this could raise total agriculture production by 2.5% to 4% in developing countries, which could contribute to reducing hunger by 12% to 17% in the world (fao, 2011). based on the background above, it is necessary to conduct more in depth studies of the role and contribution of women farmers in agriculture. this research studied the role of women in dairy and shallot farming in east java, particularly in ngantang and karangploso, malang (for dairy farming) and pare and probolinggo (for shallot farming). two objectives were formulated. first, this study aimed to identify the role and function of women farmers in all stages of dairy and shallot production. second, it examined the role and level of involvement of women farmers from social and economic aspects and local wisdom on the farm as the driving and inhibiting factors of women farmers’ participation in both sectors. this research is expected to contribute to provide a more comprehensive overview of gender issues in agriculture sector in east java in general. to optimize the role of women in agriculture, they need intervention through increasing women's knowledge and awareness so that women have greater access to production process and greater control over the produced products. women make vital contributions to agriculture and rural economies in most developing countries. their roles in agriculture vary in each region and may also change over time due to changing demands in agricultural production markets. however, almost everywhere in developing counties, women in agriculture suffer from discrimination and marginalization resulting in limited access and control over resources and benefits they obtain from their work in agriculture. roshan lal and ashok khurana (2001) in their research entitled “gender issues: the role of women in agriculture sector” reveals that in rural india women are the major contributors in agriculture and its related sectors, such as harvesting, post-harvesting, storage, processing and marketing. the role of women ranges from household and family maintenance activities, water, fuels and fodder transporting activities, to their household reproductive activities, including understanding women’s roles in agriculture (study of women … (noviryani, handayani, & sukesi) 123 caring for children, the sick and the elderly. however, all of this involvement has not been recognized and, therefore, women’s dignity has not been respected. women still have low status in every aspect of their social economic and political life. according to this study, men are easily threatened by women’s achievement, particularly their wage, and this causes women to be paid below standard. women in rural areas are exploited by landlords and often treated as subservant or personal property. research by mahadeo yadav (2014), “inequality between male and female in agriculture sector in maharasthra (pre & post reform)”, tried to measure work participation and wage difference between men and women in agriculture in rural area in maharashtra in pre-reform and post-reform era as part of the new economic policy that has been implemented since 1991 to eradicate population growth, poverty, economic disparity and gender bias issues in india. women have always been neglected in the agricultural sector in india and received lower wages than men. one objective of the new economic reform is to create equality in agriculture work and wages between men and women. by using comparative method to study preand postreform era, the result shows the new economic reform, which has focused on advancing technology, has created limited access to scientific advancement and technology for poor, illiterate farm women and, failure to give higher wages. there has been no significant change in women’s wage in preand postreform era. women agriculture workers, who represent the majority of all rural women workers, continue to receive lower wages than men. most of these workers are those who do not own assets and are seasonal workers. furthermore, women in rural sector of maharashtra are discriminated and disadvantaged in many aspects of employment, such as diversification, quality employment and wage earnings. jacqueline gicheru (2013) also conducted a research on “gender equalities in agriculture in gatanga division, muranga county”. the research aimed to identify what factors promoted gender inequality in agricultural production in gatanga division, muranga county, kenya and what challenges that men, women and the youth faced in agricultural production. gender equality has been considered a dominant issue in gatanga for decades. this inequality has been caused by the low access of women to assets, productive resources and education. this condition leverages into a wider range of other issues such as poverty, unemployment, lack of access to agricultural land, poor infrastructure , lack of education and even hiv/aids pandemic. by using longwe framework, gicheru tried to understand the practical meaning of empowerment and equality of women and evaluate whether development initiatives supported empowerment in gatanga division. the study concluded that women were greatly involved in farming, especially in weeding, harvesting and drying of crops, while men undertook the role of value addition as well as marketing. women had no control over pricing because men were the ones who were more informed about market conditions, salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 2 no. 2, july 2019 124 product demands and prices since they were responsible for marketing activities. these findings showed that gender inequality in agriculture was evident in the disparities in roles of men and women undertaking the activities. the arisa funded research used a descriptive, qualitative analysis to objectively understand the role and function of women farmers in dairy farming using a focus group discussion (fgd) method to gather information on particular issues. in the fgds, a group of women were asked about their activity on the farm: production, processing, responsibility on the farm and in the family, workload distribution, challenges on the farm, the way they addressed the challenges, the intervention implemented by themselves or other parties, and any other factors. the purpose of the fdgs was to obtain feedback or information about local and specific issues. the analysis of these issues was determined by other parties after the information was successfully compiled and analyzed. the fgds were conducted in four sites of dairy farming, two were from the sub district of ngantang (sumber mulyo and sumber gadung villages) and the rests were from the sub district of karangploso (bocek village). for shallot farming, fgds were carried out in two sites, one was in pare and the other was in probolinggo, east java. for each fdg site, 10 local women involved in the sector were asked to participate in the research. the collected data were analyzed using the harvard analytical framework designed to demonstrate that there was an economic case for allocating resources to women as well as men. the framework helped planners design more efficient projects and improve overall intervention identification by mapping the work of and resources for men and women in a community and highlighting the main differences (march, 2010). the framework has 4 tools consisting of: activity profile, access and control profile, influencing factors, and project cycle analysis. the first tool identified all relevant productive and reproductive tasks and answered the question of who does what (i.e. role division). the areas of activity in which arisa project would be directly involved in required the greatest detail. the second tool enabled the users to list what resource people used to carry out the task identified in the activity profile. it identified whether women or men had access to resources, who controlled their use, and who controlled the benefits of the use of resources. the third tool allowed the user to chart factors that influenced the differences in the gender division of labor, access and control of resources as listed in the two previous tools. the last tool was designed to assist users to examine the area of intervention from a gender perspective and capture the different effects of social change on both gender (march, 2010) by using the harvard analytical framework, this research identified : 1) women’s activities in every stage in agriculture production process, both in dairy or shallot farming that indicated the division of labor between men and women and their workload in productive and reproductive areas; 2) women’s access and control over resources and benefits from the production understanding women’s roles in agriculture (study of women … (noviryani, handayani, & sukesi) 125 activity in dairy and shallot farming; 3) influencing factors that constrained and provided opportunities for women to gain more access and control over the process and benefits from the production activity in dairy and shallot farming, as well as productive assets; and 4) the impact of any previous intervention program undertaken through a project-cycle analysis for both men and women in farming. to achieve its objectives, this research developed an interview guide based on harvard framework analysis with several adjustments regarding locus of research and objectives limitation. the interview guide was composed to cover general condition of women in dairy and shallot production and women’s role in every part of production process on the farm. to assess access and control aspects, the women were also asked about their access and agency in the production process. to understand the influencing factors of women’s activities, access and control, women were asked about their workload and problems they encountered during production cycle and the solutions they developed to address the problems. the women were also asked about what interventions they thought could help them enhance the quantity and quality of shallots and dairy farm production. activities dairy dairy cattle ranching activities ranged from animal raising and feed delivery, livestock management, milk production, livestock health, livestock safety, and dairy product sale. generally, at all sites, men and women shared responsibilities for the farm. there was no strict division of labor between women and men in conducting dairy production activities. in many processes, they worked together, and the division of labor was very interchangeable. nevertheless, men were usually responsible for work that required physical strength, while women were responsible for work that allowed them to continue with their reproductive activities, such as livestock maintenance. however, women in ngantang were more active in almost every stage of production than those in karangploso. they were even responsible for work that was often considered to be too hard for women in karangploso, such as milking, which could only be done by men. ngantang women's involvement in more production activities was driven by women’s groups formed in the village. the women's group encouraged women to be active in almost all stages of work and identify more efficient ways to do the activities. the discussions also revealed that women in ngantang had a better understanding of their farm work than women in karangploso because they acquired their knowledge not only from their husbands, but also from the elderly women. women had the same knowledge as men in doing their work. women’s activities on dairy farm can be categorized as follows: salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 2 no. 2, july 2019 126 table 1 activity profile of men and women in dairy farming activities ngantang karangploso women men women men i feeding planting fodder √ √ finding fodder √ √ mixing feed √ √ √ feeding animals √ √ √ ii livestock maintenance cleaning cage √ √ √ √ cleaning livestock √ √ iii milking preparation √ √ milking √ √ iv livestock health vaccination √ √ √ √ artificial insemination √ √ √ disease identification √ √ √ √ v livestock safety vi milk selling √ √ activities shallots in shallot farming, activities ranged from land preparation, seed selection, planting, watering, fertilization, pest and disease control, to harvesting and marketing. as is the case with dairy farming, men in both shallot farming sites were responsible for work that demanded physical strength, such as preparing the land for cultivation and watering, while women undertook work that required more precise and meticulous skills, such as seed selection, manual pest control or weeding. specifically in probolinggo, women seemed to have good knowledge about all stages in shallot farming. this was because women were directly involved in almost all stages of activities compared to those in pare. tradition background factors seemed to influence their involvement. they inherited cultivation tradition from their elders. for example, in preparing the seeds, they dried the seeds in their kitchens using traditional fumigation techniques. men and women’s division of labor in shallot farming was listed in the following table: understanding women’s roles in agriculture (study of women … (noviryani, handayani, & sukesi) 127 table 2 activity profile of men and women in shallot farming activities pare probolinggo women men women men i land preparation ploughing √ √ barrowing √ √ hoeing √ √ √ √ ii seed selection purchasing seed √ √ √ determining the number of seeds √ √ √ pre-planting treatment √ √ iii cultivating timing √ √ √ seed selection √ √ √ preparation for planting √ √ planting √ √ iv watering watering √ √ √ weeding √ √ v fertilizing determine the type of fertilization √ √ fertilization √ √ subsequent fertilization √ √ vi pest/disease control knowledge about pest/disease √ √ √ knowledge about pesticide/insecticide and their risk √ √ √ provision of insecticides/pesticides √ √ vii harvesting determining the timing √ √ harvesting √ √ √ √ post-harvesting √ √ viii marketing determining the amount to sell √ √ √ √ determining the buyers √ √ √ salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 2 no. 2, july 2019 128 access and control dairy at both dairy farming sites, women had access to natural (agricultural and livestock) resources. however, the level of access and control was different in each phase of production for each site. the division of labor was relatively fluid and flexible and this affected women’s access and control over the benefit of these resources. women in ngantang might have more access to natural resources than those in karangploso because they were involved in almost all production stages. women in ngantang even had great access to income since they were involved and dominant in the process of selling their dairy products. women also had greater control over their income from dairy production because the proceeds were held by women, and they decided the allocation of the money. however, women had no control over the price of their own dairy product. the price had been pre-determined by kud in agreement with company; women were not part of the negotiations. the lack of farmer’s bargaining power in determining the quality and selling price of their dairy product should be regarded as a more crucial issue than the extent of the involvement and division of labor between women and men in the process of dairy production. an appropriate and fair milk price is the culmination of both women and men’s involvement in the whole process of dairy production. when farmers do not have the bargaining power to determine the quality and selling price, they become alienated from the value of their production. in other words, involvement both women and men in dairy production process is an alienated involvement. thus, the status of their involvement is basically not as farmers, but as workers. one aspect that women might have less access to was knowledge, particularly those in karangploso. one indication of the lack of access to knowledge for women was that education was never given directly to women (wife), but only to men (husband). extension services provided by other parties such as kud could never be accessed by women. no information was available to explain why the services provided by kud were restricted to men only. there was a potential psycho-cultural obstacle that prevented women from participating in any program provided by kud. most women felt embarrassed to attend such programs. their ignorance about livestock health could be traced from this. this same reluctance to participate in training sessions hindered women in their role as the agents of knowledge. the following tables show women and men’s access and control over resources and the benefits of their work in dairy farming at both selected sites: understanding women’s roles in agriculture (study of women … (noviryani, handayani, & sukesi) 129 table 3 access and control of women and men in ngantang resources benefits women men women men livestock a/c a/c milking a/c a/c loan training a/c feed a/c a/c selling a/c a/c vaccine a a/c dairy income a/c note. a = big access c = big control a = limited access c = limited control table 4 access and control of women and men in karangploso resources benefits women men women men livestock a/c a/c milking a/c a/c loan training a/c feed a/c a/c selling a/c a/c vaccine a a/c dairy income a/c a/c note. a = big access c = big control a = limited access c = limited control access and control – shallots in shallot farming, both men and women had direct access to the land. as the land they cultivated was their own property, they did not only have the same access, but also control over the management of land resources, in the sense of land as production capital. as production capital, their land was cultivated and managed by the farmers’ themselves. even if they rent the land, the money was an income source. however, the discussion in probolinggo revealed that farm area was relatively small (0.2 ha). this made it difficult to obtain financial capital to develop their shallot farming. there was no farming credit that could be accessed by shallot farmers there or they did not have access to any information about it. thus, their access to financial resources was also limited. both men and women had to be able to allocate their money appropriately in order to continue the operation of their farms in subsequent years. in terms of human resources, men and women also had direct access to labor/worker market. access is defined as having two meanings: first, men and women have the same opportunity to be workers or employees; second, men and women have the same access in obtaining workers they need. as an example, at the harvesting stage, almost all workers were women. they were cutting, cleaning and drying the seeds. men were employed in fertilizing and pest and disease control stages. however, men were dominant in controlling the number of workers they needed to help them in the fields as they had salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 2 no. 2, july 2019 130 the knowledge of volume and labor requirement based on the extent of their land under cultivation and crop volume. women tended to find workers from their neighborhood. women had limited access to information. for example, this could be seen in their relatively limited knowledge about fertilizer, insecticides/pesticides, and the latest planting system. even if they had the access, they did not get the knowledge directly from the source, but from their husbands. men, especially in pare, had freedom to access information and technology. men could have direct access (i.e. face-to-face) or access to the internet to obtain information. by doing this, men had the capacity to update and improve their knowledge of shallot farming. men also had access to social media like facebook and could build connections with wider communities that had the same interest. as an example, they were connected via facebook and could join indonesian shallot farmers group. in this group, they did not only share information and experiences, but also developed work and knowledge of networking and creating social capital, which in turn provided them with the potential to empower themselves. in the meantime, farmers in probolinggo had minimum access to technology. women farmers were even worse off. it was difficult for them to get information since they did not have any association or group where they could communicate their challenges. one source of information that the farmers could access was the companies that produced fertilizers and pesticides. those companies provided a variety of services such as promoting their products by providing free chemical treatments for the land on the side of the highway and overseeing the process of their product usage by providing extension officers. those companies then erected advertising billboards about their products on the streets near the assisted land. other farmers were informed about good agricultural product and how to eradicate pests from the marketing activities of those companies. the absence of professional extension officers from the government who provided assistance for farmers had resulted in limited direct access for women to obtain information and better knowledge. in terms of delivery of information, the extension officers did not provide much information to help farmers. if there was any socialized information, they only invited men, not women. women’s long hours in domestic work and their duty in the shallot fields also prevented them from participating in such forum. an interesting note about access and control gained from this research is the experience of women in probolinggo. in the post-harvest stage, men and women worked together. the wife kept the money in post-harvest stage. the husbands decided how to use the money they had jointly earned from the shallot cultivation although the women were involved in the decisionmaking on how the income was used. the husband still dominated in determining how the money would be used. interestingly, women from richer farmer families tended to have less control over their family income compared to women from poorer farmer families. the poorer ones had control over their family understanding women’s roles in agriculture (study of women … (noviryani, handayani, & sukesi) 131 income even though it was a small amount. these facts show that there are two contrary construction about women and their control over money. in scarcity, women are constructed as a party that has better managerial skills in finances. they are expected to be more efficient and able to manage expenditure better than men. on the other hand, in abundance, women are constructed as consumptive, so there is a limitation of their control over finances. women and men’s access and control over resources and benefits in shallot farming at both sites can be seen as follows: table 5 access and control by women and men in pare resources benefits women men women men land a/c a/c harvesting a/c a/c workers a/c a/c training a/c information a/c selling a/c a/c group/ association a a/c income a/c a/c note. a = big access c = big control a = limited access c = limited control table 6 access and control by women and men in probolinggo resources benefits women men women men land a/c a/c harvesting a/c a/c workers a/c a/c training a/c finance selling a/c a/c information a/c income a a/c group/ association note. a = big access c = big control a = limited access c = limited control influencing factors dairy this section explains the factors that influence women and men’s activities, access and control in dairy production. the role of women in dairy production process in ngantang was greatly influenced by the presence of women’s groups established in the two villages. the groups organized women in dairy production process ranging from information sharing to collecting dairy products in groups. these women's group allowed women to be more aware and promote a desire to move forward, for example, their openness to programs that empowered women to develop their dairy products. the existence of these groups enabled women to play roles that were more dominant in salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 2 no. 2, july 2019 132 dairy production process and in crucial stages. the women's groups also encouraged women to have access to and control over public services provided by kud to manage income from dairy product sale. the most influencing factor that hindered women’s activities, access and control in dairy production process in karangploso was psychocultural aspect. traditionally, dairy cattle breeding culture was apparently more relegated to men, so that women's knowledge in raising dairy livestock was not handed down by the elders and, as a result, inadequate. this had an impact on their engagement and limited their access and control at every stage of dairy production process. psychologically, women felt reluctant and embarrassed to be involved in those processes, including gaining access to knowledge about raising cattle through services provided by kud. women were only involved in the activities when their husbands asked for help. influencing factors shallots factors that influenced women’s involvement in shallot production process, access to resources and control over the benefits derived from shallot farming were sociocultural and information technology aspects. cultural factors influenced the planting decisions, especially in determining good days for planting. women did the calculations of which days were good for starting the planting based on javanese tradition. this traditional habit was firmly held by farmers, especially women. this encouraged women to be involved in the process that was considered essential for the success of their harvest. their faith in this tradition resulted in women taking part in planting decisions. another factor that affected women’s involvement was social construction of gender roles. for example, women’s role in shallot farming was mostly at the weeding and “petan” (manual pest/disease control) stage. this comes from the consideration that women are more meticulous and patient in controlling specific pests. on the other hand, men deal with work that requires strength such as watering and fertilizing, which women do not do. meanwhile, in probolinggo, women’s activities, access and control over resources and benefits of shallot farming were influenced by cultural, structural and economic factors. in madura culture, a strong woman is one who is active and hardworking. even if their work in the domestic area and in the farm fields consume their time and energy, they do not regard it as a burden. they also inherit customs from their elders regarding how cultivation is conducted. these customs, which have been handed down from generation to generation also create women specific work, which is unchangeable. economic factors also influence women’s access and control over family income from the farm. women who come from poor farmer families may have more control over the family income from shallot farming, while women from rich farmer families have limited control over the family income. in probolinggo, shallot farmers in general had to understanding women’s roles in agriculture (study of women … (noviryani, handayani, & sukesi) 133 accept that the government did not provide appropriate services needed by farmers to improve their productivity. farmers’ access to information was very limited, so they could not obtain the latest information about the most effective techniques in shallot farming, how to choose the best fertilizer and the most effective means to control pests and diseases. project cycle analysis dairy there were no specific programs from other parties to improve the quality and quantity of dairy products in addition to that given by kud that intervened dairy production process in ngantang. however, women in ngantang were very open to any programs offered that could help them improve the quality and quantity of dairy products they produce. as they played quite a dominant role in the production process of dairy and dairy production management income, they expressed an interest in obtaining training that would allow them to differentiate their dairy product. this might allow them to have better bargaining position. in contrast to ngantang, women in karangploso were not too enthusiastic when offered programs that could assist them improve their family farm milk production. no ideas emerged from them on what interventions other parties could assist them with. however, they were willing to be involved if they were given specific training as long as it did not interfere with their time doing domestic work. project cycle analysis – shallot farming in shallot farming, particularly in pare, farmers had already had contact with an intervention program for integrated pest management. they had joined the group that had planned to conduct regular meetings to facilitate farmer discussions about their challenges and obtain the latest information about shallot farming. however, at the time of the research, the number of farmers participating in this program was very limited. based on fgd, only 2 out of the 10 women interviewed were aware of and acknowledged the intervention program directly. according to those women, they did not have enough time to attend the meetings since their domestic and farm duties had already consumed their time and energy. conclusion in dairy farming, there was a significant difference between women at both sites. women in ngantang were more engaged in the process of dairy production than those in karangploso. this was because of the influence of women's groups that encouraged women to develop their knowledge and ability to be engaged in dairy production process. through this group, women even sought alternatives to process dairy products so that they could develop their own dairy produced on their farms. the organization leveraged women’s access to knowledge and information and empowered women’s control over the benefits from the farm. different characteristics were also shown by women in shallot salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 2 no. 2, july 2019 134 farming. unlike the women in probolinggo, women in pare were not involved in the whole process of shallot farming even though they played a significant role in determining shallot planting day through traditional practices. the lack of involvement limited their access to knowledge and information that resulted in limitation on access to networks and control over benefits of shallot production. on the other hand, women in probolinggo had inherited their strong madura cultural character, which resulted in them being actively involved in almost every stages of production. however, their robust and strong tradition, which provides traditional knowledge that helps them manage their farms, hinders them as it reduces their willingness to change and obtain access to new knowledge and information. women in probolinggo also tended to have limited control over the earnings from shallot farming due to cultural norm of male domination. however, there was a paradox arising from this cultural norm. in the conditions of scarcity, the sanction was psychological, namely the demand for the better ability to manage money, which was done by women. in abundance, the sanction was economic by closing women’s access to use economic resources. this research confirms that women are still marginalized in agriculture and do not enjoy the optimal benefits of their work in dairy and shallot sectors. while women play important roles on the farms and their traditional knowledge contributes greatly to the agricultural production process, women’s access to new knowledge and their control over the benefits are limited. cultural construction remains a major constraint for women and affects them psychologically. women become passive, and they accept the paradox construction that make them responsible for the management of family finance under any circumstances. on the other hand, this study also shows that women have the potential to make breakthrough through their collectivity. women’s collectivity encourages them to be more progressive and demand greater access and control over resources and benefits of their work on the farms. however, women who already have awareness, as indicated by increased knowledge and involvement in women’s group to support their progress, still construct their role not as the primary role in agriculture, but as complementary to the role of men. they still believe that their primary role is in the reproductive sector. women still have not seen themselves as parties who hold strategic roles in agricultural sector, who play significant roles in developing the society, especially in rural areas. another interesting finding in this study is the absence of government in providing adequate services for farmers. the services provided by kud were not easily accessible, especially for women. particularly in shallot farming, the agricultural extension services were almost unavailable. the inexistence of government in supporting farmers resulted in many challenges for farmers to develop their farming activities. also, farmers had very limited access to financial support, understanding women’s roles in agriculture (study of women … (noviryani, handayani, & sukesi) 135 affordable means of production and information on how to improve their productivity. the increasing private sector played a role in providing extension services. nevertheless, government should focus on enabling the environment so that the private sector can do direct engagement and scale out. any intervention program should be aware of and consider variable conditions of and challenges for farmers in terms of differing sites as well as how potential interventions could impact women differently from men. women's limited access to information can become a structural trap for women in empowering themselves. access to information and knowledge that has been focused on and/or handed by men can cause men to become more hegemonic over women in society. information is a fundamental and strategic resource that needs to be mastered. opening wider information access for women will provide them with opportunities to develop networks and social relations with broader societies and allow them to better manage their farming resources for income generation. any intervention program should engage the government and/or private sector to encourage them to become more active in providing services to farmers, including provision of affordable means of production, support in accessing production capital and provision of extension officers who regularly assist farmers in their production activities. the lack of services provided for farmers can become a problem that can pull farmers into a structural poverty trap or retain them in this trap. for other perspectives, this recommendation may imply that government should provide subsidies that distort the markets and make it hard for the private sector to be involved. on the contrary, government’s presence is not solely linked with subsidies, but it would be more beneficial to encourage public partnerships with private sectors. any intervention programs should also encourage the strengthening of farmer groups to help farmers solve their problems in the field. whenever possible and where women are supportive, women’s farmer groups should be formed so that they are able to obtain better knowledge and contribute more in the production decision-making process. providing women with knowledge about financial management is also important. this will improve their bargaining position and control over family income, both in shallot and dairy farming acknowledgment this research was conducted as part of applied research and innovation systems in agriculture (arisa) project, part of the australia indonesia partnership for rural economic development (aip-rural). aip-rural is funded by the australian department for foreign affairs and trade (dfat). arisa, based out of surabaya, is implemented by commonwealth science and industry research organization (csiro) with ristekdikti in indonesia. salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 2 no. 2, july 2019 136 references fao. (2011). the state of food and agriculture 2010-2011: women in agriculture, closing the gender gap for development. issn 0081-4539. retrieved from http://www.fao.org/docrep/013/i2050 e/i2050e.pdf fao. (2012). agricultural cooperatives and gender equality, international year of cooperatives, issue brief series. retrieved from http://www.fao.org/docrep/017/ap66 9e/ap669e.pdf fao. (2017). the female face of farming. retrieved from http://www.fao.org/gender/infograph ic/en/ gicheru, j. (2013). gender inequality in agriculture in gatanga division, muranga county. retrieved from http://africanstudies.uonbi.ac.ke/printpdf/1459 lal, r. & khurana, a. (2011). gender issues: the role of women in agriculture sector. zenith international journal of business economics and management research, 1(1). issn 2249 8826. retrieved from http://www.zenithresearch.org.in/ima ges/stories/pdf/2011/oct/zijbemr/4 .zibemr_vol-1_issue-1.pdf march, c. smyth, i., mukhopadhyay, m. (2010). a guide to gender-analysis frameworks. oxford: oxfam publication unidesa. (2015). world population projected to reach 9.7 billion by 2050. retrieved from http://population/2015-report.html unido. (2012). women in agribusiness. retrieved from https://www.unido.org/fileadmin/use r_media_upgrade/what_we_do/topi cs/women_and_youth/enewsletter2 final_website2.pdf yadav, m. (2014). inequality between male and female in agriculture sector in maharashtra (pre & post reform). research front, 2(1). issn (print) 2320-6446, (online) 23208341. retrieved from http://www.researchfront.in/06%20j anmarch%202014/9.%20inequal ity%20between%20male%20 and%20female%20in%20agr iculture%20sector%20in%2 0maharashtra%20_pre%20a nd%20post%20reform_.pdf http://www.fao.org/docrep/013/i2050e/i2050e.pdf http://www.fao.org/docrep/013/i2050e/i2050e.pdf http://www.fao.org/docrep/017/ap669e/ap669e.pdf http://www.fao.org/docrep/017/ap669e/ap669e.pdf http://www.fao.org/gender/infographic/en/ http://www.fao.org/gender/infographic/en/ http://african-studies.uonbi.ac.ke/printpdf/1459 http://african-studies.uonbi.ac.ke/printpdf/1459 http://www.zenithresearch.org.in/images/stories/pdf/2011/oct/zijbemr/4.zibemr_vol-1_issue-1.pdf http://www.zenithresearch.org.in/images/stories/pdf/2011/oct/zijbemr/4.zibemr_vol-1_issue-1.pdf http://www.zenithresearch.org.in/images/stories/pdf/2011/oct/zijbemr/4.zibemr_vol-1_issue-1.pdf http://population/2015-report.html https://www.unido.org/fileadmin/user_media_upgrade/what_we_do/topics/women_and_youth/enewsletter2final_website2.pdf https://www.unido.org/fileadmin/user_media_upgrade/what_we_do/topics/women_and_youth/enewsletter2final_website2.pdf https://www.unido.org/fileadmin/user_media_upgrade/what_we_do/topics/women_and_youth/enewsletter2final_website2.pdf https://www.unido.org/fileadmin/user_media_upgrade/what_we_do/topics/women_and_youth/enewsletter2final_website2.pdf http://www.researchfront.in/06%20jan-march%202014/9.%20inequality%20between%20male%20and%20female%20in%20agriculture%20sector%20in%20maharashtra%20_pre%20and%20post%20reform_.pdf http://www.researchfront.in/06%20jan-march%202014/9.%20inequality%20between%20male%20and%20female%20in%20agriculture%20sector%20in%20maharashtra%20_pre%20and%20post%20reform_.pdf http://www.researchfront.in/06%20jan-march%202014/9.%20inequality%20between%20male%20and%20female%20in%20agriculture%20sector%20in%20maharashtra%20_pre%20and%20post%20reform_.pdf http://www.researchfront.in/06%20jan-march%202014/9.%20inequality%20between%20male%20and%20female%20in%20agriculture%20sector%20in%20maharashtra%20_pre%20and%20post%20reform_.pdf http://www.researchfront.in/06%20jan-march%202014/9.%20inequality%20between%20male%20and%20female%20in%20agriculture%20sector%20in%20maharashtra%20_pre%20and%20post%20reform_.pdf http://www.researchfront.in/06%20jan-march%202014/9.%20inequality%20between%20male%20and%20female%20in%20agriculture%20sector%20in%20maharashtra%20_pre%20and%20post%20reform_.pdf http://www.researchfront.in/06%20jan-march%202014/9.%20inequality%20between%20male%20and%20female%20in%20agriculture%20sector%20in%20maharashtra%20_pre%20and%20post%20reform_.pdf http://www.researchfront.in/06%20jan-march%202014/9.%20inequality%20between%20male%20and%20female%20in%20agriculture%20sector%20in%20maharashtra%20_pre%20and%20post%20reform_.pdf 0202_00_cover.pdf 0202_03_noviryani.pdf 0202_10_backcover.pdf salasika indonesian journal of gender, women, child, and social inclusion's studies volume 1, number 2 – july 2018 table of content gender and ict usage: self-assessment of critical issues facing indonesia-thai gen y students' future by 2030 leslie retno angeningsih & bangon sirisunyaluck 75 sekar jagad art studio as an agent of citizens’s diplomacy (study of women’s participation in intercultural relations) setyasih harini 93 “aliansi laki-laki baru”: the role of social media in promoting gender equality in indonesia eni maryani, preciosa alnashava j, & detta rahmawan 107 standardized certification for indonesian female migrant workers: towards qualified domestic workers kiki zakiah & chairiawaty 123 pragmatics competence of preschool age children eti setiawati & putri kumala dewi 135 chief editors dr. ir. arianti ina restiani hunga, m.si. (scopus id: 46161114400; google scholar); dr. phil. dewi candraningrum. (google scholar). executive editors indriretno setyaningrahayu, m.pd. (google scholar); daniel kurniawan, m.pd. (google scholar); andi misbahul pratiwi, m.si. (google scholar). board of editors prof. claudia derichs (scopus id: 14026487800). humboldt universität zu berlin, germany; assoc. prof. dr. ida sabelis (scopus id: 6507181398). vrije universiteit (vu) amsterdam, the netherlands; prof. siti kusujiarti.ma. (scopus id: 56276925900). warren wilson college, usa; dr. ratna saptari (scopus id: 6504610910). leiden university; prof. sylvia tiwon (scopus id: 6506468591). university of california; prof. dr. emy susanti, ma. (google scholar). airlangga university; prof. dr. ir. keppi sukesi, ms. (scopus id: 56025803300). brawijaya university; dr. kristi poerwandari, ma. (scopus id: 25628305200). university of indonesia; prof. dr. willemijn de jong (scopus id: 55258294800). university of zurich, switzerland; prof. lyn parker (scopus id: 56273266700). the university of western australia. reviewers prof. lyn parker (scoups id: 56273266700). university of western australia, perth, australia; dr. elisabet titik murtisari (scopus id: 38161752200; google scholar). satya wacana christian university; dr. wening udasmoro (scopus id: 56493135600; google scholar). gadjah mada university; dr. phil. farah purwaningrum (scopus id: 57205254451; google scholar). the university of sydney & rahayu and partners in association with hfw; alimatul qibtiyah, m.si. ma. ph.d. (scopus & google scholar). sunan kalijaga state islamic university; dr. tyas retno wulan, m.si. (scopus & google scholar). the jenderal soedirman university; dr. titik sumarti, msi. (scopus & google scholar). bogor agricultural university; prof. dr. mien ratoe oedjoe, mpd. (google scholar). the university of nusa cendana, kupang; j. casey hammond, phd. (scopus & google scholar). singapore university of technology and design; dr. phil. ratna noviani (google scholar). gadjah mada university; dr. rina herlina haryanti (google scholar). sebelas maret university; dr. ida ruwaida noor (google scholar). university of indonesia; dr. nurjanah, sp.m.pd. (google scholar). state university of jakarta; dr. ir. evi feronika elbaar, m.si. (google scholar). the university of palangka raya; dr. jendrius m.si. (google scholar). andalas university; dr. grace jenny soputan, se. (google scholar). manado state university; dr. anis farida, s.sos., sh., m.si. (scopus & google scholar). sunan ampel state islamic university surabaya; ira desiaanti mangiliko, s.si,.ph.d. (google scholar). the artha wacana christian university. “aliansi laki-laki baru”: the role of social media …. (eni maryani, preciosa alnashava j, & detta rahmawan) 107 “aliansi laki-laki baru”: the role of social media in promoting gender equality in indonesia eni maryani, preciosa alnashava j, & detta rahmawan center for study of media and culture, faculty of communication science, padjadjaran university eni.maryani@unpad.ac.id, preciosa@unpad.ac.id & detta@unpad.ac.id abstract a report from the united nations development program (undp) in 2016 says that indonesia is still struggling to close its gender equality gap. however, looking at the development of internet usage and the penetration of social media in indonesia, it can be said that indonesia has the opportunity to utilize social media to address various gender issues. this article uses a case study to explore and analyze the way “aliansi laki-laki baru” (allb) or “new men’s alliance”, a form of activism which emphasizes the importance of men's involvement in fighting for gender equality, utilizes social media to promote their ideas. as a social movement, allb consistently use social media to reach their audiences, engage their partners, and creating a sense of community. they focus in promoting mutual relationships between men and women and the importance of men’s involvement to support gender equality. the study on men’s involvement in promoting the agenda of feminism and gender issues is critical, yet there are still few studies in the context of indonesia. this study shows that through allb, advocacy on gender issues has undergone a fundamental change that does not make women as the main focus but rather on men, and their role to fight for gender equality and justice for women. keywords: gender equality, social media activism, men’s involvement introduction in 2010, almost half (49.7%) of indonesia’s population was comprised of women. however, despite there being almost equal numbers of men and women in indonesia, the gender disparity index series shows that women are not offered equal opportunities in indonesia (unfpa, 2015). in terms of gross national income per capita and participation in the labor force, data from undp shows a gap between indonesian women and men (sapiie, 2017a). furthermore, greater participation of women in indonesian politics is needed to make sure the implementation of existing public policies advocating gender inequality goes well. ansye sopacua, the adviser of undp indonesia sustainable development goals (sdgs) also added that more public policies that could improve women’s chances to participate in salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 1 no. 2, july 2018 108 business and empower marginal people should be created by the government (sapiie, 2017b). the government of indonesia's programs in recent decades have begun to incorporate gender mainstreaming programs, and one of them is supported by canada international development agency (cida). however, efforts for mainstreaming gender in development programs are not an easy task. for example, one of the issues related to gender budgeting has not been fully understood by development planners. moreover, it can be said that the issues of gender biases and injustice to women has not yet been fully understood among society (aristi, 2014; maryani, 2011; maryani & adiprasetio, 2017). hence, the gender mainstreaming initiatives that have become part of the government program still have to be continuously supported. there are several facts that show the popularity of social media in indonesia. reports suggest that over the years, expansion of people who use social media in indonesia is considerably high (apjii, 2016; we are social, 2017). indonesia has long been viewed as one of the biggest market for facebook (grazella, 2014), furthermore, jakarta has acquired the nickname the “capital of twitter” (semiocast, 2012; saleh, 2013) and the numbers of youtube’s content creators or “youtubers” in indonesia in recent years has been grown tremendously (rahmawan & narotama, 2016). "aliansi laki-laki baru" or “new men’s alliance” (which will be referred to as "allb" in this article) is a movement which uses digital and social media to promote new perspective on men’s involvement in supporting gender equality. on its website, allb have three core principles, that is; committed to equality and justice, antidiscrimination, and anti-violence against women. allb state that they are “a movement born from the womb of the women's movement and aims to invite men to engage in efforts to stop violence against women by dismantling patriarchal paradigms and dismantling power relations in the society's order”. moreover, they also said that the decision to use the term “laki-laki baru” (new men) is to “refer to an attempt to abandon the old paradigm of men and transform into conscious and participating individuals in the struggle for gender equality; both in behavior and social life” (aliansi laki-laki baru, n.d.). gender, sex, patriarchy and gender mainstreaming gender construction has set that you are valued not only as a human, but based on whether you are a man or a woman. the valuation of bad or good, allowed or not, that is related to people attitude, behavior and the way they think in their life depends on their sex, man or woman. gender is the culturally variable elaboration of sex, as a hierarchical pair where male is coded superior and female inferior (cranny-francis, waring, stavropoulos, & kirkby, 2003, p. 4). the concept of gender shows that there are unequal relationships between men and women, especially in patriarchal culture. it is a social system in which structural differences in privilege power, and authority are invested in masculinity “aliansi laki-laki baru”: the role of social media …. (eni maryani, preciosa alnashava j, & detta rahmawan) 109 and the cultural, economic, and/or social position on men (crannyfrancis, waring, stavropoulos, & kirkby, 2003, p. 15). according to sylvia walby, patriarchy can be defined as “a system of social structures and practices in which men dominate, oppress and exploit women” (walby, 1991). in other words, patriarchy creates a condition where women will be deemed as second class citizen compare to men. this inequality tends to be detrimental to women. as walby stated, in this system women are dominated, oppressed and exploited by men. despite the fact that patriarchy is still considered as a challenge for women activism, it does not mean that there is no change and improvement in promoting gender equality and contesting patriarchy. one of the efforts to encourage gender equality is by developing gender mainstreaming programs (bauer & shah, 2006). there are multilateral and bilateral agencies which encourage gender mainstreaming process in developing countries, including world bank, asian development bank (adb), united nations development program (undp), european union (eu), department for international development (dfid), swedish international development agency (sida) and canadian international development agency (cida). men’s involvement in promoting gender equality the idea of “gender equality” that is “people should be treated the same whether they are male or female” is still rarely practiced in everyday life (fulu, et al., 2013). however, while various forms of violence against women are still prevalent across the world, it can be said that various efforts involving men in its prevention and supporting gender equality are increasing (flood, 2004, 2011). men can work with women in promoting the agenda of feminism and gender issues in many ways, ranging from; participation in grassroots movements and education programs, supporting government initiatives in making policies in favor of gender equality (flood, 2011) to involvement in better parenthood, since men’s participation as fathers would significantly affects women’s lives (thamar van bemmelen, 2015). it is also worth to note that violence prevention practices among boys and young men as well as early recognition to the concept of gender are important (barker, ricardo, & nascimento, 2007). there are three key arguments in feminist rationale regarding men’s involvement in ending violence against women. the first and arguably the most important argument is because essentially it is men who commit this violence. hence, the efforts to change men’s attitudes, behaviors, identities, and relations against women are needed. secondly, men’s involvement is relevant because there is a construction of masculinity which is widely believed by men. this concept on masculinity is often associated with patriarchal and sexist attitudes. the third argument addresses the fact that violence is an issue, a problem, that affects both women and men. men have great salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 1 no. 2, july 2018 110 importance in ending violence against women since “violence against women fuels women’s distrust and fear of men, and hurts the women whom many men love” (flood, 2011, p. 360). however, careful attention to the complexities of men’s involvement is needed since there is a concern on the occurrence of patriarchal values and the notions of women’s need for protection (flood, 2002; katz, 2006; bridges, 2010). men’s involvement in the deconstruction of sexism without recreating patriarchal values and oppression is prove to be difficult since “patriarchy even influences the interactions of people striving to dismantle sexist oppression” (linder & johnson, 2015). another noteworthy issue is that men’s involvement could invoke “enlightened sexism” which refers to the notion that “men with a feminist academic background…may be perpetuating sexism through their own behaviors and failing to interrupt sexist behavior perpetuated by other men” (armato, 2013 in linder & johnson, 2015). hence, it is utterly critical to consider that men’s involvement in promoting gender equality must always be “guided by a feminist agenda and done in partnership with, and even be accountable to, women and women’s groups” (flood, 2011, p. 360). social media as media for activism today, digital revolution has entered various parts of life. in addition to being an important factor that encourages major changes in business landscapes, the development of digital technology also encourages changes in social and political life, which can be seen in many countries around the world, including in asia. it can be said that digital media and especially social media, can serve as a medium for public participation in a range of ways (nishant, puthiya, & sumandro, 2015). digital activism can be referred to the use of digital technologies in various ways of activism campaign, or “the expanding use of digital technologies—mobile phones and internet-enabled devices, for example—in campaigns for social and political change” (joyce, 2010, p. v). in studying digital activism, one must also emphasize the importance of the technological infrastructures, or, the hardware and software that are used in the activism campaign. while it can be said that the “software” or the application used in digital activism varies, it is notable that in the past few years, social media such as facebook, twitter, youtube, and many others are considered as important in various movements (see joyce, 2010; lim, 2013; apc & hivos, 2013; gurumurthy, 2013; nishant, puthiya, & sumandro, 2015). in line with lim (2013) it is important to note that there is ongoing debate about whether social media is helping democracy. on one hand, discourse on social media as tools of activism are viewed in pessimism and skeptical views, since it is seen as subordinate to any “real” or physical activism (morozov, 2009; gladwell, 2010). on the other hand, more optimistic positive views noted that these new tools can bring forth new ways of public participation and citizen “aliansi laki-laki baru”: the role of social media …. (eni maryani, preciosa alnashava j, & detta rahmawan) 111 engagement, which enable massive societal or political changes (shirky, 2011; brown, guskin, & mitchell, 2012). these binary, dichotomous views, however “simplify the complexity and dynamics of the relationship between social media and its users” (lim m. , 2013, p. 2). hence, it is important to realize that every case of activism which utilized social media (or any other digital media) is highly contextual (joyce, 2010). what makes social media useful as tools for activism? lim uses the word “conviviality” and explains that social media inherit the characteristics of internet, which provides “a greater scope for freedom, autonomy, creativity, and collaboration than previous media” (lim & kann, 2008, p. 82) and it can also encourage further collaboration and social interactivity. on march 04th 2017, many activists, together with people who supported gender equality from various background organized a ‘women’s march jakarta 2017’ to commemorate international women’s day. what started out as an idea among several feminists’ activists on social media turned into successful offline movement (asmarani, 2017). this shows that social media play an important role in spreading the issues of gender equality, and further serve as a medium to create offline protests in a massive scale. furthermore, several initiatives related to the issues of gender equality today have been utilizing social media for various purposes, ranging from disseminating articles and various content through social media, calling for participation on specific event, networking, to fund raising (asmarani, 2016). hence, it can be said that indonesia has the opportunity to utilize social media for social and political issues, including gender equality. aliansi-laki-laki baru (new men’s alliance) allb uses their official website (http://lakilakibaru.or.id) as the main source of their information, agenda, and campaign. it can be said that the website already provides basic information and frequently asked question (faq) that are usually asked by the readers related to various issues on gender equality and also the objectives of allb. they also provide clear contact information so the reader of this website can easily contact them directly and engage with the community. figure 1. aliansi laki-laki baru official website (http://lakilakibaru.or.id/) the allb’s website’s contents are categorized into different section such as discourse, reference, and feature which contain essays that related to gender issues especially from men’s perspective. furthermore, there are short articles that can be accessed on tips and tricks and info section. meanwhile, in gallery section, visitors can access several photos and videos from http://lakilakibaru.or.id)/ salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 1 no. 2, july 2018 112 allb’s activities and also many other videos related to the issue of men’s involvement in promoting gender equality. to keep people informed about the events that held by allb, they can access event section. the last one is social media section which contains links to allb’s articles which have been shared in their social media. moreover, they also encourage people to submit articles both in indonesian language and english which related to the topics of men’s involvement in gender equality. it can be said that allb’s official website is quite up to date. their latest article in the category of “discourse” is written in of may, 17, 2017 entitle “the fight against victim blaming” by aquarini priyatna (read: http://lakilakibaru.or.id/en/thefight-against-victim-blaming/). the website can be accessed in indonesian or english. however, not all of the indonesian-language articles have been translated into english. furthermore, some content, such as the photo documentation of allb’s events and activities only available in indonesian language. on the top left of allb’s website, there are links to “about us”, which contains their “principles”, their organization structure, and the list of organizations that supports their movements. allb have three core principles; committed to equality and justice, anti-discrimination, and anti-violence against women. furthermore, they also declare their primary concern on the issues of gender equality, that is related to: violence against women, sexual and reproductive health and rights, religious interpretations that harm women, fatherhood and sexuality. allb’s strategy is to “creating new image of men” and “make efforts that orientated on men’s behavior change”. they also explain that there are several groups as their target; youth, men, male activist, academics, religious leader, media, public figure, and male perpetrator. allb’s organization structure contains of three men as collective coordinators, and five men as region coordinators. they also make a list of their supporting organizations, such as: men’s forum aceh, rifka annisa, yogyakarta, rumah perempuan, kupang, yayasan jurnal perempuan, jakarta, yayasan kalyanamitra, jakarta, yayasan pulih, jakarta, and wcc cahaya perempuan, bengkulu. as a movement, they also frequently invite people to volunteer and get involved in their activities. currently they are seeking for the position of writer, indonesian-english translator, social media team, and web administrators. moreover, they also list several contacts for male counseling service related to behavior change, and information on both psychology and reproductive health. to amplify and spread their content, allb provide various links to their social media account, such as: facebook, twitter, instagram, youtube, google +, pinterest and linkedin. however, based on our analysis, there are only three of their social media accounts (facebook, twitter, & instagram) that have been actively managed. we use case study to explore how allb utilize social media in promoting the issue of gender equality in indonesia. case study is a research method that explores a unique, specific case by analyzing http://lakilakibaru.or.id/en/the-fight-against-victim-blaming/ http://lakilakibaru.or.id/en/the-fight-against-victim-blaming/ “aliansi laki-laki baru”: the role of social media …. (eni maryani, preciosa alnashava j, & detta rahmawan) 113 data obtained from various sources in detail (cresswell, 1994, p. 61). data will be collected from literature reviews, interview with allb’s social media administrators, as well as screen capture documentation and analysis from allb’s website (http://lakilakibaru.or.id), their facebook, twitter, youtube, and instagram account. how allb utilize social media to promote the issues of gender equality facebook: engaging partners and reach larger communities as one of the most popular social media, facebook has been utilized by allb to promote awareness about gender equality and to invite people to join their community. allb uses a facebook fan page and label their page as community. through the analysis on their fan page, it can be seen that they use the platform to engage their partners or other movements that focus on same issue. figure 2. aliansi laki-laki baru facebook page (https://web.facebook.com/lakilakibaru?_rdc=1&_rdr) created in 9 september 2009, allb’s facebook page is currently followed by 6,668 people and liked by 6,713 people. the fan page contains messages from allb website and other websites that contain relevant issues, such as an article from huffington post about what a feminist dad looks like, an article from beritagar.id about sharing household chores, a video from prominent indonesian actor nicholas saputra on gender equality, and there is even a critique toward government using news from merdeka.com as a reference. there is also a photos section which contains various photos not only from their events and activities, but also some quotes, memes, tips and tricks and also infographics. from the analysis of their photo streams, it can be said that in addition to spreading information through articles and news links, they also try to pack information, in a visual form that is easy to be saved or downloaded and to be shared to other social media platforms. this way, the readers who are interested in the content can spread it easily. http://lakilakibaru.or.id)/ https://web.facebook.com/lakilakibaru?_rdc=1&_rdr salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 1 no. 2, july 2018 114 figure 3. examples of post in laki-laki baru’s fb page (https://web.facebook.com/lakilakibaru/photos/a.156195657888105.1073741831.1421660 89291062/728109707363361/?type=3&theater) in the post above, it can be seen that allb posted a tip for interacting with strangers in public spaces. this post was originally created by www.stopstreetharassment.org, a nonprofit organization which focuses on documenting and ending gender-based street harassment worldwide. allb post the tips with caption “there are still many men who do not know if his actions can be categorized as harassment. likewise, many women are awry and doubt whether those men’s actions are harassment…well, let us both learn, we post again this information”. 43 readers “like” this post, and it has been shared 39 times. furthermore, one of the readers volunteered to help translate the tips in indonesian, since, according to her, the tip is very useful, but not everyone can understand english. this type of engagement between allb and its communities is very useful to make the issue of gender equality becomes more widespread and do not get stuck in a narrow environment. twitter: microblogging and gender movement on their twitter account, allb have 3,980 followers and 8,520 tweets since they joined twitter on october 2010. most of their posts contain link of newest content on their official website. besides those tweets, allb also retweets some tweets that posted by accounts that have similar concern, such as @sgrcui, @feministculture, @youthproactive, @jurnalperempuan and other accounts that also promoted gender issues. https://web.facebook.com/lakilakibaru/photos/a.156195657888105.1073741831.142166089291062/728109707363361/?type=3&theater https://web.facebook.com/lakilakibaru/photos/a.156195657888105.1073741831.142166089291062/728109707363361/?type=3&theater http://www.stopstreetharassment.org/ “aliansi laki-laki baru”: the role of social media …. (eni maryani, preciosa alnashava j, & detta rahmawan) 115 figure 4. allb’s twitter timeline it can be seen from allb’s twitter timeline that there is not much conversation happen. on one hand, this can happen because it can be said that today it is relatively difficult to use twitter as a medium to carry on a conversation, especially on a fairly “heavy” topics such men’s involvement in gender equality. most of the twitter users are now use the platform predominantly to search and share information. on the other hand, however, indonesia is still seen as the fifth-largest country in terms of twitter users, as confirmed by twitter’s head of business development for south east asia and australia, dwi ardiansyah (jakarta post, 2017). furthermore, in indonesia, twitter remains popular as a platform for political discussion, especially in times of particular political situation, such as during the jakarta governor election (pilkada dki) 2017 (ramadhani, 2017). hence, it is necessary for allb’s social media administrator to increase the efforts to improve both the quality and quantity of their content and also apply various new strategies for their twitter account. instagram: reaching audiences using creative design and photographs allb has 1,707 followers on instagram. compared to other official account, this number actually cannot be categorized as a large one. regarding its contents, there are 190 posts in allb’s instagram account. those posts are dominated by photographs and creative design such as digital poster, comic strip, quote, etc. the digital posters mainly contain information about events held by allb or related to allb. salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 1 no. 2, july 2018 116 figure 5. aliansi laki-laki baru instagram feeds (https://www.instagram.com/lakilakibaru/?hl=id accessed on june 2017) meanwhile, other posts contain quotes about gender equality and harmony, such as a quote from the former president of south africa, nelson mandela on woman emancipation and freedom. allb’s instagram account also provide some infographics regarding sexual violence against women according to the national commission on violence against women (komisi nasional anti kekerasan terhadap perempuan). from allb’s instagram account it can be said that their account has not been optimized properly. there have been no replies or conversation from their readers. furthermore, the number of “likes” they get is considerably low, about 70-100 likes, which can be interpreted as only 710% of their followers like the content. therefore, it is still necessary to use various strategies to increase the number of posts of their regular content, and it is also important to improve the quality of their content. the utilization of instagram is important since it can be said that while facebook and twitter are still quite widely used in many countries, instagram is considerably popular for youth, and many politicians have been trying to utilized it to help them connect with the young voters (carvalho, 2016; sanders, 2015). potential to be utilized more effectively: youtube our analysis shows that only three of allb’s social media accounts (facebook, twitter, & instagram) that have been actively managed. as the most recognized social media for audio visual content, allb’s youtube account has various contents such as an introduction to allb, seminar about gender equality, short movie about gender, sex education video, public service announcement (psa), and so on. https://www.instagram.com/lakilakibaru/?hl=id “aliansi laki-laki baru”: the role of social media …. (eni maryani, preciosa alnashava j, & detta rahmawan) 117 figure 6. aliansi laki-laki baru youtube channel (https://www.youtube.com/user/lakilakibaru) on their youtube channel, allb only have 62 subscribers and there are 32 videos that have been uploaded until now. these videos are not only produced by allb, but also taken from other sources with credit. regarding the number of viewers, most viewed video which got 5,782 views is a video entitled [anti rape campaign] if you could see yourself. this video shows a man who see himself raping a woman. the second most viewed post is a video entitled understanding gender inequality which already got 5,451 viewers so far. this video contains a simple explanation about gender inequality. however, unlike the other platforms, allb’s youtube channel is not up to date and seems has not been maintained lately. it can be seen from the videos that have been uploaded. the latest video was uploaded a year ago. hence, it can be said that allb’s should manage their account better since in indonesia, youtube can be considered as very popular among the youth. while allb’s consistently tries to utilize their social media account to reach and manage their audiences, there are some notes that have to be considered to make sure their “digital activism” is sustainable. the consistency of contents on gender equality in aliansi lakilaki baru’s various social media in order to make a successful campaign, whether for business or social purpose, consistency and repetition play an important role (berman & blakeman, 2009). throughout the analysis, we can identify that allb uses various platforms with many forms of contents. there are several topics that can be categorized through allb website and social media contents: 1. the identity of allb as a gender movement gender movement or feminism is usually associated with women since its main objective is to counter oppression against women and to create gender equality which makes women no longer in subordinate position. therefore, as a women https://www.youtube.com/user/lakilakibaru salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 1 no. 2, july 2018 118 and or feminism movement that was initiated by men, allb have to inform their audiences on internet and people in general about their identity and position. allb’s attempts on branding their identity shown by profile or about me section in every social media accounts. furthermore, the idea that men also can contributed and involved in women movement have been constructed all this time through their posts on platforms that they owned. 2. fighting violence against women one of the main issues that become allb’s concerns is violence against women. this community clearly stated through their digital campaign that violence against women in any forms cannot be legitimatized or justified, even the softest one such as sexist jokes. allb’s consistency in contesting violence against women can be seen through many of their website and social media contents. one of them, and probably the clearest ones are cover photo that they chose for their youtube and twitter page. furthermore, through online interview with allb’s national collective coordinator it has been found that one of allb’s targets when it was established is to provide information regarding involvement of men in fighting violence against women. they realized that references on that issue were still limited. therefore, they disseminate some readings via social media which is considered as cheaper yet effective way to reach many people. 3. men’s involvement in gender equality many of allb’s posts on the internet contain messages that aim to raise awareness about gender issues. they also invite men to join the movement by promoting the idea that men should be involved in gender equality movement. through several posts on every platform, allb inform the position of men in the struggle of creating gender equality, especially in indonesia. they also show how men should act to support women movement. 4. promoting events related to gender issues the role of allb’s social media account in supporting and promoting event regarding gender issues can be analyzed through their posts, especially on march 2017. right on that month, there was an event held in jakarta to commemorate international woman day called women’s march. this event can be categorized as one of the biggest and important event for woman movement or gender issues in general. allb utilized their social media to promote this event by posting digital posters related to women’s march and some footages from the event. “aliansi laki-laki baru”: the role of social media …. (eni maryani, preciosa alnashava j, & detta rahmawan) 119 men and gender movement: shifting men paradigm through digital activism allb’s digital activities show that they have successfully utilized the internet, especially social media to spread their ideas. even though a gender movement that promotes gender equality has become more popular nowadays, it does not mean that there is no challenge in promoting this issue, especially for men who are concerned about gender equality. promoting ideas about gender equality aligns with countering patriarchal ideology that has been living within our society since long time ago. in patriarchal culture, men usually get more benefits since they are considered to be more superior to woman. patriarchy places men on such powerful position. thus, there is no reason for men to counter the ideology. in other words, there is a belief that men seem to have no interests to be involved in movements that fight for women rights. moreover, men are still considered as the perpetrator of violence against women. this kind of stigma or negative stereotype of men is a challenge that allb have to deal with. by analyzing their digital activism, it can be concluded that allb try to shift the paradigm about men and women, that the gender equality is not only women’s issue. men also have to show their support and take part in an act to create gender equality. the challenge of promoting gender equality through social media reports on the advancement of internet and many other information and communication technology around the world show that digital media have entered various parts of people’s life. digital media and social media incite major changes in how people communicate with each other. massive smartphone user growth has also supported this major change in our life. the development of digital technology also encourages changes in terms of how people act regarding various social and political issues. it can be seen from the analysis that social media play important roles in promoting gender equality, especially for youth or the millennial as the primary social media users. however, there are various challenges in using social media as a media to promote gender equality. the results of this study show that it is difficult to consistently make a content and a message that are interesting, light-package and also spreadable without reducing the quality of the content, since it can be said that today’s content have to be converged across multiple platforms. furthermore, it is also important to notice that a good social media content should also spark ongoing conversations and feedbacks which ultimately can make greater public talk about important issues. allb’s activists also need to be studied in detail about how social media are used in the context of marketing. the concepts and data salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 1 no. 2, july 2018 120 that are often used in the context of marketing could provide a better way to utilized social media, especially in terms of management of social media accounts. various communication strategies such as how to create viral content, how to do networking and utilize influencers, etc. should also be studied carefully. however, this is of course also related to the availability of the existing resources. hence the active participation of allb’s readers as well as others who are concerned with gender issues must also be further enhanced. conclusion allb is a form of activism which emphasizes the importance of men's involvement in fighting for gender equality. through allb, gender issues have undergone a fundamental change that does not make women as the main focus but rather on men and their involvement in promoting gender equality and ending the patriarchy. this research shows that there are opportunities to improve men’s involvement in promoting the issues of gender equality in indonesia, especially via social media. the ease of access to social media allows the emergence of a variety of creativity or breakthroughs related to media's production consumption systems. social media allows a variety of new thoughts and issues related to gender to be developed and not easily stopped by the dominance of patriarchal values. social media becomes a space that gives the freedom to think and opportunities to act and make changes related to gender equality. it can also be seen that there is a consistency of contents on gender equality in allb’s various social media. however, it is still necessary to use various strategies to increase the number of posts on their social media accounts. moreover, it is also important to improve the variety of their content, and to make a content that is interesting, light-package, and also spreadable without reducing its quality. it is also important to create a content that also sparks ongoing conversations and feedbacks among the readers. references aliansi laki-laki baru. (n.d.). retrieved from http://lakilakibaru.or.id: http://lakilakibaru.or.id apc & hivos. (2013). global information society watch: women’s rights, gender and icts. apc & hivos. apjii. (2016). infografis penetrasi & perilaku pengguna internet indonesia 2016. jakarta: asosiasi penyelenggara jasa internet indonesia. aristi, n. (2014). harmoni sosial perempuan di ranah publik dan domestik: studi tentang perempuan pekerja media di bandung. bandung: dikti. armato, m. (2013). wolves in sheep’s clothing: men’s enlightened sexism and hegemonic masculinity in academia. women’s studies: an interdisciplinary journal,, 42(5), 578598. asmarani, d. (2016, july-september). a new push for women's rights. retrieved from https://srindonesia.com/in-thejournal/view/indonesian-womenvs-political-islam# asmarani, d. (2017, march 6). magdalene.co. retrieved from “aliansi laki-laki baru”: the role of social media …. (eni maryani, preciosa alnashava j, & detta rahmawan) 121 http://magdalene.co/news-1124jakarta%d5s-women%d5s-marchfor-gender-justice-and-otherintersecting-issues-.html barker, g., ricardo, c., & nascimento, m. (2007). engaging men and boys in changing gender-based inequity in health: evidence from programme interventions. geneva: world health organization. bauer, a., & shah, f. (eds.). (2006). gender approach of development partner, gender mainstreaming for gender equity the experience of international development agencies. frankfurt: kfw bankengruppe. berman, m., & blakeman, r. (2009). the brains behind great ad campaigns: creative collaboration between copywriters and art directors. united states: rowman & littlefield publishers. bridges, t. s. (2010). men just weren’t made to do this: performances of drag at “walk a mile in her shoes” marches. gender & society, 24, 5-30. brown, h., guskin, e., & mitchell, a. (2012, november 28). retrieved from http://www.journalism.org: http://www.journalism.org/2012/11 /28/role-social-media-arabuprisings/ carvalho, k. (2016, june 10). abc.net. retrieved from http://www.abc.net.au/news/201606-10/politicians-embrace-socialmedia-snapchat-instagramfacebook/7498368 cranny-francis, a., waring, w., stavropoulos, p., & kirkby, j. (2003). gender studies: terms and debates. new york: palgrave macmillan. cresswell, w. j. (1994). qualitative inquiry and research design: choosing among five traditions. london: sage publication. flood, m. (2002). engaging men: strategies and dilemmas in violence prevention education among men. women against violence, 13, 25-32. flood, m. (2004). men’s collective struggles for gender justice. in m. kimmel, w. r. connell, & j. hearn (eds.), handbook for studies of masculinities (pp. 458-466). thousand oaks, ca: sage. flood, m. (2011). involving men in efforts to end violence against women. men and masculinities, 14(3), 358-377. fulu, e., warner, x., miedema, s., jewkes, r., roselli, t., & lang, j. (2013). why do some men use violence against women and how can we prevent it? quantitative findings from the united nations multi-country study on men and violence in asia and the pacific. bangkok: undp, unfpa, un women and unv. gladwell, m. (2010, april 10). retrieved from http://www.newyorker.com/magaz ine/2010/10/04/small-changemalcolm-gladwell grazella, m. (2014, june 18). retrieved from thejakartapost: http://www.thejakartapost.com/ne ws/2013/06/18/facebook-has-64mactive-indonesian-users.html gurumurthy, a. (2013). participatory citizenship: tracing the impact of icts on the social and political participation of women. in apc, & hivos, global information society watch: women’s rights, gender and icts. apc and hivos. jakarta post. (2017, may 3). the jakartapost.com. retrieved from http://jakartaglobe.id/news/indone sia-fifth-largest-country-in-termsof-twitter-users/ joyce, m. (ed.). (2010). digital activism decoded: the new mechanics of change. new york: international debate education association. salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 1 no. 2, july 2018 122 katz, j. (2006). he macho paradox: why some men hurt women and how all men can help. naperville, il: sourcebooks. lim, m. (2013). many clicks but little sticks: social media activism in indonesia. journal of contemporary asia. lim, m., & kann, m. (2008). networked politics: deliberation, mobilization and networked practices of agitation. networked publics, 77-107. linder, c., & johnson, c. r. (2015). exploring the complexities of men as allies in feminist movements. journal of critical thought and praxis, 4(1). maryani, e. (2011). media dan perubahan sosial. bandung: pt rosdakarya. maryani, e., & adiprasetio, j. (2017). magdalene.co sebagai media advokasi perempuan. jurnal ilmu komunikasi (jik), 141(1). morozov, m. (2009, may 19). retrieved from http://foreignpolicy.com/2009/05 /19/the-brave-new-world-ofslacktivism/ nishant, s., puthiya, p. s., & sumandro, c. (eds.). (2015). digital activism in asia reader. lu ̈neburg, germany: meson press. rahmawan, d., & narotama, j. (2016). vlogger: fenomena bisnis baru dalam industri media digital di indonesia. bandung: drpmi universitas padjadjaran. ramadhani, f. n. (2017, february 12). the jakartapost.com. retrieved from http://www.thejakartapost.com/ne ws/2017/02/12/ahok-the-mostmentioned-candidate-ontwitter.html saleh, d. (2013). retrieved from http://www.ipra.org/itl/02/2013/in donesia-falls-for-social-media-isjakarta-the-world-s-number-onetwitter-city sanders, s. (2015, september 3). npr.org. retrieved from http://www.npr.org/sections/itsallp olitics/2015/09/03/436923997/inst agram-the-new-political-warroom sapiie, a. m. (2017a, march 22). retrieved from http://www.thejakartapost.com/ne ws/2017/03/22/indonesia-stillstruggles-to-close-genderequality-gap-undp.html sapiie, a. m. (2017b, march 22). retrieved from thejakartapost.com: http://www.thejakartapost.com/ne ws/2017/03/22/indonesia-needsmore-women-in-politics-undpsurvey-suggests.html semiocast. (2012). semiocast. retrieved from http://semiocast.com/en/publicati ons/2012_07_30_twitter_reaches _half_a_billion_accounts_140m_i n_the_us shirky, c. (2011). retrieved from http://www.foreignaffairs.com/arti cles/67038/clay-shirky/thepolitical-power-of-social-media thamar van bemmelen, s. (2015). state of the world’s fathers country report: indonesia 2015. jakarta, indonesia: rutgers wpf indonesia. unfpa. (2015, october 15). unfpa news. retrieved from http://indonesia.unfpa.org/news/2 016/08/capturing-indonesiasgender-equality-issues walby, s. (1991). theorizing patriarchy. wiley-blackwell. we are social. (2017, january 24). retrieved from http://wearesocial.com/blog/2017/ 01/digital-in-2017-global-overview 0102_00a_cover.pdf 0102_00b_toc.pdf 0102_03_maryani.pdf 0102_10_backcover.pdf salasika indonesian journal of gender, women, child, and social inclusion's studies volume 5, number 2 – december 2022 table of content javanese feminine leadership during the pandemic: a study of sragent regent’s leadership style in overcoming the covid-19 pandemic setyasih harini, riska wirawan 63 analysis of the local wisdom and role of women weavers in samarinda norhidayat 79 constraints and solutions to problems in online learning at sd kristen satya wacana, salatiga fidelis alvin basundara prima, eunice widyanti setyaningtyas 89 government’s responsibilities in handling cases of child sexual abuse in samarinda suryaningsi, edi rachmat, wingkolatin, atika yuliana ichsani 105 “decision to migrate” of female migrant workers in sendang biru, malang regency keppi sukesi, henny rosalinda, yahya, wahyu handayani , jedda ayu inggrida, elok anggraini, rany purnama hadi, rozaila farcha 125 index 141 editorial team chief editors arianti ina restiani hunga, universitas kristen satya wacana, indonesia (scopus id: 46161114400, google scholar) dewi candraningrum, universitas muhammadiyah surakarta, indonesia (google scholar) board of editors claudia derichs, humboldt universität zu berlin, germany (scopus id: 14026487800) ida sabelis, vrije universiteit (vu) amsterdam, the netherlands (scopus id: 6507181398, google scholar) siti kusujiarti, warren wilson college, usa (scopus id: 56276925900) ratna saptari, leiden university, the netherlands (scopus id: 6504610910) sylvia tiwon, university of california, usa (scopus id: 6506468591) emy susanti, universitas airlangga, indonesia (scopus id: 57213142220, google scholar) keppi sukesi, brawijaya university, indonesia (scopus id: 56025803300, google scholar) kristi poerwandari, university of indonesia, indonesia (scopus id: 25628305200, google scholar) willemijn de jong, university of zurich, switzerland (scopus id: 55258294800) lyn parker, the university of western australia, australia (scopus id: 56273266700) technical editors indriretno setyaningrahayu, universitas kristen satya wacana, indonesia (google scholar) daniel kurniawan, universitas kristen satya wacana, salatiga, indonesia (google scholar) suryaningsi, universitas mulawarman, indonesia (scopus id: 57223402854, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1093-810x, id sinta: 5990865, google scholar) agustinus fritz wijaya, universitas kristen satya wacana, indonesia (scopus id: 56461093400, google scholar) stefanus perangin-angin, universitas kristen satya wacana, indonesia (google scholar) reviewers elisabet titik murtisari, universitas kristen satya wacana, indonesia (scopus id: 38161752200, google scholar) asfa widiyanto, iain salatiga, indonesia (scopus id: 56451676900, google scholar) wening udasmoro, gadjah mada university, indonesia (scopus id: 56493135600) farah purwaningrum, the university of sydney, australia (scopus id: 57192369400, google scholar) alimatul qibtiyah, sunan kalijaga state islamic university, indonesia (scopus id: 57200660732, google scholar) tyas retno wulan, the jenderal soedirman university, indonesia (scopus id: 57205341358, google scholar) nurjanah, state university of jakarta, indonesia (scopus id: 57210948418) ira desiawanti mangiliko,the artha wacana christian university, indonesia keiko hirano, ochanomizu university, jepang (orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3258-6072) anik yuesti, universitas mahasaraswati, indonesia (scopus id: 57214104250, google scholar) nurdiana gaus, stiks tamalanre makassar, indonesia (google scholar) yacinta kurniasih, monash university, australia (google scholar) yafet yosafet wilben rissy, universitas kristen satya wacana, indonesia (scopus id: 57221474276, google scholar) "decision to migrate" of female migrant workers … (sukesi, rosalinda, yahya, handayani, inggrida, anggraini, hadi, and farcha) 125 "decision to migrate" of female migrant workers in sendang biru, malang regency keppi sukesi department of agricultural social economics, faculty of agriculture, brawijaya university, indonesia henny rosalinda department of international relations, faculty of social and political sciences, brawijaya university, indonesia yahya dept. of socio-economy fisheries and marine, faculty of fisheries and marine science, brawijaya university, indonesia wahyu handayani dept. of socio-economy fisheries and marine, faculty of fisheries and marine science, brawijaya university, indonesia jedda ayu inggrida department of agricultural social economics, faculty of agriculture, brawijaya university, indonesia elok anggraini department of agricultural social economics, faculty of agriculture, brawijaya university, indonesia rany purnama hadi portsmouth-brawijaya centre, brawijaya university, indonesia rozaila farcha portsmouth-brawijaya centre, brawijaya university, indonesia correspondence email: keppi.fp@ub.ac.id abstract this paper aims to analyse the decision to migrate among the female villagers in a fishery village in malang, east java, indonesia. based on the data from bp2mi, until november 2021, malang regency is a pocket for indonesian female migrant workers. however, in sendang biru hamlet, tambakrejo village, sumbemanjing wetan district, malang, only a few women choose to migrate. using the mixed methods of quantitative and qualitative approaches, this study investigated the causes of international migration of women in the village. the quantitative data were derived from 204 households with surveys, while the qualitative data were analysed from the interview transcripts from semi-structured interviews with 21 indonesian female migrant workers and their left-behind families. the study has arrived at some interpretative points that the sendang biru hamlet is a unique coastal area with specific community characteristics where women were given more access and opportunities in a productive public area by utilizing coastal resources as the main economic income. the result shows that economic factors dominated the factor associated with the origin or push factor. the second factor is the destination factor. higher salaries in a destination country and cultural affiliation have become the main reason to salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 5 no. 2, december 2022 126 choose a destination country. the third factor is the intervening obstacles. it shows that some left-behind families tried to persuade their family members who are working as migrant workers to return home due to communication difficulties. and the last factor is the personal factor, for example, to fulfill personal needs such as buying a house. therefore, migration is not the only favoured option for the female villagers to improve their living standards. keywords: international female migrants; fishery village; migrant and fishery; coastal women introduction indonesia is one of the developing countries that actively send migrant workers abroad. according to the data from the national board for the placement and protection of indonesian overseas workers, there are approximately 72,624 indonesian migrant workers placed overseas in 2021, and 88% of them are women (bp2mi, 2022a) as many as 4.3 million indonesian migrant workers are currently abroad (iom indonesia, 2021). east java province is considered the largest migrant sender, and malang regency is the second largest migrant pocket from the east java region, with 4,831 migrant placements in 2021 (bp2mi, 2022a). female migrant workers from malang regency mostly come from the coastal area. the coastal area, according to the definition contained in the law of the republic of indonesia number 27 of 2007 concerning the management of coastal areas and small islands, is a transitional area between terrestrial and marine ecosystems which is affected by changes that occur both on land and at sea (archivelago indonesia marine library, 2023) the coastal area of malang regency consists of six sub-districts, namely bantur, donomulyo, gedangan, tirtoyudo, sumbermanjing, and ampelgading. within these six subdistricts, there are 19 coastal villages. these coastal villages stretch to form a coastline of 92.244 km (department of marine and fisheries of east java province, 2017). furthermore, coastal communities include people who live in coastal areas, and they carry out their daily life based on habits that have been seen as generally accepted values. indirectly, they fully depend on coastal resources. with regard to coastal communities, which are generally considered poor, community empowerment measures are needed. the act of community empowerment for coastal communities is an effort to provide facilities, encouragement or assistance to coastal communities so they can make the best choices in utilising coastal resources in a sustainable manner (satria, 2015). the special uniqueness and characteristic related to the migration process in coastal areas are an "in and out" process, which refers to the process of migrant communities from various areas entering and/or leaving the coastal areas that are included in the category of productive capture fisheries areas. they are commonly known by the term fisher andon (andun). the andon (andun) fishers are temporary residents. their attendants mark the abundant fish season in the area. many people "decision to migrate" of female migrant workers … (sukesi, rosalinda, yahya, handayani, inggrida, anggraini, hadi, and farcha) 127 leave the coastal area to make a living because their inability to access the natural resources related to the sea (e.g., fishing activities), and mostly, they are women who decide to work as migrant workers. the opportunity for those women is limited due to the beliefs in the community that the sea is associated with men, even though, in fact, women also play a large role in the utilization of the coastal resource. the inaccurate mapping of the division of labour between men and women in coastal areas thereupon has an adverse impact on the process of utilizing the coastal resources itself. despite the fact that women are also very much needed in the management of coastal resources, their involvement is not evident in the process of capturing fish resources, in which the role of women is very important in the process of processing and marketing fish resources. because of this inaccurate understanding of the division of labour, many women in coastal areas choose to become migrant workers without considering the huge opportunities in harnessing natural resources in coastal areas. based on data from bp2mi, until november 2021, malang regency was one of the coastal areas and was a pocket for indonesian migrant workers (bp2mi, 2021). the sendang biru coastal area is one of the unique coastal areas of malang regency with a specific community character. sendang biru hamlet is a coastal area with great potential in the fisheries sector. it is located in tambakrejo village, sumbermanjing wetan district, malang regency. fisheries potentials are supported by the existence of a coastal fishing port named upt ppp (coastal fisheries port technical implementation unit) pondokdadap (upt ppp pondokdadap, 2022). upt ppp pondokdadap is a technical implementation unit under the capture fisheries sector of the fisheries and maritime service of east java province which was established based on east java governor regulation no. 74 of 2018. fishing ports are classified into 4 (four) classes or types, namely (1) class a fishery port, hereinafter referred to as the ocean fishery port (pps); (2) class b fishery port, hereinafter referred to as archipelagic fishery port (ppn); (3) class c fishing port, hereinafter referred to as coastal fishing port (ppp); and (4) class d fishing port, hereinafter referred to as fish landing base (ppi). the fish auction place (tpi) is accompanied by fishers's fish stalls which were only inaugurated later by the minister of maritime affairs and fisheries on february 5, 2019. tambakrejo village is located in a coastal area with hilly land conditions and is inhabited by approximately 8,673 people with around 2.241 households. the livelihoods of most people are fishers, and some are rainfed rice farmers and planters. around 2.169 or 49% of the total 4.417 working population in tambakrejo are fishers, and approximately more than 1.500 people resided in sendang biru hamlet in 2022 (tambakrejo village government administration data, 2022). since most of them are fishers, this indirectly has influenced the pattern of life and culture of the community, with a mixture of cultures. this is because they come salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 5 no. 2, december 2022 128 from various regions that bring various cultural influences and styles. however, in general, the customs and dynamics of society still present a similarity in prioritising togetherness and cooperation. economically, most of the villagers rely on the fishery as their main livelihood. they earn approximately 200 tons of fish daily (republika news, 2022). however, despite the huge economic potential of the fishery sector, some villagers, particularly women, perceive that the living standard has not yet been met, and they choose to work abroad as international migrant workers. methods this paper used data from household surveys and in-depth interviews with the left-behind family of the female migrants or returned female migrant workers in sendang biru coastal area, malang regency, east java province, indonesia. this location is a sending area for female migrants. the total number of households surveyed to identify current international female migrant households was calculated using the slovin technique. the sample size for the household survey was determined based on the target number of international migrant households in the sendang biru area. the household survey questions include socio-economic details of the village and information about international female migrants. the survey also addresses the condition of facilities, infrastructure, and the potential for applying appropriate technology for fishers to migrant families. in this study, the survey phase was conducted randomly on a number of households in sendang biru hamlet, tambakrejo village, sumbermanjing wetan district. by using the slovin formula, the number of respondents to be surveyed was 204 households. this figure was based on the following calculation: the number of families in tambakrejo village, sumbermanjing wetan district, malang regency is 1,569 families (as n), and using a confidence level of 95 per cent (margin error of 0.05), with a slovin formula as follows (slovin, 1960): n = 1,569 (the number of fishery households in tambakrejo village) e = 0,05 (e2 = 0,0025) n = 204 based on the results of a previous survey, 20 female migrants were selected purposively for in-depth interviews (with the criterion that the selected respondents were adjusted to the research objectives). quantitative data from the indepth interview were obtained through interviews with bereaved families of migrant workers (husbands, parents, siblings, or children). all of these households were selected to have maximum variability in economic conditions, age, and migrant destination countries. key questions include inter alia, remittance flows, economic hardships during the pandemic, migrant safety, government responses to meet the "decision to migrate" of female migrant workers … (sukesi, rosalinda, yahya, handayani, inggrida, anggraini, hadi, and farcha) 129 special needs of international female migrants, possibilities of appropriate fishing technologies for families, and marketing strategies. interviews were conducted openly, with an unstructured interview guide. in addition, migrant women from the fisher family were interviewed to understand the reasons for their migration. topics discussed in the interview included jobs and salaries, socio-economic management, issues around going home, and concern about the safety and welfare of migrant families, including children. this research also uses qualitative research method analysis with a comprehensive review of existing literature and media publications (newspapers, social media, news, etc.). literature in these fields consequently includes those focusing on women's international migration pattern in the fishery village and the decision to migrate. results and discussion coastal women's characteristic in sendang biru sendang biru coastal area is a fishery hamlet that is part of the tambakrejo village, sumbermanjing wetan district, in malang regency. sumbermanjing wetan district is one of the regions in malang regency with the most fishery villages (see table.1), and one of them is located in sendang biru hamlet of tambakrejo village. sendang biru waters is a strait with a depth of 20 meters with a rocky sand bottom with the dominant current direction to the south. it is estimated that the depth of this strait can be passed by large ships weighing 50-100 gt. these waters are directly adjacent to the indian ocean and have a depth of more than 1000 meters. this makes the waters of sendang biru one of the water areas that are quite busy traversed by fishing boats. the geographical typology of sendang biru is considered one of the most potential coastal areas for fishery sectors. its fishery business is then supported by the existence of a coastal fishing port named pondokdadap beach fisheries port technical implementation unit (upt ppp). fishery port is an area consisting of land area and surrounding water area accompanied by certain area boundaries that become a place for government activities and fishery business system activities used as a place for fishing vessels to lean on, anchor, and/or load and unload fish equipped with shipping safety facilities and fishery support activities (indonesian ministry of marine affairs and fisheries, 2022). therefore, sendang biru hamlet in tambakrejo village also contributes as one of the centres of the capture fisheries industry that has also been prioritised as a marine fishery resource management area in malang regency, east java. salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 5 no. 2, december 2022 130 table 1. village’s typology in malang regency 2018-2021 no district agrarian village industrial village fishery village tourism village 1 donomulyo 4 0 6 0 2 bantur 7 0 3 0 3 sumbermanjing wetan 11 0 3 1 4 pagak 8 0 0 0 5 dampit 11 0 0 0 6 ampelgading 12 0 1 0 7 poncokusumo 15 0 0 3 8 wajak 12 0 0 0 9 turen 13 1 0 1 10 gondanglegi 14 0 0 0 11 kalipare 9 0 0 0 12 sumberpucung 7 0 0 0 13 kepanjen 11 3 0 0 14 bululawang 10 4 0 0 15 tajinan 10 2 0 0 16 tumpang 14 0 0 1 17 jabung 12 2 0 1 18 pakis 4 12 0 0 19 pakisaji 6 6 0 0 20 ngajum 8 0 0 0 21 wagir 6 6 0 0 22 dau 6 3 0 1 23 karangploso 6 3 0 0 24 singosari 8 6 0 0 25 lawang 4 4 0 1 26 pujon 4 6 0 2 27 ngantang 5 4 0 2 28 kasembon 3 2 0 1 29 gedangan 5 0 3 0 30 tirtoyudo 10 0 0 3 31 kromengan 8 0 0 0 32 wonosari 7 0 0 1 33 pagelaran 10 0 0 0 total 280 64 16 18 source: communication and informatics office of malang regency – kmsd 2022 as a consequence, the population's livelihood is dominated by fishers. according to data in 2022 shown in table 2, among a total of 4,417 people, 2,169 of them (or 49%) were fishers, followed by farmers (25%), farm workers (4,9%), ojek drivers (4.5 %), and migrant workers (4.2%). because most of the villagers are fishers, the economic conditions mainly depend on the fishing seasons in indonesia. an increase in the number of fishers generally occurs during the fishing season. a fish season (peak season) is a period of time when fish stocks in these waters reach a large number with abundant catches. the fishing season in sendang biru waters and other waters in indonesia is strongly influenced by two seasons, namely the western and eastern monsoons, each of which lasts for a certain period of time. therefore, the economic activities of the people in the village are quite erratic. "decision to migrate" of female migrant workers … (sukesi, rosalinda, yahya, handayani, inggrida, anggraini, hadi, and farcha) 131 table 2. type of livelihood of villagers in tambakrejo village no occupation male female total (n %) 1. fishers 2,169 2,169 (49) 2. farmers 716 394 1,110 (25) 3. farm workers 205 56 261 (4.9) 4. ojek drivers 201 201 (4.5) 5. migrant workers 83 104 187 (4.2) 6. small and medium entrepreneurs 50 67 117 (2.6) 7. animal husbandries 50 38 88 (2) 8. drivers 58 58 (1.3) 9. government company employees 22 27 49 (1.1) 10. private company employees 25 16 41 (1) 11. retired tni/polri/pns 25 15 40 (0.9) 12. masons/carpenters 22 22 (0.5) 13. businessmen 10 8 18 (0.4) 14. civil servants (pns) 9 5 14 (0.3) 15. trained village shaman 5 7 12 (0.27) 16. itinerant traders 8 3 11 (0.24) 17. mechanics 10 10 (0.22) 18. indonesian national armed forces (tni) 3 3 (0.06) 19. police officers (polri) 3 3 (0.06) 20. barbers 3 3 (0.06) total 3,677 740 4,417 (100) source: tambakrejo village's government administration data, 2022 coastal communities usually have a certain pattern in distributing their task within the family. most of the activities related to the sea, fishing and shipping are mostly conducted by men. on the other hand, women or wives are in charge of helping their husbands work and taking care of the house chores. even if the wives work independently, their responsibilities are mainly to support their family's social-economic needs (azizah, 2019). according to wardana et al. (2022), coastal women tend to have a double role in the family. women must carry out several responsibilities to meet the family's needs, while the husband's income is mostly uncertain every day. therefore, besides being a housewife, coastal women are also involved in processing the fish, which they can then sell to the market or directly to the people in the neighbourhood to support their economy. this pattern is also apparent among the coastal communities in sendang biru coastal community. according to the survey data of sendang biru population in 2023, from 552 surveyed population, 392 people are currently working (71%) with 252 males (64%) and 140 females (36%) (see. table 3). in contrast, the unemployed people are dominated by females (134 people, or salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 5 no. 2, december 2022 132 approximately 84% of the total nonworking population), compared to males that contribute to only 16% (26 people) of the total non-working population in sendang biru. table 3. working population (>17 years old) in sendang biru hamlet male (n%) female (n%) total (n%) working 252 (64) 140(36) 392 (100) not working 26 (16) 134 (84) 160 (100) total 278 (50.4) 274 (49.6) 552 (100) source: survey data of sendang biru population, 2023 meanwhile, from the total of 392 working population, 198 people (51%) are working as fishers (see. table 4). this number shows that more than half of the population works as a fisher for their livelihood. the data also shows that the work as a fisher in sendang biru coastal community is dominated by men, with a ratio of 95% and 5% (189:9 population) between men and women respectively. interestingly, the female fisher in sendang biru is not a fisher who works out to sea. based on the survey conducted by the author in sendang biru hamlet, the female fisher in sendang biru are mostly the owner of the ship. the ship owner, locally called pengambek, provides boats for fishers to work out to sea. they can also be referred to as owners of capital because they provide the needs for fishers to work and share the profit after all the caught fish are sold. table 4. working sectors of sendang biru population working sector male female total (n%) fishers /ship crews 189 9 198 (51) factory/construction labour 6 8 14 (4) services (drivers, ojek online, etc) 5 3 8 (2) fish traders (big/small enterprises) 12 53 65 (17) non-fish trading 4 20 24 (6) processed fish trade 3 7 10 (3) farmer 1 0 1 (0) housemaid 0 11 11 (3) professional (teacher, doctor, banker, nurse, etc) 3 5 8 (2) others 29 24 53 (14) total 252 140 392 (100) source: survey data of sendang biru population, 2023 "decision to migrate" of female migrant workers … (sukesi, rosalinda, yahya, handayani, inggrida, anggraini, hadi, and farcha) 133 the data in table 4 also shows that most females work in the trading business. approximately 53 people work as fish traders (38%), followed by 24 people (17%) working in other occupations (such as office employees, self-employed, or housewives), and 20 people (14%) working in non-fish trading. this data indicates that the female population in the coastal area of sendang biru also have a double role in which they are responsible for taking care of the family and work to support their husbands as a fisher by managing or selling fishery product. however, despite the economic potential for females to earn their own income, most families still consider the husband as the main source of income in the household. of the 204 households in sendang biru that were interviewed, more than 62% represent husbands as the main breadwinner (see. table 5). table 5. source of income of households in sendang biru average total income per month (rp) main source of income son/ daughter parents wife husba nd others total <1 million 1 3 4 1-3 million 1 10 37 8 56 3.1 -6 million 2 3 74 25 104 >6 million 11 13 16 40 total (n%) 2 (0.98) 1 (0.49) 25 (12.25) 127 (62.25) 49 (24.02) 204 (100 source: survey data of sendang biru population, 2023 discussion coastal community and international migration apart from the abundant marine potential and aquaculture, the problem that is often faced by coastal communities is the inability of the community to cultivate and utilise fishery products to the fullest. as a result, the phenomenon that occurred in the society is that coastal areas should be encouraged to improve the economic welfare of their people, rather than becoming areas that are vulnerable to poverty. according to data from statistics indonesia, coastal areas have become pockets of extreme poverty in indonesia. in 2021, the extreme poverty rate in coastal areas reached 4.19%. this figure is higher than the national extreme poverty rate of 4%. of all the national poverty of 10.86 million people, around 1.3 million people, or 12.5%, lived in coastal areas (statistics indonesia, 2021; kompas news, 2023). this condition seems in stark contrast when compared to the fishery income earned by sendang biru waters. the data obtained from upt ppp pondokdadap, as reported by media indonesia, shows that sendang biru was the largest tuna auction centre in indonesia. the total production of fish, such as tuna and skipjack, in sendang biru until november 2022 was 10,559,772 salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 5 no. 2, december 2022 134 kilograms with a production value of idr 226.8 billion (media indonesia , 2022). moreover, nationally, the fishing industry contributed 469.59 trillion rupiahs in 2021 (a very provisional figure) or 2.76% of the national gdp (statistics indonesia, 2022). these figures indeed denote the considerable potential of coastal areas in economic development. unfortunately, the high potential for various abundant fisheries was not accompanied by the socio-economic conditions of the people living in coastal areas. poverty in coastal areas cannot be separated from the pattern of work of coastal communities, most of whom depend on the capture fisheries sector. coastal communities also tend to optimise the area around the coast for various other economic activities, such as aquaculture, salt ponds, marine tourism, public transportation, and mangrove cultivation for various purposes. these economic activities are highly dependent on the sustainability of natural resources, which are relatively very vulnerable to changes and fluctuations in market prices. this causes the livelihoods of coastal communities to be erratic, affecting the stability of the economic conditions and welfare of the coastal community. as a consequence, some of the populations decide to search for a second job in an attempt to support their economic needs, for example, by being an international migrant worker. since 2018, east java province has been the largest sender of migrant workers (see. table 6), and malang regency is one of the regions that is considered a migrant pocket in east java, including sendang biru hamlet in tambakrejo village, sumbermanjing wetan district. table 6. migrant worker placement 2020-2022 no province 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 total 1 east java 70.381 68.740 37.829 28.81 51.348 117.987 2 central java 61.434 60.432 26.335 17.504 47.48 91.319 3 west java 57.230 57.957 23.255 12.178 33.285 68.718 4 west nusa tenggara 18.843 21.465 8.255 2.331 22.79 33.376 5 lampung 32.557 30.706 9.154 4.244 14.052 27.45 6 north sumatera 17.903 15.964 2.84 194 12.501 15.535 7 bali 4.181 3.323 894 5.086 9.428 15.408 8 banten 2.380 2.436 792 400 1.764 2.956 9 di yogyakarta 1.886 1.635 358 190 1.062 1.61 10 south sumatera 2.077 1.147 497 194 952 1.643 11 dki jakarta 1.814 1.605 349 285 812 1.446 12 west sumatera 1.434 1.314 216 30 710 956 13 south sulawesi 846 877 300 147 663 1.11 14 west borneo 511 604 371 131 608 1.11 15 north sulawesi 1.097 1.145 307 241 588 1.136 16 east nusa tenggara 561 1.089 378 241 521 1.14 "decision to migrate" of female migrant workers … (sukesi, rosalinda, yahya, handayani, inggrida, anggraini, hadi, and farcha) 135 17 aceh 1.081 1.114 120 22 389 531 18 r i a u 1.017 1.023 195 34 388 617 19 riau island 802 582 54 36 276 366 20 bengkulu 406 306 154 34 275 463 21 central sulawesi 925 665 166 73 193 432 22 j a m b i 339 371 86 30 169 285 23 southeast sulawesi 171 166 81 38 136 255 24 east kalimantan 360 261 37 37 84 158 25 south kalimantan 282 253 80 57 80 217 26 central kalimantan 1.224 1.043 14 14 41 69 27 west sulawesi 1.728 108 64 12 36 112 28 north kalimantan 42 92 216 8 27 251 29 gorontalo 48 30 2 3 24 29 30 papua 11 50 7 5 24 36 31 bangka belitung 23 19 8 6 20 34 32 maluku 27 8 20 8 18 46 33 nort maluku 15 19 1 1 11 13 34 west papua 4 4 1 0 6 7 total 283.640 276.553 113.436 72.624 200.761 386.821 source: indonesian migrant workers placement and protection, bp2mi, 2020-2022 based on the previous survey data in table 2, it is shown that at least 4.2% of the population (187 people) in tambakrejo village have been working as migrant workers, with a ratio of 83 males and 104 females (or 44.4% and 55.6%). besides, based on the survey of 204 households in sendang biru, there are 21 people who have worked or have been working as female migrant workers. reflecting on the fishery potential of sendang biru, it becomes interesting why some of the residents decided to become migrant workers abroad. this cannot be separated from the push and pull factors that influence an individual's decision to work as a migrant worker. international migration of the female population from sendang biru coastal area according to lee's migration theory, there are four factors that influence migration decisions, namely factors associated with the area of origin, factors associated with the area of destination, intervening obstacles, and personal factors. lee argues that in every area, there are several factors that might hold, attract or repel people. however, there is no specific set that could be generalised since some of those factors could affect most people the same way but affect different people in different ways. to put it simply, migration may result from a comparison of factors between factors at the origin (push) and destination (pull). however, between those lines, there is an obstacle that could affect the decision to migrate. salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 5 no. 2, december 2022 136 moreover, there are also personal factors to be put into consideration (lee, 1966). analysing these factors, there are several reasons that influence the decision to work as a migrant worker abroad among the female population in sendang biru. from the factor of origin, the economic condition seems to be the main cause of migration. based on the survey data, most female migrants come from a middle-low-income households (see. table 7). the data shows that 42.8% of surveyed female migrant workers in sendang biru come from middle-income families with a monthly income of rp 3-6 million, followed by 33% with an average monthly income of rp 1-3 million. these amounts of income are quite low, considering most migrant families consist of at least four persons in the household. only 19% of them have more than rp 6 million in monthly income. table 7. migrant's type of job and household income type of job household's average monthly income (rp) (n%) total (n%) < 1 million 1-3 million 3-6 million > 6 million housemaid and caregiver 1 (4.76) 1 (4.76) housemaid 1 (4.76) 5 (23.81) 9 (42.86) 3 (14.29) 18 (85.71) caregiver 1 (4.76) 1 (4.76) others 1 (4.76) 1 (4.76) total 1 (4.76) 7 (33.33) 9 (42.86) 4 (19.05) 21 (100) source: survey data of sendang biru population, 2023 the economic factor as a push factor from origin was supported by the statement of female migrants and their left-behind who claimed their need for capital to improve their economic conditions, and this became the reason for migration. "i used to work abroad too. my child is not yet one year old. i worked in singapore for two years. i tried to earn more capital for business. after that, i went home to develop my fish business." (ni, former female migrant worker) "my mother lived in hong kong until i was in grade 3 of high school, in around 2011. the reason for going overseas was because of the economy because my father used to work as a driver and worked in a contract office at highways. that salary was only idr 25,000.daily. with four people in the family, it was not enough to fulfil our needs." (wi, relative of female migrant worker) "usually, the money that was sent from my mother was used for family needs, especially my needs and my grandma's, but now since i have a job, she rarely sends money. my mother used to send money to indonesia every 3-4 months. (my, "decision to migrate" of female migrant workers … (sukesi, rosalinda, yahya, handayani, inggrida, anggraini, hadi, and farcha) 137 relative of female migrant worker) the second factor is associated with the destination. most of the pull factor for international migration is the higher salary and the availability of job opportunities abroad compared to the country of origin. cultural affiliation and shared religious practices in destination countries can also encourage individuals to migrate to those countries. in sendang biru, female migrants decide to go abroad because it gives them a higher salary. considering the chosen country, usually, they tend to go to the country with the easiest language barrier or similar culture. "i worked as a babysitter and took care of the house. apart from saudi arabia, i was in jordan in 2007 for two years. then in 2009, i returned to saudi arabia for five years until 2014. when i was in jordan, my salary was idr 900,000 if converted to a rupiah. in saudi arabia, i was paid almost rp. 6-7 million per month." (mu, former female migrant worker) "i worked as a migrant worker in singapore for two years. i chose singapore because i got a higher salary than here. i have never been a migrant worker in another country, only singapore. the reason for choosing singapore was because learning english was easier than other languages." (ju, former female migrant worker) in terms of intervening obstacles factor, it is related to the hurdle that might be faced by migrant workers, which then could influence their decision to return or continue working as migrant workers. in the case of sendang biru, most of the obstacles are related to the communication problem. some of the relatives of the female migrants stated that they usually experience difficulties in getting in touch with their family abroad, especially during the covid-19 pandemic. "i was worried about my mother's condition because i couldn't contact her. she said there was cctv monitoring. when it was break time, she was asked to take complete rest; she shouldn't do anything and couldn't use her mobile phone. so, when i wanted to contact her, there was a scheduled time. i often asked her to come back home, but she refused. she wanted to work abroad until she felt it was time to return." (my, relative of female migrant worker) aside from factors of origin, destination and obstacle, personal factors are also a motive that influences the decision of coastal women to become migrant workers, one of which is the desire of women to contribute to improving the family economy. several female migrants claimed that the reason for their decision to work abroad was to improve their family's condition. that also included buying a new house or becoming the "hero" of the family. "in my opinion, women who work as migrant workers abroad are national and family heroes. even though sometimes some gossiped about it, i just ignored it and did salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 5 no. 2, december 2022 138 not take it seriously." (ju, former female migrant worker) "i have been working as a migrant worker in saudi for seven years. there is no specific reason. i just want to get more money to buy a house in town." (ma, female migrant workers) conclusion from the previous discussion and analysis, it can be concluded that despite having great potential in fishery industries, coastal communities in sendang biru could not maximise the utilisation of their natural resources. a lot of the coastal population is still unemployed and lives in poverty. women, in particular, do not involve much in economics. however, there is a certain value among the coastal community that women have a dual role in society. they are responsible for not only taking care of the family but also supporting their husband's jobs by helping them manage the fishery products and sell them. however, aside from the potential of women to be actively involved in the fishery industry, some decide to be migrant workers to improve their economic conditions. the survey result shows that four factors are the reasons coastal women decide to become migrant workers. first is the factor associated with the origin or push factor, which is dominated by economic factors. most of the female migrants decided to work abroad in an attempt to help improve their economies or increase their capital to start a business. the second factor is the destination factor. in the case of female migrants from sendang biru, higher salaries in destination countries and cultural affiliation have become the main reason to choose a destination country. the third factor is the intervening obstacles. this factor usually determines the reason a female migrant decides to migrate or discontinue their job as a migrant worker. the data from sendang biru shows that some left-behind families tried to persuade their family members who are working as migrant workers to return home due to communication difficulties. the last factor is the personal factor. some female migrants decide to work abroad because they want to fulfil their personal needs, such as buying a house. the others choose to work abroad because they see it as an honourable job. acknowledgement this research was carried out despite the economic and social difficulties during the covid-19 pandemic. the authors want to remark on the clear contribution of the badan riset inovasi nasional (brin) fund under the scheme of prioritas riset nasional 2022 as the funder of this research. references archivelago indonesia marine library. (2023). law of the republic of indonesia number 27 of 2007 concerning the management of coastal zones and small islands. retrieved from "decision to migrate" of female migrant workers … (sukesi, rosalinda, yahya, handayani, inggrida, anggraini, hadi, and farcha) 139 https://perpustakaan.kkp.go.id/kno wledgerepository/index.php?p=sh ow_detail&id=12363 azizah, r. n. (2019, december). analisis pengambilan keputusan perempuan pesisir menjadi buruh migran di desa prapag lor. empower : jurnal pengembangan masyarakat islam, 4(2), 241-258. retrieved from http://syekhnurjati.ac.id/jurnal/ind ex.php/empower bp2mi. (2020). data penempatan dan perlindungan pekerja migran indonesia periode tahun 2020. retrieved from statistik: https://bp2mi.go.id/statistikdetail/data-penempatan-danpelindungan-pmi-periode-tahun2020 bp2mi. (2021). data penempatan dan perlindungan pmi periode tahun 2021. retrieved from statistik: https://www.bp2mi.go.id/statistikdetail/data-penempatan-danpelindungan-pmi-periode-tahun2021 bp2mi. (2022a). data pekerja migran indonesia periode tahun 2021. jakarta: bp2mi. bp2mi. (2022b). indonesian migrant workers placement. retrieved from https://www.bp2mi.go.id/statistikdetail/data-penempatan-danpelindungan-pmi-periode-tahun2022 bpk. (2007, juli 17). undang-undang republik indonesia nomor 27 tahun 2007. retrieved from database peraturan: https://peraturan.bpk.go.id/home/ details/39911/uu-no-27-tahun2007 bps kabupaten malang. (2020). jumlah rumah tangga perikanan tangkap menurut kecamatan di kabupaten malang, 2014 2020. retrieved from https://malangkab.bps.go.id/subjec t/56/perikanan.html#subjekviewt ab3 department of marine and fisheries of east java province. (2017). profil desa pesisir jawa timur: volume 2 (pesisir selatan). surabaya: bidang kelautan, pesisir, dan pengawasan dinas kelautan dan perikanan provinsi jawa timur. faletehan, a. f., mauludin, m. f., & hakim, a. k. (2022). studi kualitatif tentang jebakan kemiskinan pada masyarakat pesisir di pasuruan, jawa timur. buletin ilmiah marina sosial ekonomi kelautan dan perikanan, 7382. retrieved from http://ejournalbalitbang.kkp.go.id/index.php/mra indonesian ministry of marine affairs and fisheries. (2022). peraturan menteri kelautan dan perikanan nomor: per.08/ men/2012. retrieved from https://peraturan.bpk.go.id/home/ details/158147/permen-kkp-noper08men2012-tahun-2012 iom indonesia. (2021, december 21). iom indonesia introduces the structured labor migration information for overseas job seekers. retrieved from https://indonesia.iom.int/news/io m-indonesia-introducesstructured-labor-migrationinformation-overseas-job-seekers irawaty, t., & wahyuni, e. s. (2011). migrasi internasional perempuan desa dan pemanfaatan remitan di desa pusakajaya, kecamatan pusakajaya, kabupaten subang, provinsi jawa barat. sodality: jurnal transdisiplin sosiologi, komunikasi, dan ekologi manusia, 297-310. kompas news. (2023, januari 26). ironi kemiskinan wilayah pesisir yang kaya potensi ekonomi kelautan. retrieved from riset: https://www.kompas.id/baca/riset/ 2023/01/25/ironi-kemiskinanwilayah-pesisir-yang-kayapotensi-ekonomi-kelautan salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 5 no. 2, december 2022 140 lee, e. s. (1966). a theory of migration. demography, 3(1), 47-57. retrieved from https://doi.org/10.2307/2060063 malang district offical website. (2022, december 27). peringatan hari nusantara ke-23 provinsi jawa timur di mayangan kota probolinggo. retrieved from news malangkab: https://malangkab.go.id/mlg/defau lt/page?title=perikananperingatan-hari-nusantara-ke-23provinsi-jawa-timur-dimayangan-kota-probolinggo media indonesia . (2022, november 24). potret pelelangan ikan pondokdadap, malang, dari sulitnya akses hingga mimpi pelaku umkm. retrieved from https://mediaindonesia.com/nusan tara/539784/potret-pelelanganikan-pondokdadap-malang-darisulitnya-akses-hingga-mimpipelaku-umkm republika news. (2022, september 27). khofifah pastikan nelayan sendang biru tak kekurangan suplai solar. retrieved from https://rejogja.republika.co.id/berit a/riv9lu327/khofifah-pastikannelayan-sendang-biru-takkekurangan-suplai-solar satria, a. (2015). pengantar sosiologi masyarakat pesisir. jakarta: fakultas ekologi manusia ipb dan yayasan pustaka obor indonesia. slovin, e. (1960). slovin's formula for sampling technique. retrieved from https://prudencexd.weebly.com/ statistics indonesia. (2021). data dan informasi kemiskinan kabupaten/kota tahun 2021. jakarta: badan pusat statistik. statistics indonesia. (2022). statistik sumber daya laut dan pesisir 2022. jakarta: badan pusat statistik. statistics indonesia. (2023). jumlah penduduk miskin (ribu jiwa), 20202022. retrieved from https://pesselkab.bps.go.id/indicat or/23/117/1/jumlah-pendudukmiskin.html tambakrejo village government administration data. (2022). village data 2021. malang regency. wardana, a. w., arum, s. a., & saripah. (2022). peranan perempuan pesisir terhadap perekonomian keluarga. social issues quarterly, 1(1), 45-57. salasika indonesian journal of gender, women, child, and social inclusion's studies volume 5, number 2 – december 2022 table of content javanese feminine leadership during the pandemic: a study of sragent regent’s leadership style in overcoming the covid-19 pandemic setyasih harini, riska wirawan 63 analysis of the local wisdom and role of women weavers in samarinda norhidayat 79 constraints and solutions to problems in online learning at sd kristen satya wacana, salatiga fidelis alvin basundara prima, eunice widyanti setyaningtyas 89 government’s responsibilities in handling cases of child sexual abuse in samarinda suryaningsi, edi rachmat, wingkolatin, atika yuliana ichsani 105 “decision to migrate” of female migrant workers in sendang biru, malang regency keppi sukesi, henny rosalinda, yahya, wahyu handayani , jedda ayu inggrida, elok anggraini, rany purnama hadi, rozaila farcha 125 index 141 editorial team chief editors arianti ina restiani hunga, universitas kristen satya wacana, indonesia (scopus id: 46161114400, google scholar) dewi candraningrum, universitas muhammadiyah surakarta, indonesia (google scholar) board of editors claudia derichs, humboldt universität zu berlin, germany (scopus id: 14026487800) ida sabelis, vrije universiteit (vu) amsterdam, the netherlands (scopus id: 6507181398, google scholar) siti kusujiarti, warren wilson college, usa (scopus id: 56276925900) ratna saptari, leiden university, the netherlands (scopus id: 6504610910) sylvia tiwon, university of california, usa (scopus id: 6506468591) emy susanti, universitas airlangga, indonesia (scopus id: 57213142220, google scholar) keppi sukesi, brawijaya university, indonesia (scopus id: 56025803300, google scholar) kristi poerwandari, university of indonesia, indonesia (scopus id: 25628305200, google scholar) willemijn de jong, university of zurich, switzerland (scopus id: 55258294800) lyn parker, the university of western australia, australia (scopus id: 56273266700) technical editors indriretno setyaningrahayu, universitas kristen satya wacana, indonesia (google scholar) daniel kurniawan, universitas kristen satya wacana, salatiga, indonesia (google scholar) suryaningsi, universitas mulawarman, indonesia (scopus id: 57223402854, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1093-810x, id sinta: 5990865, google scholar) agustinus fritz wijaya, universitas kristen satya wacana, indonesia (scopus id: 56461093400, google scholar) stefanus perangin-angin, universitas kristen satya wacana, indonesia (google scholar) reviewers elisabet titik murtisari, universitas kristen satya wacana, indonesia (scopus id: 38161752200, google scholar) asfa widiyanto, iain salatiga, indonesia (scopus id: 56451676900, google scholar) wening udasmoro, gadjah mada university, indonesia (scopus id: 56493135600) farah purwaningrum, the university of sydney, australia (scopus id: 57192369400, google scholar) alimatul qibtiyah, sunan kalijaga state islamic university, indonesia (scopus id: 57200660732, google scholar) tyas retno wulan, the jenderal soedirman university, indonesia (scopus id: 57205341358, google scholar) nurjanah, state university of jakarta, indonesia (scopus id: 57210948418) ira desiawanti mangiliko,the artha wacana christian university, indonesia keiko hirano, ochanomizu university, jepang (orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3258-6072) anik yuesti, universitas mahasaraswati, indonesia (scopus id: 57214104250, google scholar) nurdiana gaus, stiks tamalanre makassar, indonesia (google scholar) yacinta kurniasih, monash university, australia (google scholar) yafet yosafet wilben rissy, universitas kristen satya wacana, indonesia (scopus id: 57221474276, google scholar) javanese feminine leadership during the pandemic: … (harini, wirawan) 63 javanese feminine leadership during the pandemic: a study of sragen regent’s leadership style in overcoming the covid-19 pandemic setyasih harini fisip, universitas slamet riyadi, surakarta riska wirawan fisip, universitas slamet riyadi, surakarta correspondence email: setyasih.rini@gmail.com abstract this research aims to describe how the female sragen regent practiced feminine leadership incorporating javanese-surakarta culture to deal with covid-19 pandemic. kusdinar untung yuni sukowati is the first woman leader in sragen raised in surakarta's patriarchal culture. in some situations, a feminine leadership style that is attentive, humble, empathetic, and close to people is deemed more appropriate and impactful. this study employed a qualitative descriptive approach with feminine theory on political leadership styles and javanese-surakarta leadership philosophy. the finding showed that in successfully overcoming the covid-19 pandemic, the sragen regent implemented a feminine leadership style synergized with the leadership value of serat wedhatama entailing 5m, melek (being attentive and introspective), milik (having a sense of belonging), muluk (fulfilling the daily needs), melok (being empathetic), and meluk (being close to the people). as a leader and a member of sragen society, the regent worked with and involved people in socializing and supervising the implementation of health protocol to pursue social safety and welfare. keywords: leadership style, female, javanese culture, covid-19 introduction in times of international crisis, such as a global pandemic, governments are urged to carry out instructions from authorized international health institutions to prevent the disease from spreading and minimize victims. this condition forces decision makers to find solutions quickly and appropriately. political leaders’ gendered leadership styles and culture may influence their success in overcoming the pandemic. in indonesia, the covid-19 pandemic forced people to foster a new system of life and modify social relations. the implementation of health protocols limited social interactions deemed to transmit the disease. joko widodo declared the spread of corona virus disease 2019 (covid-19) a national disaster through the presidential decree salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 5 no. 2, december 2022 64 (keppres) number 12 of 2020 (ihsanuddin, 2020). political leaders’ sexes and gender-oriented leadership styles contribute to the success of overcoming the covid-19 pandemic (luoto & varella, 2021). considering the empirical evidence of leader performance at both central and regional levels in the first period (april to december 2020), several female leaders were assumed to implement a communicative, empathetic, populist, and empowering political leadership style suppressing the health and mortality risks due to covid-19 pandemic in their region. successful covid-19 management is measured based on quick response, the number of infected people, mortality rate, and transmission indicators (ma & yang, 2020; mubah & anabarja, 2020). some journals, such as the leadership quarterly (eagly & heilman, 2016), american psychologist (chin, 2010), education sciences (o’connor, 2018), and leadership (wilson, 2020), focus on issues of gender and leadership effectiveness. several other journals like the journal of leadership and organizational studies (moss et al., 2022), american politics research (byers & shay, 2021), journal of european public policy (waylen, 2021), politics and gender (johnson & williams, 2020), leadership (wilson, 2020), sn comprehensive clinical medicine (bwire, 2020), and journal of applied psychology (sergent & stajkovic, 2020) address the reluctance of masculine leaders to take covid-19 seriously and implement mitigation measures to gain public trust. previous studies have shown that the leadership style displayed in the behavior and communication between masculine or feminine leaders and citizens contributes to success or failure in building citizens’ trust (compliance) and solving problems (waylen, 2021; wood, 2016; mendis & silvia, 2017). for this reason, the leader should be a role model, ensuring followers realize the importance of sharing the organization's goals and values (mendis & silvia, 2017). previous studies on regional leadership have suggested that some female regional heads successfully cope with covid-19, for example, the mayor of south tangerang, airin rachmi diany (zahra, 2020), the regent of serang, hj. ratu tatu chasanah (nurrohman & ramadhan, 2020; sultan & tirtayasa, 2020), and regent of jombang, hj. mundjidah wahab (wahyuni & hertati, 2021). those female political leaders demonstrate attentive, communicative, and populist leadership. female political leaders focus more on preventing the acceleration of virus transmission, minimizing misery, and caring for the people infected with covid-19 (luoto & varella, 2021). their success in dealing with the pandemic maintained their political leadership (johnson & williams, 2020; hogan, 2021). in addition, the sragen regent is among the successful woman leaders as she adopted the surakarta culture in her leadership style. the javanese culture referred to in this research includes the culture of people living in central java province and yogyakarta special region, including surakarta and its surrounding areas known as javanese feminine leadership during the pandemic: … (harini, wirawan) 65 solo raya (surakarta, sragen, boyolali, karanganyar, sukoharjo, wonogiri, and klaten). geographically, sragen regency is bordered to the north by grobogan regency, to the east by ngawi regency, to the south by karanganyar regency, and to the west by surakarta and boyolali regency. bengawan solo river crossing the sragen regency region is a factor causing the gap in people's well-being. people work outside sragen regency, known as boro (circular migration) in the local language, and study in other cities to support their life. it brings practical implications to the social-economic development of sragen in both the short and long terms (subadi, 2004). in socio-culture life, most sragen people are islam with kejawen (javanism) philosophy. people believe that kejawen is a way to achieve safety and happiness, emphasizing inner tranquility, harmony, narima (acceptance but not submission), andhap asor (humility), eling-waspada (self-introspection), and prasaja (humbleness) (siswanto, 2016). kejawen manifests the unity between humans and god, called islam kejawen (javanese islam) (yogiswari, 2020). for the adherents of kejawen islam, proximity to the ancestors and creators of the universe is the most important thing. rituals or offering ceremonies are performed to worship god and honor ancestors (munna & ayundasari, 2021). the fact that surakarta borders sragen regency impacts the acculturation of cultural values. leadership in the traditional javanese cultural context is commonly represented by a man (male figure). the patriarchic javanese community still regards males as ideal leaders. one example of an ideal male leader is danang sutawijaya, entitled kanjeng panembahan pasopati from mataram kingdom, well-known not only for his superpower and courage but also for his populism, justness, wisdom, and ability to control his lust by uniting himself to god (susetya, 2016). male political leadership style influenced by local culture can be seen in some previous studies discussing the regent of polewali, andi ali baal masdar (fibriani, 2014), the regent of sidenreng rappang, h. dollah mando (rasyid, 2013), and the mayor of semarang, hendrar prihadi (purba, 2015). however, during the crisis period, female political leaders like sragen regent is considered capable of dealing with challenging situations. the sragen regent, kusdinar untung yuni sukowati or mbak yuni, is the first daughter of five siblings born to the couple of h. untung sarono wiyono sukarno (former regent) and suparmi. as a sragen native, h. untung sarono wiyono sukarno taught the moral values of leadership through shadow puppets (wayang) to his children and communities by mendalang (becoming the narrator of shadow puppet). as a daughter, dr. hj. kusdinar untung yuni sukowati is trusted to implement surakarta values in her leadership style as the regent of sragen. the regent adopted local culture in her political leadership style, making it acceptable to and legitimized by the people she leads. she learned surakarta leadership philosophy, especially serat wedhatama, from shadow puppet. implementing surakarta's leadership philosophy, salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 5 no. 2, december 2022 66 she harmonizes life vertically (the relationship with god) and horizontally (the relationship with the community and the universe). sragen regent's leadership capability has been proven through her success in overcoming the covid-19 pandemic. in the first quarter of 2020, the people of sragen regency indicated a high risk of covid-19 exposure, showed by its red zone status with a 24,755 exposure rate and 765 deaths in 10 out of 20 sub-districts (masaran, karangmalang, sragen, sidoharjo, gemolong, kalijambe, plupuh, kedawung, tanon, and sumberlawang). considering the background above, this article aims to study the gender-oriented political leadership style of sragen regent, dr. hj. kusdinar untung yuni sukowati, adopting javanese philosophical values of serat wedhatama and the 5m in dealing with the first wave of covid-19. this study is significant since the contemporary political leadership implemented by this female regional head employed different leadership values in dealing with the covid-19 pandemic. from a traditional perspective, political leadership relates to state and military sovereignty and security (tang, 2017). political leadership classically relates to legitimacy, influence, persuasiveness, charisma, or compulsion in undertaking the government's power and administrative hierarchy (ahlquist & levi, 2011). the characteristics featured in political leadership are the manifestation of the relationship established between the leader and those led through attention, respect, loyalty, and obedience. in the political domain, feminism is present to demonstrate the construction of gender identity by generating a normative idea about what a man or a woman can do. in this case, the difference between "sexes" should be reconfirmed as an inherent biological condition and "gender". goetz and cornwall (2005) state that gender is an abstract form of society's social structure resulting from individual experiences complexly focusing on politics. gender is also understood as an assumption constructed socially, established based on the male or female body and visible behavior. eagly and johnson (1990) state that there is a different political leadership style between masculine and feminine leaders. a more democratic feminine leadership emphasizes participation, while the masculine one tends to be autocratic, so masculine leadership often implements a transactional leadership style. female political leadership leads to cooperation, collaboration, and problem solving based on intuition, empathy, rationality, and peace. therefore, it is classified into transformational leadership style. the feminine leadership style generally demonstrated by women can be applied more peacefully in various situations and cultures (kark, 2004; sanjaya, 2015). feminine leadership styles demonstrate delegation, conflict management, individual adaptation, objectiveness, and attentiveness (burke & colin (2020). faizan et al. (2018) conclude that the feminine leadership style implemented by a woman usually javanese feminine leadership during the pandemic: … (harini, wirawan) 67 relies on network structure prioritizing synergy, cooperation, and empowerment, while the masculine one relies on hierarchic power. in the javanese cultural context, a leader does not only relate to secular problems but is also defined as a ruler, representative, or reincarnation of god (the creator) (kurniawan, 2019). a leader should possess three preconditions: mastering knowledge (rational domain), ngelmu (supernatural power including inner domain), and revelation element constituting nature legitimacy. the characteristics of a javanese leader, according to sunarni (2016), are monocentric (single figure), metaphysical (obtained due to revelation), inspiring, pulung (through revelation), leveled or bearing status (nunggaksemi), pragmatic (through asceticism, ritual, lelaku, asceticism), ethical (having high moral, capable of distinguishing the good from the bad), and syncretic (taking important concepts or values from various religions). in javanese culture, someone with power cannot always influence others to obey his/her will. power in javanese culture is meta-empirical, not based on power, influence, wealth, relations, or descendants but is the mandate of god. thus, javanese people in the past sincerely and wholeheartedly obeyed the king's orders regarded as an incarnation (santoso, 2012; irawanto et al., 2011). in javanese culture, power occurs in the books of negara kertagama, pararaton, and babad tanah jawi, describing the majesty of majapahit kingdom’s power as the ancestor of the mataram dynasty (rohmatin, 2019). the ancient writings reveal that power tends to be undivided, absolute and bear geanological legitimacy known as trahing kusuma, rembesing madu, wijiling naratapa, and tedhaking andana warih (descendants of nobles or ascetics). therefore, the king's speech can be standardized as public policy. those conditions changed drastically when the mataram kingdom was divided into four autonomous kingdoms, kasultanan yogyakarta, kadipaten pakualaman yogyakarta, kasunanan surakarta, and kadipaten mangkunegaran surakarta. the dutch colonial reduced the domination of power and the legitimacy of the four praja kejawen (javanese kingdoms). the four autonomous kingdoms developed literary works, namely hasthabrata (asthabrata), wulangreh, and wedhatama, containing leadership teachings and regulating the relationship between the king and the people, including the obligation of a leader to subordinates. the three leadership philosophies teach leaders to set a good example, guide, and encourage their followers. from the three leadership philosophies, this article focuses on serat wedhatama. serat wedhatama comes from the words serat, meaning letter, wedha, meaning kawruh (knowledge or science), and tama, meaning excellent, good, or perfect. four tembang macapat (traditional javanese song) (pangkur, sinom, pocung, and gambuh) in serat wedhatama represent the balance of knowledge between spiritual and physical lives (boogert, 2015). serat wedhatama recommends the moral values javanese leaders salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 5 no. 2, december 2022 68 should have, including satriya (brave, honest, defending truth and justice), prasaja (humble), rila (sincere), setya budya (competent), and agama ageming aji (obeying religious teachings) (azhar, 2017; kurniawan, 2019; widodo, 2016). in sanskrit, the word woman comes from the word per-empu-an. per means being, and empu means highly knowledgeable and noble. the definition of adulthood attached to the word woman is interpreted as a form of devotion bearing a higher value requiring loyalty and independence. it is a form of indonesian "javanization" with the influence of the egalitarian malay language but maintains its feudal spirit (saraswati, 2016). ancient javanese community allowed women to participate in governmental politics as leaders/stateswomen (rather than the queen as the king's consort). titi surti nastiti's (nastiti & sedyawati, 2009) dissertation, entitled the position and the role of women in ancient javanese society (8th -15th centuries), explains that in that period, equality and shared opportunity existed between women and men, as 9 out of 14 areas under the majapahit kingdom were led by women. the stipulation in negarakrtagama, sri tanjung, calon arang, and pararaton shows that women were entitled to public positions (munandar, 2015). equality between women and men in politics from mataram kuno to majapahit is rooted in javanese culture, not distinguishing inheritance rights in society (saraswati, 2016). according to sunarni (2016), endraswara (2013), and sari (2022), the javanese female leadership style can be achieved through 5 m, melek (attentive and introspective), milik (having a sense of belonging), muluk (fulfilling the daily needs), melok (empathetic), and meluk (being close to the people). nastiti and sedyawati (2009) suggest that women leaders under the majapahit kingdom implemented a javanese political leadership style. female kings in pekalongan and jepara, central java, ratu (queen) shima and ratu kalinyamat, were well-known for their justness, attentiveness, empathy, humbleness, populism, and wisdom. ratu kalinyamat even fought against the portuguese bravely (ningsih, 2021; aji, 2020). methods this research employed a qualitative approach as it aims to understand the social phenomenon in a specific context naturally, viewed from the research subject's action, speech, work, and perception. the descriptive qualitative approach is more appropriate for this research as it explores deeper, describes, and explains the policy change and its implementation to be adaptable to overcome the health crisis. the data was collected through interviews and documentation. in priority order, these informants were targeted in each community: 1) people from 20 sub-districts who had been exposed to covid-19; 2) heads and available members of the regency council; 3) heads of health office; 4) heads of education office; 5) heads of women's empowerment office; 6) heads of industry, cooperatives, and micro, small and medium enterprises. potential participants were informed that their names would not be disclosed in any report. everyone contacted was freely invited to participate, and no one javanese feminine leadership during the pandemic: … (harini, wirawan) 69 refused. the interview was recorded with the participants' approval, and all transcripts were deleted after completion. sragen regent, as the key informant with a relevant position and contribution during the covid-19 pandemic, was selected as a data source for data triangulation. interviews were conducted for 3060 minutes. interviews were audiorecorded and transcribed after getting approval from the interviewees. the research focused on regulations and circulars issued by the regent of sragen from april to december 2020. results and discussion results sragen regency is separated by the bengawan solo river, causing a gap in the community’s prosperity and welfare. the northern part of the bengawan solo river is relatively less fertile because it is part of the kendeng mountains. this condition contributes to poverty and difficulty in accessing clean water. meanwhile, the central and southern regions are very suitable for agriculture and become the rice granaries of the sragen regency. most sragen people are islam, who also practice kejawen (javanism). sragen’s cultural values have acculturated with surakarta, its border neighbor, cultures. since the dutch east indies, sragen has been part of the kasunanan surakarta palace under the susuhunan pakubuwana (lilyana et al., 2020). sragen or sukawati was the name given by prince mangkumi, the nobleman of surakarta (rukmini, 2009). the leadership of sragen regent, kusdinar untung yuni sukowati, was tested when the covid-19 pandemic spread rapidly in her area. sragen regency was one of the areas exposed to covid-19. kusdinar untung yuni sukowati was the first female regent sragen since 1861. she figure 1. mapping of sub-districts exposed to covid-19 (june 27, 2020). adapted from researchers from various sources salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 5 no. 2, december 2022 70 is the seventeenth regent after her father, untung sarono wiyono sukarno, who served from 20012011. she is the first of five children. she was a doctor before becoming a regent and politician. she establishes a hospital, which is a family business. her leadership style, as a woman, in overcoming covid-19 was evident in the first wave, when people were unaware of the danger it generated. they were unaware that the covid19 pandemic relates to clean and healthy living behaviors (mutmainah & jamilatun, 2021). some rural communities had difficulty accessing health facilities, were unsure of health protocol implementation, had low awareness, and distrusted the dangers posed (prasetiyo et al., 2021). sragen regency was a red zone with a 24,755 exposure rate and 765 deaths throughout 10 out of 20 subdistricts (masaran, karangmalang, sragen, sidoharjo, gemolong, kalijambe, plupuh, kedawung, tanon, and sumberlawang). in a critical situation with uncertainty and unusualness, people must adapt to the new normal life under a regional head's leadership. as the ruler, the regional head is expected to respond quickly and effectively to the planned disease management. in addition, attentive, emphatic, humble, and populist leaders with a sense of belonging are needed to prevent excessive reactions to the crisis. discussion the presence of a political leader is not intended to confirm the competitive masculine male ruler with hierarchic authority, control, and problem solving through analysis (enloe, 2010). it is essential for the political leader to change people’s life amid the crisis positively. by adopting the truth, firmness, love, and technology mastery elements in his/her leadership style, a political leader can successfully suppress the pandemic acceleration rate and its effect(johnson & williams, 2020). therefore, the critical situation requires feminine character prioritizing interpersonal communication, discussion, compromise, warmth, helpfulness, and empathy generally featured by a female figure (hoyt & burnette, 2013). research on social roles suggests that role stereotypes guide the behavior of female and male leaders (eagly & wood, 2013). according to experts, women tend to be communal, communicate, and share, while men are agents and independent (chrobot-mason et al., 2019; koenig et al., 2011). women are unfavorably evaluated if they act inconsistently with gender role stereotypes ( vroman & danko, 2020; eagly & karau, 2002). external and internal influences in each specific context (family and local culture) determine genderdriven behavior, such as socialcognitive theory, gender role development, and differentiation. although much of human learning and adaptation is socially situated, women and men are not passive objects governed by the local environment and culture. on the contrary, just like men, women are agents of experience and selfthinking (lent & brown, 2017; mazei et al., 2015; sergent & stajkovic, 2020). javanese feminine leadership during the pandemic: … (harini, wirawan) 71 for that reason, the regent of sragen applied a feminine political leadership style incorporatingsurakarta leadership philosophy, serat wedhatama. the sragen regent also implemented 5m (melek, milik, melok, muluk, meluk) in overcoming the covid-19 pandemic. the implementation of introspection and attentiveness (melek) was evident in the regent’s public policy. an example was the circular letter about the implementation of new normal no. 360/002/038/2020 and the regent of sragen’s regulation no 33 of 2020. article 3 of the regent’s regulation stated that the implementation of new normal life order was intended to create a new life order based on the health protocols to establish a productive community surviving the transmission of the covid-19 pandemic. to implement it, in her spare time, the sragen regent actively vaccinated her people from door to door. the regent’s initiative to visit people to vaccinate them was to deal with the fact that not all sragen citizens want to be vaccinated. sragen people believed that vaccines would not increase the body's resistance to the coronavirus. the people’s fear and anxiety about vaccination due to fake news encouraged the sragen regent to directly vaccinate her people, especially the elderly, district office staff, rural residents, school students, and village heads against vaccination. sragen regent continuously reminded residents to implement health protocols, especially by wearing masks outside the house. the sragen regent demonstrated muluk (fulfilling the daily needs) through her direct participation in distributing basic need packages from the government to those infected with covid-19. the sragen regent distributed 59,087 daily need packages to each sub-district. to ensure the program ran well, the regent of sragen attempted to meet the supplier of food staples directly to get a lower price and lead and escort the distribution process to those in need. almost every night, the regent and covid-19 task force visited the residents. the purpose of the visit was to find out whether vaccination in the community was successful. the regent also paid an impromptu visit to greet and remind people to obey health protocols. in implementing melok (empathy), the sragen regent interacted directly with the people or via social media, such as whatsapp, facebook, and instagram. with her motto “mbak yuni selalu dihati” (yuni is always in my heart), she created #sragenpakaimasker, #guyubrukun, #indonesialawancorona, #dirumahsaja, #cucitanganpakaisabun, and #sragenbisa hashtags to ease the community to interact directly with her. in building communication, the regent addressed the people directly to implement the health protocols and help those infected with covid19. in supervising health protocol implementations, the sragen regent cooperated with village officials, volunteers, village midwives, dharma perempuan kabupaten (regional women organization), bintara pembina desa/babinsa (village superintendent), bhayangkara pembina keamanan dan ketertiban masyarakat/bhabinkamtibmas (community police officers), and jogo tonggo (looking after neighbors) task salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 5 no. 2, december 2022 72 force from district to village level. sragen regent also supported pager mangkok (a javanese metaphor meaning sharing, caring, and taking care of each other) as social capital and community participation to share basic needs with those infected by covid-19. all local government employees had savings in matra organization. the savings were a compensation fund to overcome poverty and crises, such as the one caused by the covid-19 pandemic. another program empowered members of micro, small, and medium-scale enterprises (msme) to make and distribute free masks, hand sanitizers, face-shield, and hand soaps to the entire community. the sragen regent demonstrated milik (sense of belonging) through visiting and providing courtesy to those whose families died of covid19. milik means providing infrastructure to improve welfare. the regent’s program to improve community welfare through weaving, handicraft, and communication skill training funded by the council was prioritized for handling the covid-19 pandemic in 2020. the regent implemented meluk (being close to the people) to maintain the society's economy through women's empowerment. citizens who lost their jobs were employed as delivery personnel for basic needs through three applications, namely go shop, pasarmu, and online market cooperating with traditional markets and www.pasarayaonline.com(the online market system). the program allowed traditional markets to remain open by establishing health protocols. the regent of sragen also provided a recovery fund to train people to establish msme by cooperating with cooperatives and modern markets, such as indomaret. through this strategy, women who did not work or lost their jobs could produce handicrafts while educating the public to adhere to health protocols by creating covid-19themed bags and doormats sold locally and internationally. the handicraft demand from sragen increased by 80% during the covid19 pandemic (maulani, 2021). the sragen regent demonstrated democratic values emphasizing participation, communication, cooperation, collaboration, intuition-based problem solving, empathy, rationality, and peace. her parents, who have a javanese cultural background, taught her these values. the leadership style demonstrated by the regent of sragenduring the covid-19 pandemic embraced her people, put herself in the sragen people’s shoes, and relieved or solved the problems encountered by sragen people through some empowering programs. the sragen regent applied feminine leadership, incorporating 5m to deal with the covid-19 pandemic. the feminine leadership style rooted in javanese culture has successfully helped her deal with covid-19. first, through the instructions of the regent of sragen number 360/440/038l/202i, she imposed restrictions on community activities (ppkm) level 2 in all areas of sragen regency. the policy successfully suppressed the spread of covid-19 in sragen. second, the sragen government, through the cooperatives and http://www.pasarayaonline.com(the/ javanese feminine leadership during the pandemic: … (harini, wirawan) 73 msmes office, won the 2021 natamukti awards as proof of its success in empowering and strengthening msmes during covid19 ( dinkopukm, 2021). third, the door-to-door vaccination program and direct interaction of the regent of sragen with the community led to the achievement of being a regency with the highest number of vaccinations in central java province. sragen reached 84.3% for all vaccination stages (sudarsono, 2022). conclusion a regional leader's political leadership style impacts the people he/she leads. the leadership style of the female sragen regent, formerly a physician, was influenced by surakarta cultural values. during the covid-19 pandemic, she implemented a female leadership style incorporating cultural values. her attentiveness, responsiveness, empathy, sense of belonging, humbleness, and populism were the manifestation of 5m (melek, meluk, muluk, milik, and melok). serat wedhatama can guide civil leaders to provide security, comfort, and welfare. references dinkopukm. (2021). dukung umkm, pemkab sragen raih natamukti award 2021. retrieved from http://dinkopukm.sragenkab.go.id/ ?p=149%0asragen ahlquist, j. s., & levi, m. (2011). leadership: what it means, what it does, and what we want to know about it. annual review of political science, 14, 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurevpolisci-042409-152654 aji, d. u. (2020). kisah ratu kalinyamat, perempuan tangguh yang lawan portugis di malaka. detik.com. retrieved from http://repositorio.unan.edu.ni/298 6/1/5624.pdf mubah, a. s., & anabarja, s. (2020). from big data to mask diplomacy: taiwan’s effort to strengthen international role. global strategies, 14(2), 189–202. https://doi.org/10.20473/jgs.14.2.20 20.189-202 azhar, i. n. (2017). falslafah kepemimpinan bangsa dalam paribasan jawa (aksioma budaya yang mulai ditinggalkan). journal for sociological studies, 53(9), 21–25. https://doi.org/10.13140/rg.2.1.507 4.3125 boogert, j. van den. (2015). rethinking javanese islam. towards new descriptions of javanese traditions (doctoral dissertation, leiden university, leiden). retrieved fromhttps://openaccess.leidenuniv .nl/handle/1887/36400 burke, s. (2020). stronger together? intergenerational connection and covid-19. quality in ageing and older adults, 21(4), 253–259. https://doi.org/10.1108/qaoa-072020-0033 bwire, g. m. (2020). coronavirus: why men are more vulnerable to covid-19 than women? sn comprehensive clinical medicine, 2(7), 874–876. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42399020-00341-w salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 5 no. 2, december 2022 74 byers, j. s., & shay, l. p. (2021). we have it totally under control? exploring the effects of ideology and knowing someone diagnosed with covid-19 on evaluations of president trump’s leadership on the pandemic. american politics research, 50(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/1532673x211 041319 chin, j. l. (2010). introduction to the special issue on diversity and leadership. american psychologist, 65(3), 150–156. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0018716 chrobot-mason, d., hoobler, j. m., & bruno, j. (2018). lean in versus the literature: an evidence-based examination. academy of management perspectives, 33(1). doi: 10.5465/amp.2016.0156. eagly, a. h., & heilman, m. e. (2016). gender and leadership: introduction to the special issue. leadership quarterly, 27(3), 349– 353. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.201 6.04.002 eagly, a. h., & johnson, b. t. (1990). gender and leadership style: a meta-analysis part of the social psychology commons recommended citation. psychological bulletin, 108(2), 233– 256. https://opencommons.uconn.edu/ chip_docs/11 eagly, a. h., & karau, s. j. (2002). role congruity theory of prejudice toward female leaders. psychological review, 109(3), 573–598. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033295x.109.3.573 eagly, a. h., & wood, w. (2013). the nature-nurture debates: 25 years of challenges in understanding the psychology of gender. perspectives on psychological science, 8(3), 340–357. https://doi.org/10.1177/17456916134 84767 endraswara, s. (2013). falsafah kepemimpinan jawa. yogyakarta: narasi. enloe, c. (2010). margins, silences and bottom rungs: how to overcome the underestimation of power in the study of international relations. international theory, 186–202. https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511 660054.010 faizan, r., nair, s. l. s., & haque, a. u. (2018). the effectiveness of feminine and masculine leadership styles in relation to contrasting gender’s performances. polish journal of management studies, 17(1), 78–92. https://doi.org/10.17512/pjms.2018. 17.1.07 fibriani, n. (2014). analisis gaya kepemimpinan pemerintahan dalam perspektif budaya mandar di kabupaten polewali mandar (thesis, universitas hasanuddin, makassar). retrieved from https://docplayer.info/38835039analisis-gaya-kepemimpinanpemerintahan-dalam-perspektifbudaya-mandar-di-kabupatenpolewali-mandar.html goetz, a., & cornwall, a. (2005). democratizing democracy: feminist perspectives. democratization, 12(5), 783–800. doi: 10.1080/13510340500322181 ma, mu-han & yang, q.-s. (2020). how does transformational leadership work on covid-19? an empirical evidence from china. journal of innovative studies, 1(2). retrieved from http://www.iiinstitute.us/index.ph p/jis/article/view/1. prasetiyo, h. w., wijaya, g. p. a., rachman, r. f., amini, m. z., wijaya, e. j., ati, d. l., & prabowo, a. (2021). peningkatan kesadaran protokol kesehatan covid-19 pada masyarakat desa baleharjo, sragen. buletin kkn pendidikan 3(1). javanese feminine leadership during the pandemic: … (harini, wirawan) 75 https://doi.org/10.23917/bkkndik.v 3i1.12979 hogan, l. (2021). moral leadership: a challenge and a celebration. theological studies, 82(1), 138–155. https://doi.org/10.1177/0040563921 993456 hoyt, c. l., & burnette, j. l. (2013). gender bias in leader evaluations: merging implicit theories and role congruity perspectives. personality and social psychology bulletin, 39(10), 1306–1319. https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672134 93643 ihsanuddin. (2020, april 13). presiden jokowi teken keppres tetapkan wabah covid-19 bencana nasional. kompas.com. retrieved from http://www.akrabjuara.com/index. php/akrabjuara/article/view/919 irawanto, d. w., ramsey, p. l., & ryan, j. c. (2011). tailoring leadership theory to indonesian culture. global business review, 12(3), 355– 366. https://doi.org/10.1177/0972150911 01200301 johnson, c., & williams, b. (2020). gender and political leadership in a time of covid. politics and gender, 16(4), 943–950. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1743923x2 000029x kark, r. (2004). the transformational leader: who is (s)he? a feminist perspective. journal of organizational change management, 17(2), 160–176. https://doi.org/10.1108/0953481041 0530593 koenig, a. m., eagly, a. h., mitchell, a. a., & ristikari, t. (2011). are leader stereotypes masculine? a metaanalysis of three research paradigms. psychological bulletin, 137(4), 616–642. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0023557 kurniawan, a. f. (2019). falsafah kepemimpinan pendidikan (hasta brata sebagai basis kepemimpinan pendidikan). ri’ayah, 4(2), 194– 207. doi: 10.32332/riayah.v4i02.1882 lent, r. w., & brown, s. d. (2017). social cognitive career theory in a diverse world: guest editors’ introduction. journal of career assessment, 25(1), 3–5. https://doi.org/10.1177/1069072716 657811 lilyana, s. (2020). sragen di masa revolusi : dampak sosial dan perjuangan kemerdekaan republik indonesia di surakarta, 1944-1949. periode, 2(2), 143–152. retrieved from https://journal.unj.ac.id/unj/index. php/periode/article/view/18713 luoto, s., & varella, m. a. c. (2021). pandemic leadership: sex differences and their evolutionary–developmental origins. frontiers in psychology, 12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021. 633862 maulani, m. p. (2021). permintaan tas anyam jali-jali asal sragen meningkat. tribunjateng.com. retrieved from https://jateng.tribunnews.com/202 1/03/11/permintaan-tas-anyamjali-jali-asal-sragen-meningkat-80persen-saat-pandemi-minat-jadireseller?page=2 mazei, j., hüffmeier, j., freund, p. a., stuhlmacher, a. f., bilke, l., & hertel, g. (2015). a meta-analysis on gender differences in negotiation outcomes and their moderators. psychological bulletin, 141(1), 85–104. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0038184 mendis, k., & silvia, s. (2017). male vs female leaders: analysis of transformational, transactional & laissez-faire women leadership styles. european journal of business and management, 9(9), 19–26. salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 5 no. 2, december 2022 76 retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publ ication/334495020 moss, s. e., kessler, s. r., martinko, m. j., & mackey, j. d. (2022). the relationship between follower affect for president trump and the adoption of covid-19 personal protective behaviors. journal of leadership and organizational studies, 29(2), 233244. https://doi.org/10.1177/15480518211 010765 munandar, a. a. (2015). kedudukan dan peran perempuan pada masa jawa kuno: era majapahit. jumantara, 6(1), 1–18. retrieved from https://scholar.ui.ac.id/en/publicati ons/kedudukan-dan-peranperempuan-dalam-masa-jawakuno-era-majapahit munna, u. l., & ayundasari, l. (2021). islam kejawen : lahirnya akulturasi islam dengan budaya jawa di yogyakarta. jurnal integrasi dan harmoni inovatif ilmu-ilmu sosial, 1(3), 317–325. https://doi.org/10.17977/um063v1i 3p317-325 mutmainah, a., & jamilatun, m. (2021). pemberdayaan masyarakat di kampung kroyo, karangmalang sragen dalam penerapan phbs sebagai upaya pencegahan dan penanggulangan covid-19. abdi moestopo jurnal pengabdian pada masyarakat, 4(1), 6–11. https://doi.org/10.32509/am.v4i1.1 299 nastiti, t. s., & sedyawati, e. (2009). kedudukan dan peran perempuan dalam masyarakat jawa kuna (abad viii-xv masehi) (doctoral dissertation, universitas indonesia, jakarta). retrieved from https://lontar.ui.ac.id/detail?id=130 303 ningsih, w. l. (2021, may 20). kerajaan kalingga: raja-raja, kehidupan politik dan peninggalan. kompas.com. retrieved from https://www.kompas.com/stori/rea d/2021/05/20/162857279/kerajaankalingga-raja-raja-kehidupanpolitik-dan-peninggalan?page=all nurrohman, b., & ramadhan, g. (2020). kepemimpinan perempuan di masa krisis: studi kasus bupati serang dalam penanganan covid19. ijd-demos, 2(3), 271–282. https://doi.org/10.37950/ijd.v2i3.67 o’connor, p. (2018). introduction to special issue on gender and leadership and a future research agenda. education sciences, 8(3). https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci80 30093 purba, j. r. (2015). kepemimpinan sang walikota : ngayomi, ngayemi, lan ngayahi (studi kasus pada kepemimpinan walikota semarang hendrar prihadi, se.,mm). diponegoro journal of management, 4(4), 343-355. retrieved from https://ejournal3.undip.ac.id/index .php/djom/article/view/13340 rasyid, a. (2013). analisis kepemimpinan bupati periode 2014-2019 di kabupaten sidenreng rappang. jurnal ilmu pemerintahan, 6(1), 33–48. retrieved from https://www.neliti.com/publication s/99553/analisis-gayakepemimpinan-bupati-periode2014-2019-di-kabupatensidrap#cite rohmatin, f. (2019). dekonstruksi wacana patriarki dan kebungkaman perempuan dalam manuskrip hikayat darma tasiyah. jumantara: jurnal manuskrip nusantara, 10(2), 149. https://doi.org/10.37014/jumantara .v10i2.598 rukmini, d. (2009). cerita rakyat kabupaten sragen (suatu kajian struktural dan nilai edukatif) (master's thesis, uns, solo). retrieved from https://digilib.uns.ac.id/dokumen/ javanese feminine leadership during the pandemic: … (harini, wirawan) 77 detail/10382/cerita-rakyatkabupaten-sragen-suatu-kajianstruktural-dan-nilai-edukatif sanjaya, r. (2015). kepemimpinan transformasional yang paling baik? (sebuah kajian pustaka). paper presented in seminar nasional peluang indonesia dalam persaingan ekonomi kreatif global, bandung., santoso, b. (2012). the influences of javanese culture in power of making decisions in indonesian universities: case studies in mm programmes. journal of indonesian economy and business, 27(2), 224– 241. doi: https://doi.org/10.22146/jieb.6248 saraswati, u. (2016). kuasa perempuan dalam sejarah indonesia kuna. sejarah dan budaya : jurnal sejarah, budaya, dan pengajarannya, 10(1), 105–113. https://doi.org/10.17977/um020v10 i12016p105 sari, s. p. (2022). konstruksi kepemimpinan tokoh perempuan jawa dalam novel canting karya arswendo atmowiloto dan novel gadis kretek karya ratih kumala: perspektif feminisme eksistensial (master's thesis, universitas muhammadiyah malang, malang). retrieved from https://eprints.umm.ac.id/83685/% 0ahttps://eprints.umm.ac.id/8368 5/1/suci puspita sari_revisi_naskah tesiss.pdf sergent, k., & stajkovic, a. d. (2020). women’s leadership is associated with fewer deaths during the covid-19 crisis: quantitative and qualitative analyses of united states governors. journal of applied psychology, 105(8), 771–783. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000577 siswanto, d. (2016). pengaruh pandangan hidup masyarakat jawa terhadap model kepemimpinan (tinjauan filsafat sosial). jurnal filsafat, 20(3), 197–216. https://doi.org/10.22146/jf.3419 subadi, t. (2004). boro: mobilitas penduduk masyarakat tegalombo sragen (doctoral dissertation, universitas airlangga, surabaya). retrieved from https://repository.unair.ac.id/3273 0/ sudarsono. (2022). sragen unggul dari provinsi jateng dalam capaian vaksinasi. rri.co.id. retrieved from https://rri.co.id/semarang/polhuka m/politikpemerintahan/1332860/sragenunggul-dari-provinsi-jatengdalam-capaian-vaksinasi sultan, u., & tirtayasa, a. (2020). kepemimpinan perempuan dalam penanggulangan covid19 : bupati serang. ijd, 2(3), 117–126. https://doi.org/10.37950/ijd.v2i3.67 sunarni. (2016). menguak kembali falsafah kepemimpinan. administrasi pendidikan, 1(1), 558– 570. retrieved from https://adoc.pub/queue/menguakkembali-falsafah-kepemimpinanala-jawa-refleksi-untu.html susetya, w. (2016). pemimpin masa kini dan budaya jawa. jakarta: elex media komputindo. tang, m. (2017). feminist theory. in mcglinchey, s., walters, r., & scheinpflug, c., & (eds.), international relations theory (pp. 1–11). retrieved from https://www.e-ir.info/publications/ vroman, s. r., & danko, t. (2020). against what model? evaluating women as leaders in the pandemic era. gender, work and organization, 27(5), 860–867. https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12488 wahyuni, e., & hertati, d. (2021). impelementasi kebijakan disiplin dan penegakan hukum protokol kesehatan sebagai upaya pencegahan dan pengendalian covid-19 di kecamatan jombang salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 5 no. 2, december 2022 78 kabupaten jombang. journal publicuho, 4(2), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.35817/jpu.v4i2.18 077 waylen, g. (2021). gendering political leadership: hypermasculine leadership and covid-19. journal of european public policy, 28(8), 1153– 1173. https://doi.org/10.1080/13501763.2 021.1942160 widodo, s. t. (2016). the concept of a social organism: the response of javanese society to modernism in the serat wedhatama by kanjeng gusti pangeran adipati arya (k.g.p.a.a.) mangkunegara iv. jtas, 24(1), 519–526. retrieved from http://www.pertanika.upm.edu.my /pjtas/browse/regularissue?article=jssh-1324-2015 wilson, s. (2020). pandemic leadership: lessons from new zealand’s approach to covid-19. leadership, 16(3), 279–293. https://doi.org/10.1177/17427150209 29151 wood, e. a. (2016). hypermasculinity as a scenario of power: vladimir putin’s iconic rule, 1999– 2008. international feminist journal of politics, 18(3), 329–350. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616742.2 015.1125649 yogiswari, k. s. (2020). kejawen: kearifan yang adiktif. genta hredaya, 4(2), 101–111. https://doi.org/10.55115/gentahred aya.v4i2.856 zahra, e. f. (2020). kepemimpinan perempuan di balik bayang – bayang patriarki. ijd, 2(1), 68–77. doi: 10.37950/ijd.v2i1.32 salasika indonesian journal of gender, women, child, and social inclusion's studies volume 2, number 2 – july 2019 table of content ‘bride terrorist’ in indonesia: is she still considered as a peace agency? mia dayanti fajar & elisabeth dewi 95 women's capacity building of informal sector workers in rural areas (case of "boiled corn seller" in konawe regency, southeast sulawesi province) yoo eka yana kansil, nana sumarna & rimba hamid 107 understanding women’s roles in agriculture (study of women in dairy and shallot farming in east java) mely noviryani, wahyu handayani, wike, & keppi sukesi 121 agents in child marriage practice in rural west java novitha syari dhevi pradipta, ekawati sri wahyuni, & titik sumarti 137 social capital based economic autonomy of the fishing communities (study in traditional fishing community kub bino makmur, desa keboromo, kecamatan tayu, kabupaten pati, central java) tri winarni & nur khoiriyah 155 chief editors dr. ir. arianti ina restiani hunga, m.si. (scopus id: 46161114400; google scholar); dr. phil. dewi candraningrum. (google scholar). executive editors indriretno setyaningrahayu, m.pd. (google scholar); daniel kurniawan, m.pd. (google scholar); andi misbahul pratiwi, m.si. (google scholar). board of editors prof. claudia derichs (scopus id: 14026487800). humboldt universität zu berlin, germany; assoc. prof. dr. ida sabelis (scopus id: 6507181398). vrije universiteit (vu) amsterdam, the netherlands; prof. siti kusujiarti.ma. (scopus id: 56276925900). warren wilson college, usa; dr. ratna saptari (scopus id: 6504610910). leiden university; prof. sylvia tiwon (scopus id: 6506468591). university of california; prof. dr. emy susanti, ma. (google scholar). airlangga university; prof. dr. ir. keppi sukesi, ms. (scopus id: 56025803300). brawijaya university; dr. kristi poerwandari, ma. (scopus id: 25628305200). university of indonesia; prof. dr. willemijn de jong (scopus id: 55258294800). university of zurich, switzerland; prof. lyn parker (scopus id: 56273266700). the university of western australia. reviewers prof. lyn parker (scoups id: 56273266700). university of western australia, perth, australia; dr. elisabet titik murtisari (scopus id: 38161752200; google scholar). satya wacana christian university; dr. wening udasmoro (scopus id: 56493135600; google scholar). gadjah mada university; dr. phil. farah purwaningrum (scopus id: 57205254451; google scholar). the university of sydney & rahayu and partners in association with hfw; alimatul qibtiyah, m.si. ma. ph.d. (scopus & google scholar). sunan kalijaga state islamic university; dr. tyas retno wulan, m.si. (scopus & google scholar). the jenderal soedirman university; dr. titik sumarti, msi. (scopus & google scholar). bogor agricultural university; prof. dr. mien ratoe oedjoe, mpd. (google scholar). the university of nusa cendana, kupang; j. casey hammond, phd. (scopus & google scholar). singapore university of technology and design; dr. phil. ratna noviani (google scholar). gadjah mada university; dr. rina herlina haryanti (google scholar). sebelas maret university; dr. ida ruwaida noor (google scholar). university of indonesia; dr. nurjanah, sp.m.pd. (google scholar). state university of jakarta; dr. ir. evi feronika elbaar, m.si. (google scholar). the university of palangka raya; dr. jendrius m.si. (google scholar). andalas university; dr. grace jenny soputan, se. (google scholar). manado state university; dr. anis farida, s.sos., sh., m.si. (scopus & google scholar). sunan ampel state islamic university surabaya; ira desiaanti mangiliko, s.si,.ph.d. (google scholar). the artha wacana christian university. agents in child marriage practice in rural west java (pradipta, wahyuni, & sumarti) 137 agents in child marriage practice in rural west java novitha syari dhevi pradipta, ekawati sri wahyuni, & titik sumarti bogor agricultural university novipradipta@gmail.com, ekawatiwahyuni@gmail.com, & titiksumarti61@gmail.com abstract the prevalence of child marriage in indonesia, although it has declined over the last three decades, remains in a high rate. child marriage is indirectly legitimated by the indonesian marriage law of 1974 which states that the minimum age limit of the bride shall be 16 years old. this is contrary to the constitution of the republic of indonesia and the child protection law. child marriages in rural areas are not only driven by structures like family and society but are also initiated by individual actions driven by the agency. therefore, this study examined child marriage practice comprehensively through the perspective of giddens's structuration. this study aimed to identify the agents in child marriage practice. the results of the study found that there are two types of child marriages in rural areas. the first one is registered and the other is unregistered marriage. the identified agents in child marriage practice are girls, amil (assistant of marriage recording officer), religious affairs (kua) officers, peer groups, teachers, mothers, and spouses. each agent's action is affected by both structure and agency. girl's actions are influenced by the agency. the girls are able to do agency in and through social practice. girls’ agency produces meaningful action understood as a process and inherent to the agent through reflexive monitoring. meanwhile, the actions of other identified agents are influenced by the existing structures in the society. agent’s actions perpetuate child marriage practice. child marriage practice occurs because there is no family strength. therefore, the improvement of the family strength is needed as a constraining structure. keywords: agency, child marriage practice, family strength, reflexive monitoring introduction child marriage is a critical issue because it is a violation of human rights of children to education, to health especially reproductive health, inhibits their opportunities for personal development and growth. child marriage is a marriage made by children under the age of 18 through civil, religious or customary law with or without official record (bps and unicef 2015). girls, especially in rural area, are more likely to get married earlier than boys. child marriages in developing countries have different patterns. girls' marriages in the sub-saharan africa and south asia region occur before the age of 15 years, which aim to maintain the virginity of girls. islam et al. (2015) revealed that the mailto:novipradipta@gmail.com mailto:ekawatiwahyuni@gmail.com mailto:titiksumarti61@gmail.com salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 2 no. 2, july 2019 138 intercommunication of girls in rural bangladesh was limited after puberty and even hampered their education. child marriages in the middle east like iran cannot be separated from the practice of temporary marriage contract in the shia tradition (mut’a marriage) (tremayne, 2006). some of these practices then turn into permanent marriages when the couple has grown up. meanwhile, in latin america, taylor et al. (2015) mentioned that girls are usually married to more mature males. pregnancy is one of the causes of child marriage. in addition, religion became one of the important factors in influencing norms about sexuality and marriage. indonesia is the second highest country in asean after cambodia in child marriage. according to unfpa report (2012), the child marriage rate in indonesia today is persistently high despite the declines over the last three decades. based on susenas 2015 there was a decline in the child marriage practice under the age of 15 years old from susenas 2008 that was 27.4 percent to 23 percent. that rate still represents almost more than one in six girls marrying before reaching adulthood. most indonesian girls get married before the age of 18 years. according to unicef (2016), one in every seven girls in indonesia is married before the age of 18. about 2.24 percent of girls aged 10 to 17 years in rural indonesia have been married (kpppa & bps, 2015). indonesian marriage law no. 1 of 1974 article 7 paragraph (1) states that marriage is only permitted if the man has reached the age of 19 years and women aged 16 years. the minimum age limit for women becomes one of the opportunities and legitimises child marriage practice. the consideration of the government in the setting limit focuses more on the physiological standpoint. indonesian marriage law no. 1 of 1974 has undergone legal inconsistencies because it is contrary to the constitution of the republic of indonesia and the child protection law. in indonesian child protection law, a childr is a person who is not yet 18 years old. judicial review has been conducted against the marriage law of 1974, because it results in the deprivation of the right of the child to grow and develop in accordance with the constitution of the republic of indonesia article 28 b and 28 c section 1 (iriani, 2015). the indonesian marriage law is also contrary to the child protection law and convention on the rights of the child. in the child protection law and international law definition of a child is anyone under the age of 18 years. child marriage ends the childhood of a girl immediately and forces her to assume responsibilities beyond her years. child marriage has negative consequences on the girl’ own life such as curtails her education, minimizes her economic opportunities and close the possibility for the girl to obtain job opportunities or job training for a better life. consequently, the girl would have lower social status in her husband’s family, fewer reproductive controls, domestic violence and higher divorce risks (field & ambrus, 2008; raj et al., 2010). seiler (2002) mentions that the marriage of girls gives some effects on the economy, health, and welfare of the mother. furthermore, child marriage is very risky for the girl. the married girl at that time experiencing puberty generally has agents in child marriage practice in rural west java (pradipta, wahyuni, & sumarti) 139 a strong sexual drive so it is very likely to soon have a first and subsequent child after marriage. this is certainly very risky to reproductive health for mothers even leads to maternal and infant mortality and low nutritional intake (santhya, 2005). girls under 15 years old are five times more likely to die in childbirth than women in their 20s and face the higher risk of pregnancy (nour, 2009). the high rate of child marriage is related to economic factors, low levels of education and there is still a culture or tradition that encourages child marriage practice. even child marriage has become a social norm in society. nour (2009) reveals that child marriage is driven by three main forces: poverty, the need to reinforce social ties, and the belief that it offers protection. in such cases, girls who are considered to have been worthy to marry may be viewed as an economic burden or even disgrace for the family (jensen & thornton, 2003). research conducted by homzah and sulaeman (2014) reveals that marriage at child age in west java is associated with the social structure of society. the social structure of agrarian or rural societies with weak socioeconomic conditions tend to marry at the age of the child. in addition, there are traditional norms aimed at preserving women's chastity and preventing premarital sex. but on the other hand, it also relates to patterns of individual relationships including romantic relationship. sometimes marriage is a self-choice, come from girl’s initiative. the decision to marry is influenced by the negative stigma of society in getting married at old age, fear of adultery or disclosure of premarital sexual (plan international australia, 2014; candraningrum et al., 2016). therefore, this study aimed to comprehensively examine child marriage practice through the structuration standpoint by giddens, that a social practice is the result of a combination of structure and agency. this study attempted to identify the agents in child marriage practice. this is because the child marriage practice is not only related to the structure of society but also agency. this research was conducted in gunungsindur village, bogor regency, west java province. the location selected purposively with consideration that west java province is one of the provinces with high child marriage that is 29.3 percent (bps & unicef, 2015). meanwhile, aminullah (2012) mentioned that bogor regency has a low first marriage age more than 50 percent. this study used a mixedmethod that combined qualitative and quantitative approaches. the quantitative approach was used as a baseline data in this study. the qualitative approach was used to interpret the meaning and purpose of action as well as the behavior of research subject. while the participants of this study were girls aged 13 to 20 who got married under the age of 18 years, as the agent in child practice. important to note though it is said as a child, they have entered adolescence. in addition, other agents who involved in child marriage practice were parents, siblings, spouses, amil (assistant of marriage recording officer), religious affairs (kua) officers, village officers, teachers and peer groups. in this case, agent’s action was affected by both the structure and the agency. the purposive sampling technique used in the quantitative approach was 32 salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 2 no. 2, july 2019 140 married girls under the age of 18 years. data collection techniques for obtaining primary data were through observation, in-depth interviews, and survey. in addition to primary data, this study also made use secondary data such as literature study and statistics. the girls and family background mostly the age of the bride is 16 and their spouses’ was between 17 to 25 years old. this means that marriage of girls aged 16 and 17 is still viewed as acceptable in much of indonesian society. it shows that protection against girls decreases when they reach 16 years of age (bps & unicef, 2015). the age of the spouses was also young, that indicates that marriage is no longer arranged by parents as before, but family driven by society still shape child marriage practice. figure 1. percentage of girls' age at marriage based on figure 1 most of the girls got married when they were 16 years (40.7 percent), and 17 years (31.2 percent). it is because, at that age, the girls were permitted to get married. the figure also shows that getting married at that age is most common (bps & unicef, 2015). the girls have low educational attainment, as shown in figure 2. mostly the girls completed their middle school (46.9 percent). even around 43.8 percent just completed their primary school. some factors related to the low educational attainment of girls are explained in next discussion. figure 3 shows that educational attainment of the girls’ father is low. mostly the girls’ fathers just completed primary school (46.9 percent). in addition, figure 4 also shows that even 50 percent of the mothers have no ducation or some primary. it means that both parents and the girls (daughters) have low educational attainment. agents in child marriage practice in rural west java (pradipta, wahyuni, & sumarti) 141 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 some primary complete primary complete middle complete secondary higher education figure 2. percentage of educational attainment of the girls figure 3. percentage of educational attainment of the girls’ fathers 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 some primary complete primary complete middl e complete secondary higher education figure 4. percentage of educational attainment of the girls’ mothers salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 2 no. 2, july 2019 142 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 < 1 million (idr) 1 million 2.5 million (idr) > 2.5 million (idr) figure 5. percentage of monthly family income low educational attainment of both the parents and the daughter became one of the causes of child marriage. parents have no knowledge about the impact of child marriage. the girls who quit the school earlier have no reason to delay the marriage. after quitting the school, they choose to work for several years. afterwards, they choose to get married. they think they have completed their life process and it is time to enter family life. the people who marry off their children are in the low socialeconomic level. child marriage in rural society occurs as a division of roles and responsibilities of the female family to the husband (oyortey and pobi 2003). monthly family income of the respondents ranged from less than 1 million (idr) to more than 2.5 million (idr). most of them (68.8 percent) have monthly income less than 1 million (idr) (figure 5). typology of child marriage there are two types of child marriage, both are legal marriages. the first one is registered and the other is unregistered marriage. the registered marriage is legally done in accordance with both state and religious law. the registered marriage is legal even the age of the bride is between 16 to 18 years old because the age of 16 years old is the age limit in the indonesian marriage law of 1974. but there is the registered marriage because of manipulation of the age of the bride. the registered marriage due to the manipulation of the age of the bride relates to the agent’s action in the child marriage practice which will be the next discussion. manipulation of age through raising the age of girls to be able to register the marriage in religious affairs officer (kantor urusan agama). although at the age of 16 years old the girls are elligible for marriage , the bride who has not reached 21 years old needs parental consent, which is shown by the model form n5. but when the wedding still wants to be held even if the bride and groom or one of them is still below the minimum age agents in child marriage practice in rural west java (pradipta, wahyuni, & sumarti) 143 limit, parents can apply a dispensation to the religious court. however, their parents prefer to shortcut by manipulating their daughter's age than applying for dispensation for impracticality reasons. the second one, unregistered marriage is only legal under the religious law. this type also includes marriage under the customary law. both marriages under the religious or customary law are legal but without an official record. the marriage usually will be registered when the age of the bride has been appropriate with the limit of bride age in the indonesian marriage law of 1974. the delay of marriage register because they do not have the fund for the wedding celebration or the age of the bride is still under the minimum age limit. another reason is because the girls have been pregnant out of wedlock. this marriage is held on condition that women should not get pregnant first so that their child remains recorded in their family card. starting in 2016 the marriage registration has been conducted by computerized system, thus minimizing the effort to manipulate the age of marriage. but on the other hand, it increases the marriage of the second type, the unregistered marriage that is only under religious law. in marriage under the religious law, there is only agreement between the girl’s father or trustees and the groom and witnessed by two men. under the religious law the girl may marry when she is already in her puberty. girl’s agency in child marriage practice the girls are the agent in child marriage practice. as an agent, girls have the capacity to reflexive monitoring that is rationalizing and finding reasons for their surroundings. the actions of girls are influenced by the agency because it begins with their initiatives. it also means that child marriage is self-choice. the girls are able to do the agency in and through child marriage practice. please note that child marriage is a natural thing in society and has become a social norm. marriage is the next stage of a girl’s life. but in this case the action for girls to marry from within, then affect the decision to get married early. the girls have entered adolescence so they can make their own decisions even though based on intuition and emotional factors. this is also reflected in the mate selection made by themselves. mostly the girls admit that they are ready to get married. their readiness also arises from seeing their surroundings. yet some of the respondents admitted that they were less ready to get married. unfortunately, in fact, they were also not capable financially, socially and psychologically. readiness and capability to get married are something seriously need to be considered. it so contrasts to the mindset of poor women in america or europe, they tend to delay marriage until they are financially stable and ready to commit (lammana et al., 2016). marriage readiness is the ability of a person to take their new roles as a husband or wife, and to try to get involved in his marriage (duvall & miller, 1984). the girls who claim to have been ready and capable to have families want immediately to have salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 2 no. 2, july 2019 144 children. yet the girls who less ready and capable to have family and children, so child-rearing duties will be taken over by their parents. they also prefer to live with their parents, even some of them are still receiving financial support from parents. in addition to intuitive and emotional factors, child marriage is also frequently initiated by sexual factors. actually, intuitive and emotional factors are related to sexual factor. the girls through intuitive and emotional factors begin to build a romantic relationship with the opposite sex. statistics show that most boys and girls become sexually active at around the age of fifteen or earlier (glasier et al., 2006). in adolescence, girls and boys are undergoing development and maturation, especially sexual development, whatever studied and perceived by them will shape their attitudes and sexual behavior. unfortunately, during this development, they received less attention from their parents so they are more affected by other agencies. the emotional involvement in relationships between boys and girls added with the modernization of information and communication technology resulted in premarital sexual behavior that became one of the causes of adolescent marriage. premarital sexual behavior is often the case in teenagers who have been in pairs. unlike the marriage decision because intuitive factor which is voluntary, marriage decisions because of the sexual factor that results in premarital sexual behavior is often due to coercion. sometimes the girls feel regret when they got married. this regret then leads to a less appreciative attitude towards the meaning of marriage. this less appreciative attitude occurs in both or one partner only. on the other hand, the male as the head of the family is too focused on making a living so the child becomes fully regarded as the responsibility of the wife. it then leads to quarrels and even divorce. please note that one's agency can be influenced by internal and external factors. kinseng (2017) mentioned that internal factors include behavioral system organism and personality system; external factors include the social system and cultural system. girl’s agency in marriage at the age of the child based on the internal factor of the personality system, the woman involves intuition and emotion. while external factors are social systems and cultural systems. the interaction between the girl and the other agents certainly influences her like her experience, attitude, and mind. for example, when girls interact with peers who are married then peers will put pressure on and influence the personal preferences of girls to marry, further discussed in the next section. likewise, the customs or traditions of marriage that exist in society can affect girl’s agency. therefore, the girl's action who are influenced by the agency rather than breaking the existing practice of child marriage but instead perpetuating that practice. agency can also be an ability to maintain the existing conditions (kinseng, 2017). the actions undertaken by the girls later became a social practice is child marriage practice. the other agent’s actions unlike girls, whose actions are influenced by agencies, some of the agents in child marriage practice in rural west java (pradipta, wahyuni, & sumarti) 145 agents below act because they are driven by the structure of society. therefore, the agent's action is not started from the initiative themselves and then become routine. in this case, there is no structure that constrains child marriage practice, so the action of this agent supports that structure. some of these agents are amil (assistant of marriage recording officer), religious affairs (kua) officers, peer groups, teachers, mothers, and spouses. amil as a technical implementers in child marriage practice amil in this case is an agent or technical implementers in the child marriage practice because he contributes to manipulating the age of the bride and groom, especially the brides. amil has a role to assist the government in registering the marriage in religious affairs office (kua). amil is appointed as a partner of religious affairs office (kua) because he is closer and knows the conditions of the community where he lives. parents usually ask amil to register the marriage to the kua including taking care of n5 form or parental consent form. parents and amil manipulate the age of the girls to be able to register their marriage at kua. as presented previously, manipulation through raising the age of girls is done in order to meet the requirements for minimum age limit. please note that almost all children in rural areas do not have birth certificates, so manipulation is usually done through a family card. there is no structure that constrains child marriage practice so that amil’s actions are driven by existing structures in society. the computerized system of marriage recording that began to occur in 2016 minimizes the effort of manipulating the age of the bride. yet this does not reduce the child marriage practice. marriage is still held even though not registered their marriage to kua. as has been described previously in the typology of child marriage, this type of marriage is held in religious law. this type of marriage has consequences that the couple must delay pregnancy first so that their children will be registered as their child in the family card. if women have already been pregnant, then their children will be registered as a child of a mother's parents. religious affairs officer and marriage registration the religious affairs officer only records marriages if the man has reached the age of 19 years and women aged 16 years. if there are women who will register under the age of 16 years, they will be rejected. religious affairs office (kua) provide dispensation for any marriage involving people younger than 21 with parental consent. the parents have gained permission from a district level religious court. in this case, however, the parents chose to manipulate the age of the bride. this manipulation occurs because the girl does not have birth certificates. plan (2014) reported that lack of birth documentation is strongly linked to child marriages in indonesia. religious affairs office (kua) as a formal institution of marriage registration less anticipate child marriage practice. religious affairs officer can play an active role to minimize marriage of children under the age of 16 indicated to manipulate age. a computerized system implemented by religious salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 2 no. 2, july 2019 146 affairs office at least reduce the practice of data manipulation. religious affairs officer less educate and socialize about child marriage and its impact. religious affairs office is expected to be an institution that can transform the child marriage practice. peer groups individuals will align their behavior with their peer group. peers put pressure on personal preferences in the community and then endogenously supported by society (michaeli & spiro, 2017). the pressure indirectly made by peers is also the result of reflexive monitoring from the surroundings. each individual reflects what they get from their surroundings in their behavior. in other words, individuals feel the pressure to behave in accordance with their peers. in this case, it is related to child marriage practice. there are three contributions of peers in child marriage practice that all perpetuate child marriage practice and even form a new behavior pattern that supports the practice. first is peer pressure to quit school earlier. socially, in adolescence, individuals prefer secondary groups as a reference in behaving. their reasons are they do not have fund and they most often say that their friends are also out of school and choose to work. they do not regret their decision to get out of school earlier despite not having passed the final exam. second is peer pressure to get married at child age or earlier. several informants admitted that those who have been married actually because they are affected by their friends who are also early married. teenage girls assume after they work then decide to get married also no problem and all parties both family and society widely support it. third is peer pressure on sexual behavior. peer pressure leads to biased norms and often sustainable (michaeli & spiro, 2017). sexual behavior is influenced by social media and then transferred through peers. the adolescent desire for a relationship is influenced by peer groups. similarly, when the sexual activity is often carried out even though they do not yet have a legal bond. kim and free (2008) said that the information obtained about the sexuality of peers more determine the attitude of adolescents in sexual activity with their partners. sexual behavior has initiated the occurrence of child marriage. teachers: the expected transformative agent teachers can be role models in the character development of students in schools and in society widely. unfortunately, gunungsindur village people have a low interest and opinion on the importance of education. as seen in figure 2, 3, and 4, they indicate that there are low educational attainment of two generations, the generation of girl’s parents and the girls themselves. education is less attractive to the majority of the people in gunungsindur village to improve their social status. in addition to improving social status, education can also be a way of delaying and maturity of marriage age. teachers in this context can mean teachers in formal education as well as teachers in non-formal education such as pengajian that are more closely with rural communities. nationally, reproductive health does agents in child marriage practice in rural west java (pradipta, wahyuni, & sumarti) 147 not become the curriculum and main topics. reproductive health or marriage maturation is usually only delivered in formal schools in the city but is not yet the primary reference in rural schools. actually, reproductive health and marriage maturity can be delivered by counseling teachers. the obstacle is that the teacher still considers it as taboo. there is a case of immorality which involves a teacher actually makes expectations about role model and the transformative agent disappears. as a result teachers in formal education have not become a role model or a transformative agent in child marriage practice. meanwhile, for teachers in nonformal education such as ustadz and ustadzah, discussion about marriage is quite often done even on the premarital sexual behavior. however, as well as formal education that does not inspire, nonformal education is also only attended by old people, so the target audience is not so precise. girl’s mother mothers are the agencies that most often encourage child marriage practice. this condition occurs for several reasons. first, mothers are more sensitive to social pressures. second, mothers having the experience of early marriage tend to pass it on to their daughters and consider it to be the natural thing. third, mothers are usually also the most agree if their daughters do not continue their education. mothers assume that high education is not important because, in the end, women will only become housewives. this is actually related to the education attained by mothers themselves who mostly do not finish primary school. in addition, the mother is also always pessimistic with the child's work later if the child is highly educated. spouse partner or spouse also contribute in two ways in child marriage practice. first, the proposal indirectly as a behavior that encourages the occurrence of child marriage. most partners or their husbands are also at a young age, so the decision to marry is also much driven by emotion. this condition is then reinforced by the customs of people who forbid rejecting a man's proposal because it will make difficult for the future the girls’ mate. thus the proposal will soon be accepted by the family even though the age of their child is still fairly young. second, it is similar to the explanation of the girls’ actions. the loose relationship between the girls resulting in sexual behavior between the girls and their partners is possible the occurrence of child marriage. society and family will certainly encourage the occurrence of marriage as a way to cover up disgrace. salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 2 no. 2, july 2019 148 table 1 agent in child marriage practice agents actions explanations amil (assistant of marriage recording officer) manipulating the age of brides perpetuate child marriage practice shape new social practice → manipulating the age of brides religious affairs (kua) officers ignore manipulating the age of marriage less socialize about child marriage perpetuate child marriage practice computerized system of marriage recording minimizes the effort of manipulating the age of the brides increasing “nikah sirri” child marriage practice peer groups of the girls give preference about child marriage peer pressure perpetuate child marriage practice teachers not become a role model less inspire perpetuate child marriage practice mothers encourage child marriage practice perpetuate child marriage practice related to social pressure spouse propose to marriage sexual behavior perpetuate child marriage practice family strength: special attention in growth and development stage adolescence stage brings many changes not only physically but also socially. physically adolescents experience growth and puberty changes also occur at this stage. physical changes are also followed by hormonal changes in the body. at this stage, the adolescent becomes interested and spend more time in mixed gender group. they begin to build relationships with the opposite sex. the relationship is especially a romantic relationship. the romantic and sexual relationship becomes important and central to their social life. on average, middle adolescence is a time when teens begin to be interested in the more intimate relationship and experimentations (tulloch & kaufman, 2013). socially, adolescence is a transition stage between game stage to generalized stage, from primary socialization to secondary socialization. in this stage, children are most strongly attached to their parents move increasingly away from parents and increasingly close toward peers. it means that parents’ influence diminishes at this stage. the process of secondary socialization at this stage most affect the individual. peers more influence and acceptance becomes very important. it is because they more commonly participate in play with peers than with their parents. at the agents in child marriage practice in rural west java (pradipta, wahyuni, & sumarti) 149 same time, adolescents are developing and consolidating their identity including their development of self-identity and sexual identity. they disengage from parental control to assert more autonomy. increasing to focus and more importance on the relationship with peers and group activities. they define their social identities according to how they are similar to and differ from others and find it in their social groups especially peers group. moreover, they shape each other’s behavior and attitudes. peers give both positive and negative impact during adolescence. negative peer pressure can lead them to make riskier decisions. peers often reinforce and show approval signs against the problem and deviant behavior. in this case, negative peer pressures are quit school earlier and get married at child age or earlier. in the case of child marriage, parents or the girls themselves see that the body is maturing physically, but not necessarily occur in the brain, thinking skills and emotional development. what looks on the surface does not always match what’s happening on the inside. it is important to note especially by parents that puberty and physical changes just a sign of maturity does not mean they are mature. the child needs assistance in the face of the growth and development stage. give special attention to children who are experiencing growth and development. parents should have conversations with their child about their changing, sex and relationships and also ground rules and consequences for breaking the rules. but it is very difficult given that parents, especially in rural areas sometimes regard sex and relationships as a taboo conversation. in addition, parents have less knowledge about growth and development stage of their child and do not know what to do. that is why when the child does not get the appropriate answers and parental assistance then the child will look for it in their peer group. at least parents should be role models, although at this stage the child socializes more in peer groups. the most influential role models for teenagers are the grown-ups in their lives (raising children network, 2017). parents can play a role in helping their child choose ‘good' friends (knoster et al., 2006). it can anticipate the occurrence of unexpected behavior and social deviation. important to note, in this case about 15.6 percent indicated got married as a result of premarital sexual behavior. this percentage is small because it does not represent real data because of the difficulty in obtaining information and informant consent. family support to attain high education in this case, both parents or daughters have low educational attainment. mothers even worry if their child has high education. in mothers’ opinion, the girls will be housewives, therefore they do not need high education. education has a latent function to prolong adolescence and delay marriage. the family does not provide reinforcement and support for the children to attain high education. it is seen from a family that loosely allowing their child to quite a school earlier. this may happen because family have the less academic knowledge and do not know how to support their children. the family attitudes are also less appreciative of salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 2 no. 2, july 2019 150 neighbors who have high educational attainment. in another hand, few of them can attain high education so that it can delay marriage. although parents do not have high educational attainment parents are highly appreciative of education. the family especially mother really support the education of their child. therefore, children are motivated to go to school. shor et al. (2013) mentioned that support from the family member was more beneficial and needed than the support provided by friends. family involvement in education correlates with higher academic performance students tend to earn higher grades, attend school more regularly, and stay in school longer. in this special case, parents encourage their children to attain high education. parents realize that education can provide a better life for their child. we can see that although the surroundings do not support to attain high education, there are also peers who give negative pressure, support from family is very valuable. as described previously, although children in adolescence undergo a process of secondary socialization they still require reinforcement from their parents. there are several kinds of family support such as emotional support, social support, and financial support. in the special case above, parents primarily give emotional and social support such as caring, appreciation and positive role model for their children. conclusion child marriage in indonesia is still existed, especially in girls aged 16 to 17 years. the age of the spouses is also young, that indicates that marriage is no longer arranged by parents. parents who marry off their children have the low socialeconomic level and low attainment education. there are two types of child marriage. the first one is registered and the other is unregistered marriage. the registered marriage is legally done in accordance with both state and religious law. however, there is the registered marriage because of manipulation the age of the bride. the second one is unregistered marriage is only legal under the religious law. the unregistered marriage is actually a delayed marriage registration. the registered marriage and unregistered marriage are both legal marriages. child marriage practice is not only related to the structure of society but with social relations between agencies, which are interrelated. girls’ agency has a reflexive monitoring capacity and reproduces the structure. in this case, girls’ actions are affected by the agency perpetuate child marriage practice. this study found the identified other agents in child marriage practice. their actions are driven by the existing structure in the society. first, amil or assistant of marriage recording officer, they are the technical actors or implementer in child marriage practice. parents and amil manipulate girls' age to be able to register their marriage at religious affairs office (kua). second, religious affairs officer as the formal institution of marriage registration less anticipates child marriage practice. religious affairs officer less educate and socialize about child marriage and its impact. third, peers contribute in child marriage practice in three ways. they are peer pressure to quit agents in child marriage practice in rural west java (pradipta, wahyuni, & sumarti) 151 school earlier; peer pressure to get married at child age or earlier; and peer pressure on sexual behavior. fourth, teachers are the expected transformative agency. in fact, teachers less inspire about education especially for parents and the girls. fifth, mother and spouses of married girls. mothers are the agent that most often encourage child marriage practice for the amount of reason. mothers are more sensitive to social pressures; mothers having the experience of early marriage tend to pass it on to their daughters; and mothers are usually also most agree if their daughters do not continue their education. the spouse or partner also contributes in two ways in child marriage practice through their proposal and their premarital sexual behavior. to minimize the child marriage practice, it is necessary to improve girls’ agency and transform existing structures, then increase constraining structure, beginning with the family level. in this case, child marriage practice occurs because there is no family strength. the family strength that can be implemented in this case are two things. first, the family gives special attention to children who are experiencing growth and development. parents should have conversations with their child about their changing and be positive role model. parents also can help their child to choose friends. second, family support to attain high education. in this case, both parents or daughters have low educational attainment. attaining high education is one way to improve the agency of girls. actually, parents, especially mothers can encourage their children to attain high education although their surroundings does not support it. few of them can attain high education so that it can delay marriage. references aminullah, t.a. satria, r.i., & murti, f.a. setiawan. (2012). pernikahan dini pada beberapa provinsi di indonesia: akar masalah dan peran kelembagaan daerah. jakarta (id): badan kependudukan dan keluarga berencana nasional badan pusat statistik, united nations children's fund. (2015). kemajuan yang tertunda: analisis data perkawinan usia anak di indonesia. jakarta (id): badan pusat statistik candraningrum, d., dhewy, a., & a.m. pratiwi. (2016). takut akan zina, pendidikan rendah, dan kemiskinan: status anak perempuan dalam pernikahan anak di sukabumi jawa barat. jurnal perempuan, 21(1), 149-186. retrieved from http://www.jurnalperempuan.org/ uploads/1/2/2/0/12201443/jp_88risettakut_akan_zina_pendidikan_ren dah_dan_kemiskinan__status_an ak_perempuan_dalam_pernikah an_anak_di_sukabumi_jawa_bar at_.pdf duvall, e.m., & b.c. miller. (1985.) marriage and family development (6th ed). new york: harper & row publishers. field, e., & ambrus, a. (2008). early marriage, age of menarche, and female schooling attainment in bangladesh. political economy, 116(5), 881-930. retrieved from https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstrea m/handle/1/3200264/ambrus_ear lymarriage.pdf?sequence=2 salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 2 no. 2, july 2019 152 glasier, a., a.m. gülmezoglu, schmid, g.p., moreno, c.g., & van look, p.f.. (2006). sexual and reproductive health: a matter of life and death. the lancet, 368(9547), 1595-607. retrieved from http://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/jo urnals/lancet/piis01406736(06)69478-6.pdf homzah, s., & m. sulaeman. (2014). motif (faktor pendorong) dan persepsi kawin usia muda pada remaja pedesaan di jawa barat. retrieved from http://pustaka.unpad.ac.id/wpcontent/uploads/2014/03/motiffaktor-pendorong-dan-persepsikawin-usia-muda.pdf iriani, d. (2015). analisa terhadap batasan minimal usia pernikahan dalam uu. no. 1 tahun 1974. justicia islamic, 12(1), 1-20. retrieved from http://jurnal.stainponorogo.ac.id/i ndex.php/justicia/article/downloa d/262/231 islam, t.m., m.j.i. taher, b. uddin, & forid, s. (2015). socio-economic values and child marriage: a case study on selected villages in kurigram district. international journal of natural and social science, 2(5), 18-35. retrieved from http://ijnss.org/wpcontent/uploads/2015/08/ijnssv2i5-02-pp-18-23.pdf jensen, r., r. thornton. (2003). early female marriage in the developing world. gender and development, 5(2), 9-19. retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/40306 36 kementerian pemberdayaan perempuan dan perlindungan anak, bps badan pusat statistik. (2015). profil anak indonesia. jakarta: kementerian pemberdayaan perempuan dan perlindungan anak kim, c.r., c. free. (2008). recent evaluations of the peer-led approach in adolescent sexual health education: a systematic review. perspective on sexual and reproductive health, 40(3), 144-151. retrieved from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/do i/10.1363/4014408/full knoster, c, d.l., haynie d. l., & stephens, c.m. (2006). parenting practices and adolescents’ friendship networks. journal of marriage and family, 68(5), 12471260. retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/pro file/dana_haynie/publication/22 9759874_parenting_practices_an d_adolescents'_friendship_netw orks/links/542b0afc0cf29bbc126a 7daf.pdf lammana, m.a., riedmann, a., & stewart, m. (2016). marriages, families, and relationship making choices in a diverse society. boston: cengage learning michaeli, m., & spiro, d. (2017). from peer pressure to biased norms: formation and collapse. american economic journal: microeconomics, 9(1), 152-216. retrieved from http://www.ingentaconnect.com/c ontentone/aea/aejmi/2017/00000 009/00000001/art00006 nour, n.m. (2009). child marriage: a silent health and human rights issue. reviews in obstetrics & gynecology, 2(1), 51-56. retrieved from http://www.khubmarriage18.org/s ites/default/files/27.pdf oyortey, n.o., & pobi, s. (2003). early marriage and poverty: exploring links for policy and programme development. london: forum on marriage and the rights of women and girls plan international australia. (2014). just married, just child: child marriage in the indo-pacific region. melbourne: plan international australia agents in child marriage practice in rural west java (pradipta, wahyuni, & sumarti) 153 raising children network. (2017). teenage relationships: romance & intimacy. melbourne: raising children network raj, a., n. sanggurti, lawrence, d., balaiah, d., & silverman, j.g. (2010). association between adolescent marriage and marital violence among young adult women in india. international journal of gynecology & obstetrics, 110(1), 35-39. retrieved from http://www.ijgo.org/article/s0020 -7292(10)00093-7/fulltext santhya, k.g. (2005). early marriage and sexual and reproductive health vulnerabilities of young women: a synthesis of recent evidence from developing countries. current opinion in obstetrics and gynecology, 23(5), 334-339. retrieved http://journals.lww.com/coobgyn/abstract/2011/10000/early _marriage_and_sexual_and_repr oductive_health.6.aspx seiler, n. (2002). is teen marriage a solution? washington dc: center for law and social policy shor, e., roelfs, d.j., & yogev, t. (2013). the strength of family ties: a meta-analysis and metaregression of self-reported social support and mortality. social networks, 35(4), 626-638. retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com/sci ence/article/pii/s03788733130007 49 taylor, a., g. lauro, segundo, m., & greene, m. (2015). “she goes with me in my boat” child and adolescent marriage in brazil. rio de janeiro: instituto promundo; washington dc: promundo-us. tremayne, s. (2006). modernity and early marriage in iran: a view from within. journal of middle east women’s studies, 2(1), 65-145. retrieved from https://muse.jhu.edu/article/1944 26/pdf tulloch, t., & kaufman, m. (2013). adolescent sexuality. pediatrics in review, 34(1), 29-38. retrieved from http://pedsinreview.aappublicatio ns.org/content/34/1/29.fulltext.pdf united nations population fund. (2012). marrying too young end child marriage. new york: united nations population fund. united nations children's fund indonesia. (2016). child marriage in indonesia: progress on pause. jakarta: united nations children's fund indonesia. salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 2 no. 2, july 2019 154 0202_00_cover.pdf 0202_04_pradipta.pdf 0202_10_backcover.pdf salasika indonesian journal of gender, women, child, and social inclusion's studies volume 2, number 1 – february 2019 table of content stigmatized identity in the myth of dewi ontrowulan mutiara andalas 1 the magic of dukun jani and the revival of neo-saminism in sedulur sikep: political economy of grobogan farmers against the cement industry dewi candraningrum 15 an early childhood sex education model: deconstructing symbolic meanings of sintren dance based on gender perspectives rangga asmara & widya ratna kusumaningrum 39 the sustainability of women's leadership in maengket makamberu performance jultje aneke rattu 61 the nature of papuan women indigenous entrepreneurship in informal agricultural sector (a case of papuan women traders in manokwari and surrounding areas of west papuaindonesia) ludia t. wambrauw, sandra martin, & ramzi addison 77 chief editors dr. ir. arianti ina restiani hunga, m.si. (scopus id: 46161114400; google scholar); dr. phil. dewi candraningrum. (google scholar). executive editors indriretno setyaningrahayu, m.pd. (google scholar); daniel kurniawan, m.pd. (google scholar); andi misbahul pratiwi, m.si. (google scholar). board of editors prof. claudia derichs (scopus id: 14026487800). humboldt universität zu berlin, germany; assoc. prof. dr. ida sabelis (scopus id: 6507181398). vrije universiteit (vu) amsterdam, the netherlands; prof. siti kusujiarti.ma. (scopus id: 56276925900). warren wilson college, usa; dr. ratna saptari (scopus id: 6504610910). leiden university; prof. sylvia tiwon (scopus id: 6506468591). university of california; prof. dr. emy susanti, ma. (google scholar). airlangga university; prof. dr. ir. keppi sukesi, ms. (scopus id: 56025803300). brawijaya university; dr. kristi poerwandari, ma. (scopus id: 25628305200). university of indonesia; prof. dr. willemijn de jong (scopus id: 55258294800). university of zurich, switzerland; prof. lyn parker (scopus id: 56273266700). the university of western australia. reviewers prof. lyn parker (scoups id: 56273266700). university of western australia, perth, australia; dr. elisabet titik murtisari (scopus id: 38161752200; google scholar). satya wacana christian university; dr. wening udasmoro (scopus id: 56493135600; google scholar). gadjah mada university; dr. phil. farah purwaningrum (scopus id: 57205254451; google scholar). the university of sydney & rahayu and partners in association with hfw; alimatul qibtiyah, m.si. ma. ph.d. (scopus & google scholar). sunan kalijaga state islamic university; dr. tyas retno wulan, m.si. (scopus & google scholar). the jenderal soedirman university; dr. titik sumarti, msi. (scopus & google scholar). bogor agricultural university; prof. dr. mien ratoe oedjoe, mpd. (google scholar). the university of nusa cendana, kupang; j. casey hammond, phd. (scopus & google scholar). singapore university of technology and design; dr. phil. ratna noviani (google scholar). gadjah mada university; dr. rina herlina haryanti (google scholar). sebelas maret university; dr. ida ruwaida noor (google scholar). university of indonesia; dr. nurjanah, sp.m.pd. (google scholar). state university of jakarta; dr. ir. evi feronika elbaar, m.si. (google scholar). the university of palangka raya; dr. jendrius m.si. (google scholar). andalas university; dr. grace jenny soputan, se. (google scholar). manado state university; dr. anis farida, s.sos., sh., m.si. (scopus & google scholar). sunan ampel state islamic university surabaya; ira desiaanti mangiliko, s.si,.ph.d. (google scholar). the artha wacana christian university. the nature of papuan women indigenous entrepreneurship … (wambrauw, martin, & addison) 77 the nature of papuan women indigenous entrepreneurship in informal agricultural sector (a case of papuan women traders in manokwari and surrounding areas of west papua indonesia) ludia t. wambrauw, sandra martin, & ramzi addison agribusiness program study of agriculture faculty, papua university & lincoln university, new zealand ludia_w@yahoo.com abstract the majority of papuan women in manokwari, west papua, indonesia, are engaged in marketing activity in informal agricultural sector. however, the nature of their entrepreneurial activity and the factors that impede and enable these endeavors are not clearly understood. the aim of this research is to gain a better understanding of the entrepreneurial marketing activity of these women along with constraints that impede them to identify opportunities for improving their position. a theoretical framework, based on indigenous entrepreneurship literature and knowledge of papuan context, was designed to guide the research. a qualitative approach was used to investigate three case studies of groups of women in three different areas – a more remote area, a transmigration site, and an urban area. within-case and cross-case analysis revealed that those papuan women’s motivation was driven by their immediate family’s needs and their social and cultural obligations. the analysis also indicated that they were proven to be open to innovation. further, they were outward looking and had market awareness. there was variation between the groups in their engagement with cash economy and the expression of their market awareness. their implementation of marketing techniques varied, with urban traders employing a wider range of marketing strategies. women traders from more remote areas and transmigration site depended heavily on their natural resources, whereas the majority of urban traders were more dependent on marketing resources and financial reserves in order to buy produce from other producers. hence, more remote area and transmigration site traders were self-funded, while urban traders were partly self-funded. traders from more remote area relied very heavily upon social capital in conducting their production and marketing activities, whereas traders in the other groups were less reliant on social capital. traders from more remote area faced greater constraints related to poor road access, high cost transportation, and poor access to physical markets. in addition, all traders had poor access to government support. salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 2 no. 1, february 2019 78 these insights into the varied nature of indigenous entrepreneurship and the differences in constraints faced by different groups provide policy insights for papuan government. key words: indigenous entrepreneurship, papuan women, constraints, opportunities introduction papua has potential for being one of the richest areas in indonesia with its vast land and rich natural resources. however, it has the highest poverty percentage (bps, 2016). papuans themselves view poverty as lacking of material assets (rumbewas, 2005). these people lack opportunities and support. the lack of infrastructure and isolation can be viewed as major constraints, which could contribute to the low level of welfare of papuan community, to social and economic development in papua (bakti, 2008; undp, 2005b). in addition to lack of facilities, another reason for the lack of cash income could be that the majority of papuan community are involved in agricultural sector. these indigenous people are involved in farming activities, which is predominantly characterized by subsistence agriculture. government has conducted many programs to develop agriculture; however, many of these programs have failed to increase papuan community welfare (bakti, 2008; imbiri, 2006, 2010; mampioper. d. a, 2008; sumule, 1994; undp, 2005b). it is important to note that many of these development programs in papua lack an understanding of and do not utilize traditional knowledge and culture of papuan communities. law number 21 on special autonomy (otsus) for papua was enacted in 2001. the empowerment of indigenous papuans is now one of the priorities of the government since it is stated in the law. papuan government wants papuans to foster entrepreneurship through community based economic development, which is the focus of otsus, in order to improve their standard of living and welfare of their communities. the focus on community based economic activities will force the government to encourage papuan community to undertake entrepreneurial activities that lead to greater economic independence for them. however, after more than 10 years of otsus implementation, there is no significant improvement on the level of indigenous papuan community welfare. papuan entrepreneurs appear to face a number of constraints on their entrepreneurial activities. it has been claimed that papuan culture is not future oriented and is characterized by low economic aspiration and poor work ethos (bp3d provinsi papua, 2003). thus, they are perceived as weak entrepreneurs due to their lack of management, financial resources and relationships with legal entities (van burg, 2007). in most of papua’s areas, women are responsible for meeting their family’s needs (ilo, 2011; korain, 2008). this role encourages them to become involved in informal agricultural trading. papuan women are thought to face greater obstacles in the conduct of their entrepreneurial the nature of papuan women indigenous entrepreneurship … (wambrauw, martin, & addison) 79 activities due to low competitiveness compared to migrants, lack of managerial skills, seasonal marketing activities and limited produce (korain, 2008). further, market development does not appear to support these women’s entrepreneurship. there are also many other factors that may enable or impede entrepreneurship of papuan women, but little is known as there is no systematic documentation of entrepreneurship in the context of papuan women marketers. in particular, the pattern of entrepreneurial activity and barriers faced by papuans are not clearly understood. as a result, it is necessary to understand what entrepreneurship means in a context that is relevant to papua, and there is still much to be learned to stimulate entrepreneurship in papua. the research aim is to gain a better understanding of entrepreneurial marketing activity of papuan women in informal agricultural sector. two research objectives are associated with this aim. 1. to understand the nature of entrepreneurial marketing activity of papuan women in informal agricultural sector. 2. to identify opportunities for improving their entrepreneurial marketing activity in the sector and constraints that are impeding them in doing their entrepreneurial marketing activity. indigenous entrepreneurship indigenous people there are approximately 350 million indigenous peoples around the world (2005). these groups of people are complex and have different identities, cultures and customary livelihoods. the international labor organization (1989, p. 1) definition of indigenous people is: peoples in independent countries who are regarded as indigenous on account of their descent from the populations which inhabited the country, or geographical region to which the country belongs, at the time of conquest or colonialization or establishment of present state boundaries and who irrespective of their legal status, retain some or all of their own social, economic, cultural and political institutions. the world bank (1991, p. 1) also has its own definition of indigenous people. it identifies indigenous people by their possession, to some degree, of some of the following attributes: • close attachment to ancestral territories and the natural resources in them • presence of customary social and political institutions • economic system primarily oriented to subsistence production • an indigenous language, often different from the predominant language • self-identification and identification by others as member of a distinct cultural group salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 2 no. 1, february 2019 80 • primarily subsistenceoriented production lasimbang (2008) adds a further dimension, mentioning that indigenous economic systems are characterized by a variety of small scale economic activities along with regulation of territories, land and resources. hence, indigenous peoples are highly dependent on the land on which they live, and natural resources or immediately available resources (paulin, 2007). another characteristic of indigenous economic activities is the subsistence nature of production in which food is produced primarily for the family and the community, with any surpluses being marketed in the nearby area (lasimbang, 2008). group of indigenous people living in their traditional and subsistence ways are commonly among the poorest and most vulnerable segments of the society (peredo, et al., 2004; the world bank, 1991). many indigenous and tribal communities live in remote areas and tend to be politically and socially marginalized (maphosa, 1998), with the majority of them lagging behind in the economic, education and health sectors (peredo, et al., 2004). they are less educated, concentrated in lower income groups, more likely to be unemployed and thus have greater reliance on social welfare (paulin, 2007). although the conditions of indigenous communities have long been a concern of policy makers, discussion and resolution of issues, especially related to their welfare, have not been controlled by indigenous people themselves (hindle & lansdowne, 2007). it has been argued that stimulation of indigenous entrepreneurship has the potential to improve the condition of indigenous people through the creation of enterprise that respects indigenous traditions as well as empowers indigenous people as economic agents in the competitive global world (hindle & lansdowne, 2007). in short, encouraging entrepreneurship of indigenous people has been emphasized as a promising prospect of developing the economies of indigenous community. indigenous entrepreneurship entrepreneurship of indigenous people means self-sufficiency within their community setting (furneaux & brown, 2007). hindle and lansdowne (2007, p. 9) define indigenous entrepreneurship as “the creation, management and development of new ventures by indigenous people for the benefit of indigenous people.” the organization formed can be work in private, public or non-profit sectors. the benefit of the activities ranges from individual profit to multiple or social and economic advantages for the whole community. dana (2007) emphasizes that indigenous entrepreneurship is a form of self-employment based on indigenous knowledge. this is a view echoed by lindsay (2005), who says that indigenous people have the needs to achieve self-determination and improve their social economic basis. based on selective review of literature, factors that make up indigenous entrepreneurship can be seen in table 1. the nature of papuan women indigenous entrepreneurship … (wambrauw, martin, & addison) 81 table 1 factor defining indigenous entrepreneurship factor author/source 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 culture has strong influence x x x x x x based on indigenous knowledge x x has meaning as self sufficiency in the community x has both economic and noneconomic goals x x x depend on natural resources x x operate at the margin x involved in small scale business x collectivism and reciprocal x x x benefit the community x x x x note. 1. maphosa (1998) 2. peredo et al (2004) 3. lindsay (2005) 4. fairbairn (2006) 5. dana (2007) 6. furneaux and brown (2007) 7. hindle and lansdowne (2007) figure 1. conceptual framework of indigenous entrepreneurship by papuan women traders salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 2 no. 1, february 2019 82 table 1 shows strong support for the notion that indigenous people entrepreneurial activities are strongly influenced by their culture. the benefit of these activities will flow within their communities. this form of entrepreneurship will be based on collectivism and reciprocity, indigenous knowledge, and natural resources. at this point, a framework that integrates the themes of indigenous entrepreneurship literature and the papuan context was established to guide this research. it is described in figure 1. therefore, all of the factors outlined in figure 1 and the interrelationships between them will be considered in order to understand entrepreneurial marketing activities of papuan women. case study was adopted in this research as the primary qualitative method. case study is an intensive description and analysis of a phenomenon or social unit, such as an individual, group, institution, or community (merriam & associates, 2002). a case study is defined by yin (2003, p. 13) as an “empirical inquiry that investigates a contemporary phenomenon within its real-life context when the boundaries between phenomenon and context are not clearly evident and in which multiple sources of evidence are used”. yin (2003) also states that case studies can be exploratory, explanatory and descriptive, and are preferred strategies when the focus is on contemporary phenomena within a real-life context, and when the researcher seeks answers to ‘how’ and ‘why’ questions. it is most appropriate where the interest is in process rather than outcomes, in context rather than specific variables, and in discovery rather than confirmation (laws & mcleod, 2004). the data from fieldwork were gathered through primary interviews and observations and secondary data collection. in this research, semi-structured and unstructured interviews were used. a list of key questions was prepared to guide the interviews. the key questions were aimed at getting information on papuan women’s marketing activity and focused on how and why questions in order to get in-depth and breadth of information from these traders. further, representatives from government offices and institutions, non-government organizations, and financial institutions were interviewed and requested to supply supporting documents (e.g. annual reports) in order to gather information on their roles in supporting these women’s marketing activities in informal sector. the data gained from these interviews were supported by my observations. masson (1996, p. 60) mentions that observation, and in particular, participant observation, is a method to generate data that involves the researcher immersing her/himself in a research setting, and systematically observing dimensions of that setting, interaction, relationships, actions, and other aspects within it. i observed papuan women’s activities at the markets in terms of how they prepared their produce, how they sold it, what they did to attract buyers, how they interacted with buyers and other traders, and what happened after they finished selling. the observation did not only focus on my respondents, but also on papuan market traders in the urban the nature of papuan women indigenous entrepreneurship … (wambrauw, martin, & addison) 83 and transmigration markets in general. in addition, secondary data was also gathered to enrich this study. the sources of secondary data were research reports of state university staff and students on traditional farming and marketing activities of papuan women, and reports from university research centers, such as women’s development research centre (p4a unipa) and regional economic development and fiscal research centre (p3fed). triangulation refers to an approach to getting data from a wide range of different data sources, different data collection methods and different researchers. data triangulation is important to increase the credibility of a study (davidson & tolich, 2003). this research used data triangulation to increase the robustness of data collected. this meant comparing interview data with observational data or written documents and checking for consistency from other institutions with regards to some topics. personal characteristics of papuan women traders ethnicity all respondents from arfak mountain and transmigration site (meyakh, hatam, sough and moile) were the sub-tribes of arfak big tribe. all sub-tribes spoke different languages but shared a similar culture. meanwhile, urban traders were more heterogenic as they came from different areas of papua and west papua provinces, such as biak, ayamaru, nabire, serui, meyakh and merauke. age the cases of papuan women traders from all areas minyambouw and surrounding areas (more remote area), prafi (transmigration site) and manokwari city and suburban areas (urban areas) showed that they were in the middle age range as shown in tabel 2. table 2 age range of trader respondents no age numbers of respondents arfak mountain prafi manokwari 1 15 24 2 2 25 34 5 3 15 3 35 44 4 4 15 4 45 54 1 2 7 5 54< 1 3 those middle-aged women could be most productively engaged in farming and marketing activities. in addition, they had greater mobility, which allowed them to travel to the city and transmigration sites to sell their produce. education there was not much variation in the education of respondents in more remote areas and transmigration sites. most of trader respondents (80-90 percent) were not formally educated and only one to two had experienced primary salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 2 no. 1, february 2019 84 education. on the other hand, majority of urban traders were educated in primary and intermediate education (83 percent), and only a few (12 percent) experienced higher degree of education. however, 4.76 percent of them had no education. the lack of formal education of respondents in more remote and suburban areas was because the lack of education infrastructure in the area and their parents saw no need to support their children’s education. in all three cases, papuan women traders who were involved in informal marketing activities lacked formal education. furthermore, they had no formal marketing training. family members family members supply the household labor resources for farming, but also determine the consumption needs of the family. most of the respondents in more remote areas had 5 to 9 family members, with 21 having less than that and 5 respondents having more than 9 family members. in general, the community has large families, as they need labor for productive activities. however, the term family in this community includes extended family, and not just nuclear family. the nature of papuan women entrepreneurship social and cultural values literature based theoretical framework suggested that motivation to become involved in marketing activities is influenced by social and cultural obligations. social and cultural values of papuan women from more remote areas are embedded in their social and economic activities. the construction of the road and their subsequent participation in marketing activities have led to some marginal shift in their cultural and social values. this study found that more remote area traders had strong communal and collective values, and they shared resources when doing their productive work. for these traders, their kinship relationship had an important role in supporting their productive work and the decisions they made with regards to their selling locations. on the other hand, the transmigration site traders appeared to work individually in their agricultural activities, and were involved in various development programs. however, their social and cultural values were still a key part of their social lives. likewise, the urban traders appeared to work individually at the market. socialization of the urban traders was done through social gathering at the market, such as arisan, and establishment of informal trader groups to gather support from (or for) their community, such as collecting money for a mourning family. the contribution to social and cultural obligations for the more remote area and transmigration site traders will affect their status in the community and their reciprocal relationships. the contributions are part of their investment and social security in the future. on the other hand, the urban traders’ interaction with cash economy, and with other indonesian communities, may be perceived to bring many changes to their social and cultural values. it the nature of papuan women indigenous entrepreneurship … (wambrauw, martin, & addison) 85 was found that they might have less contribution to social and cultural obligations, but the obligations must still be met by many of the traders as that was a tradition that they felt obligated to follow. in short, the influence of the social and cultural values on the traders from the three cases was similar, and it was still necessary for them to fulfil their contribution to social and cultural obligations as part of their membership in papuan community. personal attributes and motivation the cases of papuan women traders from all areas minyambouw and surrounding areas (more remote area), prafi (transmigration site), manokwari city and suburban areas (urban areas) showed that they were in the middle age range, a period of their life when they could be productively engaged in farming and marketing activities. in this age range, they had greater mobility, which allowed them to travel to the city and transmigration sites to sell their produce. even though the traders from urban and surrounding suburban areas had more access to education facilities and government, their level of education was not very different from that of the more remote area and transmigration site traders. in all three cases, papuan women traders who were involved in informal marketing activities lacked formal education and formal marketing training. in general, their marketing knowledge and skills came from informal knowledge from their community, family and their own experience. a striking feature to emerge from all cases was that those papuan women were open to innovation. while this may be expected from urban area traders who have greater access, it is interesting that this can also be seen in traders from other areas. even though their activities might be considered as subsistence (traditional), traders in more remote area and transmigration site adjusted their farming and marketing activities by utilizing knowledge they had learnt from development programs and their own observations of what the market wants. there was variation in the women’s engagement with cash economy as a result of geographical distance to the market, the degree of government assistance, the degree of their involvement in development programs, and their assimilation with other indonesian communities. urban traders were well engaged with the cash economy as they had the benefit of living in urban and suburban areas, where economic growth occurred rapidly and where they had good access to physical economic infrastructure. transmigration site traders had been engaged with cash economy for a lesser period, since they had become involved in the transmigration program and oil palm ness project. on the other hand, meaningful engagement of women traders from more remote area with cash economy was only a recent phenomenon, which was mainly driven by their direct access to the markets since the road was constructed in 2003. this road connects their villages to urban, suburban and transmigration site areas. thus, the road has had a significant impact on the marketing salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 2 no. 1, february 2019 86 activities of the more remote areas traders. comparison of these three groups of women traders shows that they are driven by similar motivation, which is to meet family immediate needs, and cultural and social obligations. however, children’s education is another reason for urban women’s involvement in informal marketing activity. all three groups of women are outward looking and have market awareness. however, expression of their market awareness differs between groups. it was observed that the urban area traders had higher market awareness than the other two groups. many of those urban traders were very experienced in their marketing activities, and many of them had changed their marketing activities in order to meet market demand and increase their sales. on the other hand, traders from more remote area and transmigration site traded only if their produce were ready to be harvested, or if they had a need for cash. these three groups of traders appear to have awareness of competition at the market, especially traders in urban areas. however, in general, these papuan traders only focus on selling their own produce, not developing strategies to outcompete other traders. even though all of those traders had limited marketing knowledge and few formal skills, they actively sought to add value to their produce. they had different ways of doing this, such as cleaning, packaging, selling in small lots and transporting the produce. they also applied basic marketing techniques to increase their sales. their implementation of marketing techniques varied, and this was done in simple ways. traders in more remote area applied basic marketing techniques, such as growing produce demanded by the market, cleaning their produce, and offering the produce to potential buyers by mentioning their produce price to anyone passing. on the other hand, the transmigration site traders appeared to make less effort in marketing their produce. this might be because they had other sources of cash income, and so their trading activities were not so important, whereas the remote area traders relied on their trading activities as their key source of cash. meanwhile, urban traders demonstrated more effort in implementing marketing techniques, such as selling convenience produce, ready to cook produce (e.g. fish soup spices ingredient, scraped papaya, sliced jackfruit or bamboo shoots), and durable produce. in addition, they also traded in more than one location, bought in bulk and bargaining, or gave discount options to buyers with not enough money. it appeared that the urban traders were more profit oriented. they specified part of their income for productive use, which was allocated for their next marketing activities. the other two groups did not allocate any income for productive use, and they used it immediately for consumption, such as buying food items, and contributing to cultural and social obligations. resources women traders from more remote areas and the transmigration site depended mainly on their farms for their marketing activities. although their farming activities the nature of papuan women indigenous entrepreneurship … (wambrauw, martin, & addison) 87 were semisubsistence, the produce from their farms was enough to generate their cash requirements for immediate needs. land and labor were their main resources in conducting their farming activities. the land used for their traditional farms was communal. however, the area used for farming by women traders in transmigration site was becoming limited, since most of the land was used for oil palm plantations and transmigration program. household members were their main labor source for farming. it is important to note that, for those traders, who were part of the arfak community, family members were not only limited to the nuclear family, but also extended family. besides sharing the land, more remote areas traders also shared their labor resources, through which they supported each other in their farming activities. on the other hand, the transmigration site traders behaved more individually in doing their farming activities. the traders from more remote areas and the transmigration site still applied shifting cultivation by using slash and burn system. as a result, they were unlikely to spend their income for more intensive production use. either group in their traditional farms did not commonly use fertilizers or pesticides. by contrast, resources that were important to traders in urban areas were marketing resources. the marketing resources of most of those traders were adequate. they included cash capital and assets, such as pushcarts, selling huts, wooden tables, coconut scraping machine and wheelbarrows. the majority of urban traders were intermediate traders, so cash was needed to buy produce from other producers. some of those urban traders had permanent spaces at the market, either in a form of permanent concrete tables provided by the government or wooden tables provided by themselves. the side road traders provided their own selling huts, which included wooden tables to display their produce. however, a lot of urban traders did not have permanent spots at the market. thus, rice sacks and plaited mats were used to display their produce on the ground. traders from more remote area and transmigration site were selffunded. both of these trader groups appeared to lack access to financial institutions, although there were one or two financial institutions available in the transmigration site. however, those transmigration site traders might not need more cash capital to do their marketing due to the casual nature of their trading and their small-scale activities. the urban traders were partly self-funded. many of them also got loans from microfinance organization (private cooperative). further, a few urban traders got financial support from the government. however, the majority of urban traders did not have access to government financial support. transmigration site traders and their family appeared to behave more individually when conducting their productive activities, which included managing their traditional farm. on the contrary, access to social capital was much more highly relied upon in more remote areas during productive activities. as stated previously, they shared resources such as land and labor. further, they had strong social networks, which were illustrated by their decisions on where to sell, and the support given by their salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 2 no. 1, february 2019 88 community members who provided free accommodation in urban areas and transmigration site. traders from more remote areas also fostered good relationships with public vehicle (four-wheel drive) drivers whom they relied on heavily for their access to market. in contrast, urban traders did not appear to access social capital to the same degree when doing their marketing activities. however, they did help each other on some occasions and would share their selling spaces with others whom they knew. marketing activities the types of marketing activities papuan women engaged in depend on available resources and the way they manage them. traders from more remote area and transmigration site traders were the producers of fresh produce that they sold. the farming activities of the more remote area traders were semi-subsistence, but they also planted highland crops, such as potatoes, celery, spring onion and carrot mainly for trading. it was the act of selling what was surplus to consumption. however, they did not carry out their marketing activities on a regular basis. instead, they only sold their produce if they needed cash to meet their immediate needs and cultural obligations and if they had money to travel to the market. likewise, transmigration site traders marketing activities is also driven by their immediate needs, which are mainly food and cultural obligations. although this group benefited from good access to roads, transportation and local markets, these forces did not stimulate the traders in the transmigration site to be more active in their marketing activities. in contrast, their selling activity depended on what could be harvested from their farms or if they had a need for cash to buy food items. thus, in some respects, despite their better access, they were less engaged with the market than traders from more remote areas were. the possible reason for the casual nature of these transmigration site traders’ marketing activity is the fact that they have various sources of income. in contrast with the previous two cases, the urban traders were engaged with a range of marketing activities. based on how they got their produce, the urban traders can be classified as intermediate traders or producer farmers. while the produce of the more remote area and transmigration site traders did not vary greatly, the produce sold by the urban traders was highly varied (e.g. fresh vegetables and spices, fruits, processed food and cooked food). furthermore, they traded in various locations, such as public traditional markets, side roads, and public places. the majority of urban traders can be categorized as commercial traders, as they are fully engaged with the markets, and specified income for productive use. the urban traders had recognized marketing techniques to improve profit and volume sold. some changed their business in terms of type, scale, selling location and type of produce sold in order to get higher profit, adjust to market demand, and for greater convenience for them. on the contrary, the two other groups seemed not to have made any significant changes to improve their business since they started, as their marketing activities were semithe nature of papuan women indigenous entrepreneurship … (wambrauw, martin, & addison) 89 subsistence. in spite of their different ways of conducting their marketing activities, it was clear that the trading activity of all papuan women traders from these three different groups had made a significant contribution to their families’ income. external environment as this study focuses on women traders from three different areas, the remote area, the transmigration site and the urban area, it is not surprising that the impact of the external environment on each of these groups of traders is varied. with respect to government support, there was little assistance for these papuan women’s marketing activities. even though a few of women traders from urban areas did get financial support from various government institutions, the majority of them did not have access to government support for their marketing activities. government support procedures seemed to be complicated for these traders, who were limited by their lack of education. in addition, there was poor information flow on available government support since government only targeted particular traders or groups. by contrast, government programs in transmigration site focused on farming activities. many of the programs focused on increasing agricultural production and introducing new crop varieties. thus, the programs had an indirect impact on stimulating marketing activities of the transmigration site women. although there were some differences between women traders from urban area and the transmigration site, in general, both groups had good access to physical infrastructure, such as roads, transportation, and physical markets. in contrast, more remote area traders had poor access to market infrastructure in the urban area where most of them sold their produce. with respect to financial environment, there are similarities in the three cases of women traders. they all lacked access to formal financial institutions, such bri, mandiri bank and papua bank, which were actually owned by indonesian and papuan government. in addition, the women traders from more remote areas and transmigration site had no access to microfinance. lack of knowledge of institution’s credit schemes and of how to get loans hindered remote area women from borrowing money from both banks and microfinance institutions. in addition, they might not be targeted by lenders due to lack of collateral, long distance home locations and casual marketing activities. however, those women traders were self-finance and it was not entirely clear whether they did so because they could not access microfinance or whether they did not access microfinance because they were self-funded. the urban traders, who were expected to have direct access to commercial banks due to their locational advantages, were in fact lacking access to these bank credit schemes. although they were willing to get loans from commercial banks, lack of collateral and non-permanent selling locations became impediments to accessing bank lending schemes. however, unlike the other two groups of traders, urban traders did have an salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 2 no. 1, february 2019 90 opportunity to access microfinance loan schemes. regular traders appeared to be the main target of microfinance. however, microfinance schemes had high interest rates, which made it difficult to repay the loan. urban traders’ engagement with cash economy and their interaction with other communities and their cultures might lead to a change in the cultural and social values of urban papuan communities. those women contributed to cultural obligations mainly to their close relatives. likewise, transmigration traders’ relocation from their previous home villages and their involvement in development programs led to an awareness of other communities and practices, and this might have increased their engagement in cash economy. even though they had strong cultural and social values, they were more individual in their outlook and more focused on their productive work, as they had more responsibilities in this regard, due to their engagement in agricultural programs. in their case, external factors had caused a shift in their cultural and social values. pole of papuan women traders entrepreneurship continuum in order to gain a higher-level understanding of the nature of entrepreneurship by papuan women, i propose that indigenous and western entrepreneurship are not completely separated phenomena, but two ends of a pole along which entrepreneurship occurs. therefore, at one end of the pole, there is highly indigenous entrepreneurship, which is more communal in nature, focuses on the community, bases its activity on their indigenous knowledge, sets economic and non-economic goals, is involved in small scale business, is dependent on immediately available resources or natural resources, and conducts activities for the benefit of indigenous community. at the other end of the pole, there is westernstyle entrepreneurship, which is based on individualism, focuses on profit and growth, is innovative, and depends primarily on the capability of individual entrepreneur. this concept is visually illustrated in figure 3. figure 3. pole of entrepreneurship continuum the entrepreneurship style of papuan women traders from arfak mountain or more remote area sits near indigenous entrepreneurship pole, and is shown as number 1 in figure 3. this is because their culture and social values are embedded in their entrepreneurial the nature of papuan women indigenous entrepreneurship … (wambrauw, martin, & addison) 91 activities. they have strong communal and collective values that are shown by sharing resources, communal labor practices, and having very strong social capital, which is illustrated by their strong social networks. further, they are dependent on immediate natural resources, such as their land. even though they have strong connections to the culture, these traders have begun to engage with cash economy. therefore, their activities are becoming semisubsistence as they grow highland produce mainly for trading at the urban and transmigration site markets. however, they are not fully engaged with the market. their marketing activities are casual and are determined by their needs (family and cultural needs that must be met) or money for transportation. transmigration site traders share most of the same entrepreneurship characteristics with more remote area traders. because they come from the same tribe (arfak big tribe), they share the same cultural and social values. their contribution to cultural obligations is important as part of their reciprocal relationships. however, these papuan traders in the transmigration site appear to be more individualistic with respect to their productive activities. they have been involved in some development programs, such as transmigration program and oil palm ness project. because of their responsibilities in these development programs, each family focuses only on their own agricultural activities. these traders have been more engaged with cash economy. their traditional farms are their resource from which they can base their marketing activities. although they have good access to infrastructure and transmigration site markets, their marketing activities are casual. they do not apply marketing techniques to increase sales. because of their more individualistic characteristics, these traders are placed further along the continuum towards western entrepreneurship. however, they have been positioned below the line at number 2. this has been done to visually signify that, in some respects, more remote area traders are more entrepreneurial because they grow crops to meet the needs of the market. the entrepreneurship style of urban traders sits at number 3 in the entrepreneurship continuum. this is because the traders from manokwari city and suburban areas (urban area) are very engaged with cash economy. the majority are regular traders and intermediate traders. mostly, they work individually in the market, but on some occasions, they help each other and share their resources (e.g. selling space). these traders seek to add value at the market, are profit oriented and specify part of their income for productive use. they have market awareness and basic marketing knowledge and skills, and implement marketing techniques at the markets. thus, their activities can be categorized as commercial trading. however, as papuans, their contribution to cultural obligations is necessary, and so they are depicted as sitting mid-way between indigenous and western entrepreneurship. i have now reconciled what appear to be the differences between the three cases through this higherlevel insight into the nature of entrepreneurship between indigenous and western style salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 2 no. 1, february 2019 92 entrepreneurship. i argue that entrepreneurship can be observed at points along a continuum. conclusion cultural values are important parts of papuan entrepreneurship. it has been suggested that papuans are not future oriented, have low work ethos, and cannot manage finances for productive use. it is also claimed that these indigenous people lack capability in administration, accessing financial resources and the use of technology. regardless of the accuracy of these statements, papuan entrepreneurs are likely to face a number of obstacles that may impede their entrepreneurial activities. even though papuan women have a significant role in conducting economic activities to meet their family immediate needs, their participation in development appears to be low and papuan women are thought to face more obstacles in conducting their entrepreneurial activities in informal sectors. the constraints faced by these women entrepreneurs are varied. it was found that the more remote area traders had more constraints associated with poor road access and high cost transportation as well as poor access to physical market. all of the papuan traders had poor access to commercial bank credit schemes, but urban traders had better access to microfinance. in general, those women had poor access to government support. they were motivated by their families’ immediate needs, including their children’s education. their marketing activities were diverse in terms of the type of marketing, scale of business, the produce they sold, sources of produce, and selling locations. they had adequate resources for their marketing. these women were partly-funded and many of them got loans from a microfinance organization. in short, two levels of government (provincial and regional), education institutions, financial institutions, and private sectors in manokwari could potentially work together to provide multiple assistance for papuan women traders. in addition, if these stakeholders understand the differences between these groups, they can then target assistance for each of them so that they can specifically address group constraints. references bp3d provinsi papua. (2003). konsep pengembangan perekonomian berbasis kerakyatan di propinsi papua (20042014). jayapura, papua: bp3d provinsi papua. bps manokwari. (2016). kabupaten manokwari dalam angka. manokwari: bps manokwari. bps provinsi papua barat. (2016). papua barat dalam angka 2016. retrieved from http://www.papua.go.id/bps/ dana, p. l. (2007). toward a multidisciplinary definition of indigenous entrepreneurship. in p. l. dana & r. b. anderson (eds.), international handbook of research on indigenous entrepreneurship (pp. 3-7). cheltenham, uk, northampton, ma,usa: edward elgar publishing limited fairbairn, t. i. j. (2006). entrepreneurship and small business development: a pacific perspective. journal of small business and entrepreneurship, 19(4), 355-366. the nature of papuan women indigenous entrepreneurship … (wambrauw, martin, & addison) 93 furneaux, c., & brown, k. (2007). indigenous entrepreneurship: an analysis of capital constraints. agse 2007, 669-682. hindle, k., & lansdowne, m. (2007). brave spirits on new paths: toward a globally relevant paradigm of indigenous entrepreneruship research. in p. l. dana & r. b. anderson (eds.), international handbook of research on indigenous entrepreneurship (pp. 8-19). cheltenham, uk, northampton, ma,usa: edward elgar publishing limited. ilo. (1989). the international labour organisation convension no.169: concerning indigenous and tribal peoples in independent countries 1989. nz: ministry of maori development. ilo. (2010). developing women's entrepreneurship in the papua highlands. retrieved from http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/group s/public/---asia/---ro-bangkok/--ilojakarta/documents/publication/wc ms_146160.pdf ilo. (2011). indigenous women entrepreneurs in papua get ahead. retrieved from http://www.ilo.org/global/publicat ions/magazines-andjournals/world-of-workmagazine/articles/wcms_159288/ lang--en/index.htm imbiri, s. (2010). dampak proyek perkebunan inti rakyat kelapa sawit terhadap tingkat kesejahteraan masyarakat suku asli papua di kabupaten manokwari (studi kaus pada petani peserta plasma asal suku arfak di ptpn ii prafi). brawijaya university, malang. korain, f. (2008). kemiskinan dan kemandirian ekonomi perempuan papua. retrieved from http://www.nusantaraonline.org/id /content/kemiskinan-dankemandirian-ekonomiperempuan-papua lasimbang, j. (2008). indigenous people and local economic development: asia indigenous peoples pact (aipp). retrieved from http://pro169.org/res/materials/en /development/ips%20and%20loca l%20economic%20development.p df laws, k., & mcleod, r. (2004). case study and grounded theory: sharing some alternative qualitative research methodologies with sistem proffesionals. the system dynamics society. symposium conducted at the meeting of the system dynamics conference, oxford, england. retrieved from http://www.systemdynamics.org/c onferences/2004/sds_2004/pap ers/220mcleo.pdf lindsay, n. j. (2005). toward a cultural model of indigenous entrepreneurial attitude. academy of marketing science review, 05. mampioper. d. a. (2008). dari kolonisasi sampai tranmigrasi di tanah papua. retrieved from http://tabloidjubi.wordpress.com/ 2008/03/29/dari-kolonisasisampai-transmigrasi-di-tanahpapua/ maphosa, f. (1998). towards the sociology od zimbabwean indigenous entrepreneruship. zambezia, xxv(ii), 173-190. mason. j. (1996). qualitative researching. great britain: sage publication ltd merriam, s. b., & associates. (2002). qualitative research in practice. san fransisco: jossey-bass. paulin, c. (2007). ngai tahu: the new zealand success story in indigenous entrepreneurship. in p. l. dana & r. b. anderson (eds.), international handbook of research on indigenous entreprenurship (pp. 549-557). cheltenham, uk, northampton, ma,usa: elgar, england. salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 2 no. 1, february 2019 94 peredo, a. m., anderson, r. b., galbraith, c. s., honig, b., & dana, p. l. (2004). towards a theory of indigenous entrepreneurship. international journal of entrepreneurship and small business, 1(1/2). rumbewas, s. (2005). poverty in three villages in papua. massey university, new zealand. retrieved from http://www.papuaweb.org/dlib/s12 3/rumbewas-spener/_phd.pdf sumule, a. i. (1994). the technology adoption behaviourof the indigenous people of irian jaya; a case study of arfak tribals. brisbane, australia: queensland university. retrieved from www.papuaweb.org/dlib/s123/sum ule/_phd.html 5k undp. (2005a). community livelihoods and civil society organisations in papua indonesia: a snap shoot by local non-government organisations. jakarta: united nation development programs undp. (2005b). kajian kebutuhan papua: ringkasan temuan dan pengaruh terhadap perumusan program bantuan dan pembangunan [ a report produced by undp as a cooperation with papua’s government and bappenas]. van burg, e. (2007). an examination of factors that hinder and programs that stimulate papuan entrepreneurs. retrieved from http://alexandria.tue.nl/openacces s/metis213189.pdf yin, r. k. (2003). case study research: design and methods (vol. 5). the united states of america: sage publication inc. 0201_00a_cover.pdf 0201_05_wambrau.pdf 0201_10_backcover.pdf salasika indonesian journal of gender, women, child, and social inclusion's studies volume 1, number 2 – july 2018 table of content gender and ict usage: self-assessment of critical issues facing indonesia-thai gen y students' future by 2030 leslie retno angeningsih & bangon sirisunyaluck 75 sekar jagad art studio as an agent of citizens’s diplomacy (study of women’s participation in intercultural relations) setyasih harini 93 “aliansi laki-laki baru”: the role of social media in promoting gender equality in indonesia eni maryani, preciosa alnashava j, & detta rahmawan 107 standardized certification for indonesian female migrant workers: towards qualified domestic workers kiki zakiah & chairiawaty 123 pragmatics competence of preschool age children eti setiawati & putri kumala dewi 135 chief editors dr. ir. arianti ina restiani hunga, m.si. (scopus id: 46161114400; google scholar); dr. phil. dewi candraningrum. (google scholar). executive editors indriretno setyaningrahayu, m.pd. (google scholar); daniel kurniawan, m.pd. (google scholar); andi misbahul pratiwi, m.si. (google scholar). board of editors prof. claudia derichs (scopus id: 14026487800). humboldt universität zu berlin, germany; assoc. prof. dr. ida sabelis (scopus id: 6507181398). vrije universiteit (vu) amsterdam, the netherlands; prof. siti kusujiarti.ma. (scopus id: 56276925900). warren wilson college, usa; dr. ratna saptari (scopus id: 6504610910). leiden university; prof. sylvia tiwon (scopus id: 6506468591). university of california; prof. dr. emy susanti, ma. (google scholar). airlangga university; prof. dr. ir. keppi sukesi, ms. (scopus id: 56025803300). brawijaya university; dr. kristi poerwandari, ma. (scopus id: 25628305200). university of indonesia; prof. dr. willemijn de jong (scopus id: 55258294800). university of zurich, switzerland; prof. lyn parker (scopus id: 56273266700). the university of western australia. reviewers prof. lyn parker (scoups id: 56273266700). university of western australia, perth, australia; dr. elisabet titik murtisari (scopus id: 38161752200; google scholar). satya wacana christian university; dr. wening udasmoro (scopus id: 56493135600; google scholar). gadjah mada university; dr. phil. farah purwaningrum (scopus id: 57205254451; google scholar). the university of sydney & rahayu and partners in association with hfw; alimatul qibtiyah, m.si. ma. ph.d. (scopus & google scholar). sunan kalijaga state islamic university; dr. tyas retno wulan, m.si. (scopus & google scholar). the jenderal soedirman university; dr. titik sumarti, msi. (scopus & google scholar). bogor agricultural university; prof. dr. mien ratoe oedjoe, mpd. (google scholar). the university of nusa cendana, kupang; j. casey hammond, phd. (scopus & google scholar). singapore university of technology and design; dr. phil. ratna noviani (google scholar). gadjah mada university; dr. rina herlina haryanti (google scholar). sebelas maret university; dr. ida ruwaida noor (google scholar). university of indonesia; dr. nurjanah, sp.m.pd. (google scholar). state university of jakarta; dr. ir. evi feronika elbaar, m.si. (google scholar). the university of palangka raya; dr. jendrius m.si. (google scholar). andalas university; dr. grace jenny soputan, se. (google scholar). manado state university; dr. anis farida, s.sos., sh., m.si. (scopus & google scholar). sunan ampel state islamic university surabaya; ira desiaanti mangiliko, s.si,.ph.d. (google scholar). the artha wacana christian university. gender and ict usage: self-assessment of critical issues …. (angeningsih & sirisunyaluck) 75 gender and ict usage: self-assessment of critical issues facing indonesia-thai gen y students' future by 2030 leslie retno angeningsih & bangon sirisunyaluck government study program at institute of community development (apmd), yogyakarta & social science department at maejo university, chang mai, thailand leslie.retno.a@apmd.ac.id & poonisa@gmail.com abstract gen y students, known as millenials, were born between 1980 and 2000. they account for a third of global population and mostly live in developing countries. the aim of this study is to investigate ict usage among indonesian and thai male and female gen y students in self-assessment of critical issues facing their future by 2030. this study used descriptive statistics that incorporated multiple linear regression (mlr) model. a survey using questionnaires was conducted at the institute of community development (apmd), yogyakarta, indonesia and maejo university, chang mai, thailand. respondents were selected using random sampling. a total of 316 respondents as the sample of this study were made up of 128 indonesian and 188 thai students with response rate of 73.14% and 78.33%, respectively. the results showed that there were significant differences in ict usage among indonesian and thai gen y students in their self-assessment toward critical issues they would face by 2030. keywords: ict, gender, generation y, self-assessment, sgds introduction generation y is a generation of people born between 1980 and 2000 that grows up as a part of the emergence of information and communication technology (ict) (singhachotsukpat et al., 2013, p. 222). they are also known as the millennials (salt, 2006). in this study, generation y is mentioned as gen y. gen y use ict devices in almost all of their daily activities such as in making friends, maintaining communication, and knowledge management (meier et al., 2010). many researches had been done on icts usage in relation to gen y (karubi & ching, 2015; valentine & powers, 2013), age (attuquayefio & addo, 2016), gender (mahmood & bokhari, 2012; zabadi & al-alawi, 2016) and self-assessment (harrison et al., 2010; puspita & ischii, 2016). attuquayefio & addo's study (2016) found there were no differences among male and female students in the use of ict. however, there were mixed differences in the use of ict among younger and older people. later, karubi and ching's study (2015) on gender and ict usage found that malaysian "orang asli" salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 1 no. 2, july 2018 76 openly adopted icts in order to move forward. it was similar to valentine and powers' study (2013) on gen y and attitude toward ict stating that geny had positive attitude toward icts than older generation. another study shows that people's behavior towards the use of icts, particularly to the internet, varied depending on their expectations and countries (vyncke & bergman, 2010). finally, students' attitudes toward e-learning outcomes were found varied among gender, ict usage, and skills (zabadi & al-alawi, 2016). the main character of gen y students is that they learn more from the outside world than classroom. they have their own capability to seek information. they are recognized as generation of problem solvers (gulbahar & guven, 2008). kennedy et al. (2006) argue that students' experiences in embracing icts are not generalizable. a survey done by skene et al. (2007) of australian students shows that gen y is a diverse group and not all of the students are familiar with icts. many students know nothing about icts. some others use icts only when they need something. therefore, gen y students' competence and critical thinking to assess and use icts still require further study (moore, moore & fowler, 2005). in the 21st century, each country in the world is trying rigorously to achieve sdgs by 2030. icts are strategic tools to accelerate the achievement. ict usage contributes five advantages to sdg achievement. first, icts disperse globally with extraordinary speed using mobile phone, computer, the internet, and social media. second, icts can significantly reduce the cost of health, education, and economic services. third, icts accelerate public awareness of icts through "generation technologies" improvements. fifth, icts can accelerate the diffusion of technology by providing cheap online platforms for the delivery of sdg-based services (sachs, 2017). sdg 5 is about gender equality and women's empowerment. icts offer great potential for women to end poverty, improve education and health, enhance agricultural productivity, and create decent employment. increasing access to online resources for women and girls is essential. women and girls need to be informed about the benefits of icts, so they have rights to greater access demand (itu, 2016). icts have penetrated almost every aspect of everyday life such as work, business, teaching, learning, recreation and health. the use of ict does not only improve the learning environment but also prepares the future of the next generation (wheeler, 2001). thus, preparing students for real life in ict world is critical (braun & kraft, 1995). since then, very few studies investigate ict usage altogether and examine them toward student's selfassessment on sdgs related issues. this study attempts to examine ict usage and gen y students' selfassessment on sdgs related issues controlled by country of origin, gender, and age. this study was conducted in two universities, one was the institute of community development (apmd) located in gender and ict usage: self-assessment of critical issues …. (angeningsih & sirisunyaluck) 77 yogyakarta, indonesia, and the other was maejo university in chang mai, thailand. these two universities were selected as research location because they had social science and rural studies programs. the institute of community development (apmd) is the only indonesian private institute that has village and regional government as well as rural community development programs. maejo university in chang mai, thailand focuses on agriculture and social sciences. the research questions of this study are: how do indonesian and thai gen y students mostly do with their ict devices in daily live, how do they do selfassessment on the critical issues related to their future, what issues do they think they will face by 2030, and are there any differences or similarities in student's selfassessment of critical issues based on their country of origin, gender, and age. the main objectives of this study is to provide a detailed picture of ict usage among male and female indonesian and thai gen y students and their self-assessment on critical issues related to sdgs. data for this study was collected through a survey of students of government studies program at the institute of community development (apmd) yogyakarta, indonesia and students of social science at maejo university, chang mai, thailand. the population of indonesian students was chosen from 5 parallel classes of introduction to sociology course. the total number was 175 students. the population of thai students was chosen from 4 classes of general courses of social science program. the total number was 240 students. respondents were selected using random sampling with the total of 316 students made up of 128 indonesian and 188 thai students. the response rate was 73.14% for indonesian and 78.33% for thai respondents. a self-administered questionnaire was used in this study. the questions were on the use of ict devices, country of origin, gender, and age. the students were also asked about the use of cellular phone, notebook or laptop, pc, ipad, and tablet in their daily lives. seven categories for cellular phone usage were: 1) making phone calls, 2) short message, 3) browsing, 4) taking picture, 5) music, 6) games, and 7) other. six other usage categories for notebook and pc answers were: 1) office or writing, 2) browsing, 3) games, 4) music, 5) video, and 6) other. nine categories answers of ipad and tablet usage answers were: 1) office or writing, 2) browsing, 3) games, 4) music, 5) video, 6) phone calls, 7) taking picture, 8) short messages, and 9) other. the dependent variables (y) were about 20 terms linked to sustainable development goals. the utilization of ict is believed to have positive impacts on social inclusion, economic growth and environment conservation that can accelerate sdgs achievement (martin, 2017). since gen y students are well-known as "digital native" (prensky, 2001), they need to know those issues to anticipate the situations and prepare for the best for their future lives. gen y knowledge and concern on sdgs issues are essential for examination. students were asked to do selfassessment on each of those terms by providing answers with score salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 1 no. 2, july 2018 78 ranging from 1 to 10. a score of 1 (one) means "no serious problem at all" while a score of 10 (ten) means "there is a very serious problem". all nominal variables are recorded into dummy variables with 1 (one) as predicted category and 0 as a reference group. this study used descriptive statistics to examine respondent’s socio-demographics and ict devices usage. to measure the extent to which country of origin, gender, age and ict usage predict students' selfassessment on twenty critical issues related to sdgs, this study used multiple linear regression (mlr). five multiple linear regression models were conducted to examine the variance of independent variables being regressed toward the dependent variables as in bivariate exercises. ict usage the rapid adoption of smartphones, tablets or other mobile devices, and social network sites (sns) plays important role in young users’ lives (goosen, 2017; lindemann, 2017). they use icts for internet, facebook (klein, 2016), information, work, entertainment, and social network (volkom, stapley, & malter, 2013). nowadays, ict usage turns into a next step that ziemba (2013) calls as sustainable information society. people start to use icts for economic, sociocultural, political, and environmental sustainability (elliot, 2011). through icts, young people can be active learners and develop critical thinking, skills, and creativity (hubbard, 2013). yet, icts provide young people with the skills necessary to become lifelong learners and global citizens of the 21st century (arzal, 2016). nearly 70 percent of the bottom fifth of the population in developing countries own mobile phones. the number of internet users has more than tripled in a decade, from 1 billion in 2005 to an estimated 3.2 billion at the end of 2015 (world development report, 2016). smartphones are more common in developed countries than in developing countries. two-thirds worldwide use the internet but fewer do in africa and south asia. fewer than six-in-ten millenials have access to the internet (itu, 2017). internet users in indonesia have tremendously increased. according to razak nuraini (2014), 43.5 million young people aged 10 to 19 years of the total 82 million internet users access the internet. in 2015, internet users reached 93.4 million (47.9 percent) of the total population (ali & lilik, 2016). on the other hand, thailand internet users in 2015 reached 27.3 million or 40.3 per cent. global information technology report 2016 shows that in 2015, indonesia ranks 79 on the networked readiness index out of 143 countries, whereas thailand ranks 67 (baller, et.al, 2016). indonesian students (80 percent) use the internet for data or information, social media (70 percent), music (65 percent) and video (39 percent) sites. chadchawan (in singhachotsukpat et al. 2013) states that thai generation y use icts for lifestyle and to ease their daily life instead of finding information for gathering knowledge. gender and ict usage: self-assessment of critical issues …. (angeningsih & sirisunyaluck) 79 gender ict initiation has acquired a new dimension for women. women start to take advantage of the existence of icts. it was shown by the increasing number of women using icts (egbo et al., 2011). however, the percentage of men using icts is still higher (56 percent) than women (44 percent) (comscore, 2013). the disparity of online access between men and women is the results of different types of information being sought. women prefer to use internet for recreational information and hobbies, whereas men use it for hobbies, reading, informal classes, downloading music or video, remix files, listening to radio, getting financial information to political news (pew internet and american life project, 2012). although the number of women utilizing icts increases persistently, their attitude towards e-learning is still behind men (liaw and huang, 2011). therefore, a gender gap in indonesian internet users remains. many indonesian women still have less comprehension of how to utilize digital media or the internet effectively (suwana, 2017). they suggest that ict literacy is important. people should not be optimistic to the prospect of mobile internet in cutting down the digital divide (puspita and ischii, 2016). the utilization of icts creates a new form of inequality in the digital divide (report of the seoul expert group meeting, republic of korea 11-14 november, 2002). once addressing gender inequality, ict usage remains critical (mahmood and bokhari, 2012). social media can actually be used for women empowerment (primo, 2013). women are able to communicate to one another, express affection or concern, and being critical of their circumstances (antonio and tuffley, 2014). icts can help to empower women. age howe and strauss (2009) in their generational theory states that people who are born in the same period of time belong to a specific cohort or generation. people belong to a certain age cohort are more likely to have the same experiences, attitudes, values, and lifestyle (hoyer & macinnis, 2010; mccrindle research pty ltd, 2011). gen y is an age cohort of people born between 1985 and 2000. some of them are now college students. they have confidence in their competence, intellegence, and attractiveness. as they are too confident, some people call them as narcissists (twenge, et al., 2008). a study of ict usage across different age cohort in indonesia by ramdhani and wiradhany (2015) found that there was no difference in ict access, activities, investment in ict, and attitude towards icts. on the contrary, a survey by puspita and ischii (2016) of ict device ownership, internet adoption, usages, and information acquisition in indonesia shows that there are significant differences between younger and older, educated and less educated people in mobile phones and internet usage. utomo et al.'s (2013) study reveals that ict usage for internet varies in terms of gender and social economic status. and, harendita's study (2013) on ict usage and indonesian teachers' resistance to ict usage indicates that teachers as older generations are still salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 1 no. 2, july 2018 80 unsure whether they should accept or resist the use of icts. according to a survey report of thailand’s national statistical office in 2016 (national statistical office, 2017), young thai generation age 6 years and over were 20.2 million of computer users (32.2 percent), 29.8 million of internet users (47.5 percent) and 51.1 million of mobile phone users (81.4 percent). more thai people are using smartphones for various online activities, such as accessing information about products and services and downloading music, apps and movies. thai gen y like to stay connected, post and share on facebook and instagram live logs. self-assessment student self-assessment is a process in which students collect information and reflect on their own understanding. students' selfassessment of personal progress in knowledge, skills, processes, or attitudes makes them more aware and self-understanding as learners (ministry of education, 2002, p. 3). self-assessment with its emphasis on student responsibility and making judgments is “a necessary skill for lifelong learning” (boud, 1995, p. 11). additionally, the self-assessment process can help “to prepare students not just to solve the problems we already know the answer to, but to solve problems we cannot at the moment even conceive” (brew, 1995, p. 57). sedikides (1993) shows that selfassessment does exist and is one of the self-evaluation motives. it is important to self-evaluate as it means that people are able to realize ways in which to improve themselves. referring to all statements above, this research is conducted to find out how students collect information and reflect on their own understanding and judgment to make them aware of problems they will be facing in the future. critical issues related to sdgs by 2030 sdgs are universal goals that apply to all countries and involve the entire world. icts play significant roles in decoupling economic development from the use of natural resources, so that resource use does not increase along with economic development, giving rise to the socalled green it initiatives (otztruk et al., 2011). the question of how these initiatives can become sustainable in the long term in order to contribute to the sustainability of developmental strategies at national or global level arises (tjoa & tjoa, 2016). gen y have early and frequent exposure to technology, which has advantages in terms of cognitive, emotional, and social outcomes (immordino-yang et al., 2012). they rely heavily on technology for entertainment, to interact with others – and even for emotion regulation. members are experiencing instant communication technologies, social networking, and globalization (park and gursoy, 2012). they encompass usergenerated services (such as blogs), social networking sites, online review or rating sites, virtual game worlds, video sharing sites and online communities, whereby consumers produce, design, publish, gender and ict usage: self-assessment of critical issues …. (angeningsih & sirisunyaluck) 81 or edit content (krishnamurthy & dou, 2008). some studies suggest that gen y actively contribute content, create and mash that they gravitate toward social media sites where they can participate (dye, 2007). they prefer to stay connected and multitask through technology (rawlins et al., 2008). digital solutions can close sdgs achievement gaps by transforming people’s lives and works. gesi's (global e-sustainability initiative) initiative research suggests that digital solution will have a huge and measureable positive impact on improving people's life quality, fostering equitable growth and protecting the environment. icts offer tremendous opportunities to deliver public services, including healthcare, education, and basic infrastructure to more people. universities can play a major role in research and development (r&d) to train a new generation of sustainable development leaders and play a key role in public awareness and education. universities can be critical and invaluable sources of long-term independent technical assistance to governments to design and support implementation of sdg plans (matte et.al, 2015, p. 16). indonesian and thai gen y students are living in developing countries where life situations are still behind developed countries. therefore, ict competences and gen y students' critical thinking on issues related to sdgs will be important and relied on. socio-demographics descriptive statistics on students' country of origin, gender and age showed that the percentage of thai gen y students (59.5 percent) was higher than indonesian gen y students (40.5 percent). the percentage of thai female students (46.8 percent) was higher than indonesian female students (10.1 percent). on the other hand, the percentage of indonesian male students (30.4 percent) was higher than thai male students (12.7 percent). in terms of age, the majority of thai female students (35.8 percent) were 19 years old, and 11.7 percent were 20 years old. indonesian male students mostly (16.7 percent) were 18 years old and 11.4 percent were 19 years old. none of thai students were at the age of 24-year-old. however, 0.6 percent of indonesian students were 24 years old. the rest of the students from both countries were between the ages of 21 to 23 years old. ict devices usage data on ict device ownership showed that all of indonesian and thai students owned cellular phones, 75 percent students owned notebooks or laptops, 34.2 percent owned pcs, 11.7 percent owned tablets, and only 10.8 percent owned ipads. majority of indonesian students used cellular phones for sending short messages (58.6 percent), while thai students used them for making phone calls. indonesian students mostly used notebooks or laptops for browsing (28.1 percent), but thai students used them for writing (39.9 percent). both indonesian (5.5 percent) and thailand (31.9 percent) students used pcs for office or writing. generally, indonesian students used ipads for browsing, playing games, watching videos, or taking pictures (0.8 salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 1 no. 2, july 2018 82 percent) and thai students used them for playing games (5.3 percent). looking at the relationship between gender and ict device usage, it showed differences in results. male students mostly used cellular phones for sending short message (41.9 percent), but female students used them for making phone calls (60.6 percent). similar difference also occurred in the use of notebook or laptop. male students used notebooks or laptops for browsing (23.5 percent), while female students used them for writing (41.2 percent). for pc usage, it showed similarity in which male (8.8 percent) and female (30.6 percent) students used them for office or writing. next, male students mostly used ipads for browsing (2.9 percent) or watching video (2.9 percent), while female students used them for playing games (3.8 percent). finally, the findings of tablet usage were similar to ipads. male students (2.9 percent) used tablets for watching video and female students (5 percent) used them for playing game. to investigate the differences between students' self-assessment of critical issues (dependent variables) and ict device usage (independent variables) controlled by students' country of origin, gender, and age, five multiple linear regression models (mlrs) were run. table 1 describes the first mlr model of cellular phone usage being regressed to self-assessment on twenty critical issues controlled by country of origin, gender, and age. the findings showed that students who used cellular phones for making phone calls, sending short messages, and taking pictures were significantly more likely to assess justice, employment and population as serious issues in facing the future than students who used them for other purposes. students' country of origin (indonesia was a predictor and thailand was a reference group) showed that indonesian students were significantly less likely to assess security, economy, and employment as serious issues in facing the future than thai students. gender, where female was predictor and male was reference group, showed that female students were significantly more likely to assess politics, employment, population, and social conditions as critical issues in facing the future than male students. however, population and crime issues were ungeneralizable because the f-test showed p>0.05 level. finally, age cohort (cohort of 17-18 years old was a predictor and cohort of 23-24 years old was a reference group) showed that 17-18 year old students were significantly less likely to assess natural resources as a serious issue in facing the future than the 23-24 year old students'. gender and ict usage: self-assessment of critical issues …. (angeningsih & sirisunyaluck) 83 table 1 multiple linear regression of cell phone usage to critical issues assessment note. p<0.001***; p<0.01**; p<0.05*; p>0.05 n.s= not significant; df= 10. table 2 multiple linear regression model of notebooks or laptops usage and self-assessment to critical issues note. p<0.001***; p<0.01**; p<0.05*; p>0.05 n.s= not significant; df = 10. salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 1 no. 2, july 2018 84 the second mlr model was notebooks or laptops usage being regressed to the same dependent variables controlled by students' country of origin, sex, and age. table 2 describes the results of the second model. the findings showed that the use of notebooks or laptops for browsing were significantly more likely to assess democracy as a critical issue the gen y students would face in the future than the use for other purposes. indonesian students were statistically more likely to assess poverty as serious issue in facing the future but less likely to assess natural resources, security, and environment as critical issues in facing the future than thai students. female students were significantly more likely to assess that politics, employment, population, crime, and social conditions were very serious issues in facing the future than male students. however, those three issues of employment, population and crime situations only existed in the samples (f-test, p>0.05). table 3 multiple linear regression of pc usage to self-assessment of twenty critical issues note. p<0.001***; p<0.01**; p<0.05*; p>0.05n.s= not significant; df= 10. table 3 describes pc usage regressed toward self-assessment on critical issues assessment control for the same variables. the third mlr model showed that pc usage had no significant relationship with any issues. factors that determined student's assessment of the critical issues were students' country of origin and gender. in both variables, indonesian students were significantly more likely to assess security, environment and natural resources conditions as critical issues in facing the future than thai students. female students were significantly more likely to assess politics, employment, crime, demography, and social conditions as very serious issues in facing the future than male students. similar to the second models, employment, crime and population issues were gender and ict usage: self-assessment of critical issues …. (angeningsih & sirisunyaluck) 85 only found in the sample and not generalizable (f-test, p>0.05). the fourth mlr model was the use of ipads being regressed to the same variables. table 4 describes the results of the fourth mlr model. in contrast to the use of cellular phone, notebook or laptop and pc, the relationship between ipad usage and self-assessment of critical issues for students in facing the future varied considerably. table 4 multiple linear regression model of ipad usage to self-assessment of critical issues assessment note. p<0.001***; p<0.01**; p<0.05*; p>0.05n.s= not significant; df =12. indonesian students were significantly more likely to assess poverty as a serious issue, but less likely to assess natural resources, security, environment, economy, government, and family conditions as serious issues for them in facing the future than thai gen y students. significant relationship with government was only found in the sample (f-test, p>0.05). female students were significantly more likely to assess politics, employment, population, crime, and social aspects as serious issues for them in facing the future than male gen y students. population issue only existed in sample groups, not in the population (f-test, p>0.05). salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 1 no. 2, july 2018 86 table 4 multiple linear regression model of ipad usage to self-assessment of critical issues assessment note. p<0.001***; p<0.01**; p<0.05*; p>0.05n.s= not significant; df =12. finally, the fifth mlr model was tablet usage being regressed toward self-assessment of twenty issues controlled by the same variables. table 5 describes the results of the fifth model. the findings showed that gen y students who used tablets for browsing, office or writing, and video were significantly less likely to assess poverty, economy, and employment as serious issues for them in facing the future than gen y students who used them for other purposes. indonesian students were significantly more likely to assess poverty as a serious problem for them in facing the future. however, they were significantly less likely to assess natural resources, security, environment, and family conditions as serious issues for them in facing the future than thai students. female gen y students were significantly more likely to assess politics, employment, demography, crime and social situations as serious issues for them in facing the future than male gen y students. the issues of politics, population and crime were not generalizable (f-test, p>0.05). briefly, it could be stated that the usage of ict devices in students' self-assessment of twenty critical issues related to sdgs varied among gen y students in terms of gender, country of origin, and age. gender and ict usage: self-assessment of critical issues …. (angeningsih & sirisunyaluck) 87 table 5 multiple linear regression models of tablet usage to self-assessment of twenty critical issues note. p<0.001***; p<0.01**; p<0.05*; p>0.05 n.s= not significant; df =13. new communication technologies are not gender blind. the absence of women's voices and perspectives in information society shows that gender power relations in new media replicate what has happened in conventional media in many ways (plou, 2003). that is also shown in the results of this study. female gen y students had various types of ict devices but they did not use them for equality achievement. ict usage in self-assessment of critical issues that they will face by 2030 varied between male and female indonesian and thai gen y students. the overall results of this study support the findings of zabadi and al-alawi (2016) and utomo et al. (2013) that gen y students' assessment of the ict usage varies, depending on gender. however, they do not support attuquayefio and addo’s (2016) study stating that there are no differences among male and female students and mahmood and bokhari’s (2012) study suggesting that ict usage will overcome gender inequality. however, in terms of age, this study supports attuquayefio and addo's (2016) finding. the finding that female gen y students have more icts than male students is similar to that of egbo, okoyeuzu, ifeanacho, and onwumere (2011). this study also supports marcelle's (2000) thought that direct intervention is needed in order to achieve gender equality, which is in line with puspita and ischii's (2016) findings. salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 1 no. 2, july 2018 88 conclusion there were significantly different relationships in gender, country of origin, ict device usage, ict ownership, and numbers of ict ownership with gen y students' assessments of critical issues in facing the future by 2030. significant differences were found in the population, but some persistence issues were found only in the sample, particularly the one related to gender. regardless of ict device usage, gen y female students' selfassessment of gender issues remained. using varieties of ict devices, female students persistently assessed social condition as critical issue facing their future. meanwhile, the population consistently persisted in the sample regardless the icts they used. employment was generalizable in cellular phone, ipad and tablet usage but not in notebook and pc usage. crime was assessed as a critical issue on all types of ict usage except in the use of notebooks. unlike thai, indonesian gen y students were more likely to assess poverty as critical issue for them in facing the future, but they were less likely to assess security, environment, economy, employment, natural resources and family as critical issues for them in facing the future. younger gen y students of 17 to 18 years old were less likely concerned in the issue of natural resources than older gen y students of 23 to 24 years old. none of gen y students were concerned in democracy, conflict, and government as critical issues for them in facing the future. furthermore, the types of ict device usage, especially ipads and tablets had more influence on gen y students’ assessment of critical issues than cell phones, notebooks or laptops and pcs. the overall results showed that ict usage in selfassessment of twenty critical issues related to sdgs varied among gen y students' country of origin, gender, and age. this study has limitation as a consequence from the sample size that was not large enough for increasing predicted variables. therefore, some findings, particularly the one related to gender, were not generalizable. this study did not include socioeconomic variables. hence, further research needs to take into account student's socio-economic aspects. assessment results of critical issues indicated that ict ownerships and usage seemed related to students' socio-economic status. survey conducted by utomo et al. (2013) shows that the variation in gen y students in the use of internet is influenced by their socio-economic status. the finding of this study indicates this view needs to be reconsidered. there is a need to start intensively in disseminating information on gender issues such as sdgs concern among gen y students. therefore, further research needs to be conducted in order to confirm the consistency of this study results and to find out the inconsistencies factors in the population. acknowledgment we would like to thank research and community service center at the institute of community development (apmd) and maejo gender and ict usage: self-assessment of critical issues …. (angeningsih & sirisunyaluck) 89 university for their invaluable cooperation in data collection and providing financial support for this study. references ali, h. & purwandi, l. (2016). indonesia 2020: the urban middle-class millennials. jakarta: pt alvara strategi indonesia. antonio, a. & tuffley, d. (2014). the gender digital divide in developing countries. future internet, 6, 673-687. doi:10.3390/fi6040673 arzal. (2016). the impact of information communication and technology on students' academic performance: evidence from indonesian efl classrooms. retrieved from http://artsonline. monash.edu.au/indonesianstudies-journal/files/2016/09/theimpact-of-ict-on-students .pdf. attuquayefio, s. n. & addo, h. (2016). gender and age comparison of information communication and technology usage among ghanaian higher education students. american journal of information systems, 4(1), 1-6. doi:10.12691/ ajis-4-1-1 baller, s., dutta, s. & lanvin, b. (2016). the global information technology report 2016. innovating in the digital economy. geneva: world economic forum and insead johnson. cornell university. retrieved from http://www3.weforum.org/docs/gi tr2016/wef_ gitr_full_report.pdf boud, d. (1995). enhancing learning through self-assessment. london: kogan page. braun, j. a., & kraft, c. (1995). using technology to learn from travelmates’ adventures. social studies and the young learner, 7(3), 8-10. brew, a. (1995). what is the scope of self-assessment? in d. boud, enhancing learning through selfassessment (pp. 48-63), london: kogan page. comscore. (2013). southeast asia digital future in focus 2013. retrieved from http:// www.comscore.com/insights/prese ntations_and_whitepapers/2014/2 013_southeast_ asia_digital _ future_in_focus dye, j. (2007). meet generation c: creatively connecting through content. e content, 30(4). egbo, o. p., okoyeuzu, c. p., ifeanacho, i. c., & onwumere, j.u. (2011). gender perception and attitude towards e-learning: a case of business students, university of nigeria. international journal of computer application, 1(2), 135-148. elliot, s. (2011). transdisciplinary perspectives on environmental sustainability: a resource base and framework for it-enabled business transformation. mis quarterly, 35(1), 197-236. goosen, g. (2017). the mobile phenomenon. retrieved from http://www.bizcommunity.com/article /196/424 /156926.html#more gulbahar, y., & guven, i. (2008). a survey on ict usage and the perceptions of social studies teachers in turkey. educational technology & society, 11(3), 37-51. harendita, e.m. (2013). why resist? a closer look at indonesian teachers’ resistance to ict. international journal of indonesian studies, 1, 41-58. harrison, p. b., hodgen, c.j., marshall, b. j. & serret, n. (2010), validity in teachers' summative assessments. http://www.sciepub.com/journal/ajis http://www.sciepub.com/journal/ajis http://www.sciepub.com/ajis/content/4/1 salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 1 no. 2, july 2018 90 assessment in education: principals, policy & practice, 17(2), 215-232. howe, n. & strauss, w. (2009). strausshowe generational theory. retrieved from https://en.wikipedia .org/wiki/strauss%e2%80%93howe _generational_theory hoyer, w.d., & macinnis, d.j. (2010). consumer behaviour (5th ed.). mason: south-western cengage learning. hubbard, p. (2013). making a case for learner training in technology enhanced language learning environments. calico journal, 30(2), 163 178. immordino-y, m.h., christodoulou, j.a. & singh, v. (2012). rest is not idleness: implications of the brain’s default mode for human development and education. perspectives on psychological science, 7(4), 352-364. itu. (2016). ict facts and figures 2016. http://www.itu.int/en/itud/statistics/ documents/facts/ictfactsfigures 2016.pdf. accessed on 24 july 2017. itu. (2017). ict facts and figures 2017. retrieved from http://www.itu.int/en/itud/statistics/documents/ facts/ictfactsfigures2017.pdf karubi, p. n. & ching, s.g. (2015). is ict gendered? an understanding from the orang asli. geografia onlinetm malaysia journal of society and space, 11(6), 67-77. kennedy, g., krause, k., churchward, a. judd, t. & gray, k. (2006). first year students’ experiences with technology: are they really digital natives? internal report, university of melbourne. retrieved from http://www.bmu.unimelb.edu.au/r esearch/munatives/index.html klein, b. (2016). how brands can win with generation z. retrieved from http://www.bizcommunity.com /article/196/758/145835.html krishnamurthy, s. & dou, w. (2008). advertising with user-generated content: a framework and research agenda. journal of interactive marketing, 8(2), 1-7. liaw, s. s., & huang, h. m. (2011). a study of investigating learners attitudes toward e-learning. 5th international conference, 673. lindemann, w. (2017). will be the year of ar, video and mobile commerce. retrieved from http://www. bizcommunity.com/article/196/42 4/156923.html#more mahmood, a., & bokhari, h.n. (2012), use of information and communication technology: gender differences among students at tertiary level. journal of education and instructional studies in the world, 2(4). martin, bogdan. doreen. (2017). the role of icts in accelerating the achievement of the sdgs. new innovation approaches to support the implementation of the sustainable development goals cstd 2016. retrieved from http://unctad.org/meetings /es/presentation/cstd2016_p06_d oreenbogdan_itu_en.pdf matte, s., moyer, l., kanuri, c., petretta, d., & bulger, c. (2015). sustainable development solutions network (sdsn). a global initiative for the united nations. columbia university’s school of international and public affairs. mccrindle research pty ltd, initials. (2011). who are the generation z? retrieved from http://www.generationz.com.au/ab out_who.html meier, j., f. stephen & crocker, m. (2010). generation y in the workforce: managerial challenges. the journal of human resource and adult learning, 6(1), 68-79. gender and ict usage: self-assessment of critical issues …. (angeningsih & sirisunyaluck) 91 ministry of education. (2002). the ontario curriculum unit planner. toronto, on: queen’s printer for ontario. moore, a.h., moore, j.f. & fowler, s.b. (2005). faculty development for the net generation. in d. g. oblinger & j.l. oblinger (eds.), educating the net generation [online] retrieved from www.educause.edu/educatingthen etgen/ national statistical office. (2017). the 2016 household survey on the use of information and communication technology. bangkok, thailand: ministry of digital economy and society. park, j. & gursoy, d. (2012). generation effects on work engagement among us hotel, 31(4), 1195-1202. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2012. 02.007 pew internet and american life project. (2012). how women and men use the internet. retrieved from http://www.pweinternet.org/repor ts/2005/how-women-and-menuse-the-internet.aspx plou, d.s. (2003). what about gender issues in the information society? in girard, b. & seán, ó.s. (eds.), communicating in the information society. geneva, switzerland: unrisd. primo, n. (2013). gender issues in the information society, unesco publications for the world summit on the information society. paris, france: the united nations educational, scientific and cultural organization (unesco). retrieved from http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/file _download.php/250561f24133814c1 8284feedc30b b5egender_issues.pdf. ramdhani, n. & wiradhany, w. (2015). indonesian digital natives ict usage pattern study across different age groups. research gate, 152-161. retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publ ication/279923834. rawlins, j., simeon, d. t., ramdath, d. d. & chadee, d. d. (2008). the elderly in trinidad: health, social and economic status and issues of loneliness. west indian medical journal, 57(6), 589-595. razak, n. (2014). study: most children in indonesia are online now, but many are not aware of potential risks. jakarta: unicef.org. indonesia. retrieved from https://www.unicef.org/ indonesia/media_22167.html sachs, d.j. 2017. how information and communication technology can accelerate action on the sustainable development goals. ict & sdgs final report. the earth institute columbia university, stockholm, sweden: ericson. salt, b. (2006). the big picture. prahran, victoria, aus: hardie grant books. sedikides, c. (1993). assessment, enhancement, and verification determinants of the selfevaluation process. journal of personality and social psychology, 65(2), 317–338. singhachotsukpat, p., jaipeach, c., nirunvichaya, tp., noodam, w., chaipatthananont, d, & chongphaisal, p. (2013). generation y's knowledge, skill, abilities, and professional interest amidst the wake of asean economic cooperation (aec) 2015. proceedings of the-4th international conference on engineering, project, and producation management (eppm). thailand: pathum tahni. skene, j., cluett, l. & hogan, j. (2007). engaging gen y students at university: what web tools do they have, how do they use them and what do they want? salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 1 no. 2, july 2018 92 refereed paper, pp. 1-10. retrieved from http://fyhe.com.au/past_papers/pa pers07/final_papers/pdfs suwana, f. (2017). transforming our world: the 2030 agenda for sustainable development. kasetsart journal of social sciences xxx, 1-6. doi.org/10.1016/j.kjss.2016.10.00 42452-3151/2017 tjoa, a. min. & tjoa, simon. (2016). the role of ict to achieve the un sustainable development goals (sdg). fip international federation for information processing 2016. in f.j. mata & a. pont (eds.), springer international publishing switzerland 2016, witfor 2016, ifip aict, 481, 3– 13. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-444475. retrieved from https://publik.tuwien.ac.at /files/pubdat_251073.pdf. twenge, j. m., konrath, s., foster, j. d., campbell, w. k., & bushman, b. j. (2008). egos inflating over time: a cross-temporal meta-analysis of the narcissistic personality inventory. journal of personality, 76, 875-901. utomo, a., reimondos, a., utomo, i., mcdonald, p. & hull, t.h. (2013). digital inequalities and young adults in greater jakarta: a sociodemographic perspective. international journal of indonesian studies, 1, 79-110. valentine, d.b. & powers, t. l. (2013). generation y values and lifestyle segments. journal of consumer marketing, 30(7), 597-606. doi.10.1108/j/ jcm-07-2013-0650. volkom, v.m., stapley, j.c. & malter. j. (2013). use and perception of technology: sex and generational differences in a community sample. educational gerontology, 39(10), 729–740. vyncke, f., & bergman, m. (2010). are culturally congruent websites more effective? an overview of decade of empirical evidence. journal of electronic commerce research, 11(1), 14-29. wheeler, s. (2001). information and communication technologies and the changing role of the teacher. journal of educational media, 26(1), 7-17. zabadi, m.a. & al-alawi, a.h. (2016). university students’ attitudes towards e-learning: university of business & technology (ubt)saudi arabia-jeddah: a case study. international journal of business and management, 11(6), 286295. doi:10.5539/ijbm.v11n6p286 ziemba, e. (2013). the holistic and systems approach to a sustainable information society. journal of computer information systems, 54(1), 106-116. 0102_00a_cover.pdf 0102_00b_toc.pdf 0102_01_angeningsih.pdf 0102_10_backcover.pdf salasika indonesian journal of gender, women, child, and social inclusion's studies volume 5, number 2 – december 2022 table of content javanese feminine leadership during the pandemic: a study of sragent regent’s leadership style in overcoming the covid-19 pandemic setyasih harini, riska wirawan 63 analysis of the local wisdom and role of women weavers in samarinda norhidayat 79 constraints and solutions to problems in online learning at sd kristen satya wacana, salatiga fidelis alvin basundara prima, eunice widyanti setyaningtyas 89 government’s responsibilities in handling cases of child sexual abuse in samarinda suryaningsi, edi rachmat, wingkolatin, atika yuliana ichsani 105 “decision to migrate” of female migrant workers in sendang biru, malang regency keppi sukesi, henny rosalinda, yahya, wahyu handayani , jedda ayu inggrida, elok anggraini, rany purnama hadi, rozaila farcha 125 index 141 editorial team chief editors arianti ina restiani hunga, universitas kristen satya wacana, indonesia (scopus id: 46161114400, google scholar) dewi candraningrum, universitas muhammadiyah surakarta, indonesia (google scholar) board of editors claudia derichs, humboldt universität zu berlin, germany (scopus id: 14026487800) ida sabelis, vrije universiteit (vu) amsterdam, the netherlands (scopus id: 6507181398, google scholar) siti kusujiarti, warren wilson college, usa (scopus id: 56276925900) ratna saptari, leiden university, the netherlands (scopus id: 6504610910) sylvia tiwon, university of california, usa (scopus id: 6506468591) emy susanti, universitas airlangga, indonesia (scopus id: 57213142220, google scholar) keppi sukesi, brawijaya university, indonesia (scopus id: 56025803300, google scholar) kristi poerwandari, university of indonesia, indonesia (scopus id: 25628305200, google scholar) willemijn de jong, university of zurich, switzerland (scopus id: 55258294800) lyn parker, the university of western australia, australia (scopus id: 56273266700) technical editors indriretno setyaningrahayu, universitas kristen satya wacana, indonesia (google scholar) daniel kurniawan, universitas kristen satya wacana, salatiga, indonesia (google scholar) suryaningsi, universitas mulawarman, indonesia (scopus id: 57223402854, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1093-810x, id sinta: 5990865, google scholar) agustinus fritz wijaya, universitas kristen satya wacana, indonesia (scopus id: 56461093400, google scholar) stefanus perangin-angin, universitas kristen satya wacana, indonesia (google scholar) reviewers elisabet titik murtisari, universitas kristen satya wacana, indonesia (scopus id: 38161752200, google scholar) asfa widiyanto, iain salatiga, indonesia (scopus id: 56451676900, google scholar) wening udasmoro, gadjah mada university, indonesia (scopus id: 56493135600) farah purwaningrum, the university of sydney, australia (scopus id: 57192369400, google scholar) alimatul qibtiyah, sunan kalijaga state islamic university, indonesia (scopus id: 57200660732, google scholar) tyas retno wulan, the jenderal soedirman university, indonesia (scopus id: 57205341358, google scholar) nurjanah, state university of jakarta, indonesia (scopus id: 57210948418) ira desiawanti mangiliko,the artha wacana christian university, indonesia keiko hirano, ochanomizu university, jepang (orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3258-6072) anik yuesti, universitas mahasaraswati, indonesia (scopus id: 57214104250, google scholar) nurdiana gaus, stiks tamalanre makassar, indonesia (google scholar) yacinta kurniasih, monash university, australia (google scholar) yafet yosafet wilben rissy, universitas kristen satya wacana, indonesia (scopus id: 57221474276, google scholar) government’s responsibilities in handling cases of … (suryaningsi, rachmat, wingkolatin, and ichsani) 105 government’s responsibilities in handling cases of child sexual abuse in samarinda suryaningsi faculty of teaching and education, mulawarman university edi rachmat faculty of teaching and education, mulawarman university wingkolatin faculty of teaching and education, mulawarman university atika yuliana ichsani faculty of teaching and education, mulawarman university correspondence email: suryaningsi@fkip.unmul.ac.id abstract sexual violence in samarinda has increased since 2020 when the coronavirus spread in indonesia. this research aims to investigate the government’s responsibility for sexual abuse crimes against children in samarinda. the research is descriptive and qualitative with a narrative approach. in-depth interviews were conducted by meeting employees who were assigned to the women and children empowerment service in samarinda. this study discovered the government’s limitations in handling victims of sexual assault cases due to the covid-19 pandemic. in conclusion, the government’s responsibility rests on samarinda city women and children empowerment service. various efforts have been made, such as improving regulations, socializing, collecting data, receiving public complaints, conducting reviews, monitoring, evaluating, and supervising violations of child protection. keywords: sexual abuse, children as victims, child sexual abuse, child molestation, samarinda introduction sexual violence is defined as any sexual act, attempt to perform a sexual act, comment, or sexual behaviour that is not intentional or otherwise, an act of violation to have sexual intercourse by coercion against someone (mega oktavia simamora; et al., 2022). sexual violence is any activity consisting of sexual activity that is carried out by force by an adult on a child or by a child on another child (ramayanti & suryaningsi, 2021). according to unicef (2014), sexual violence is any activity consisting of sexual activity that is carried out by force by an adult on a child or by a child on another child. sexual violence includes the commercial use or involvement of children in sexual activities, inducements or coercion of children to engage in sexual salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 5 no. 2, december 2022 106 activities, involvement of children in audio-visual media, and child prostitution (christopher & suryaningsi, 2021). according to the law number 35 of 2014 in indonesia, violence is any act against a child which results in physical, psychological, or sexual effects and/or leads to neglect of misery or suffering, including threats to commit acts, coercion, or deprivation of liberty unlawfully. sexual crimes against children are a serious problem and a social disaster that worries society. the number of sexual violence against children has increased every year. this condition demands the protection for children. one of the main causes of the emergence of sexual crimes against children in indonesia is the lack of education, teaching, understanding, and instilling community religious values and the ease of accessing pornographic content (antonio & suryaningsi, 2022; bjørnseth & szabo, 2018; ochieng et al., 2022). the surrounding environment has considerable influence and responsibility in shaping a child’s behaviour (ayoub et al., 2019; newson, 2017; suryaningsi & muhammad, 2020). therefore, guidance, coaching, and protection from parents, teachers, and other adults are very much needed by children in their development (aini et al., 2021; saltiana, 2021). protection for children already exists and is determined by the government in overcoming sexual violence. even though the child protection act has been enacted, the perpetrators dare to carry out their evil actions. the rise of violence against children every day has raised concerns from different parties, especially the government. in response to this, the indonesian government issued the law no. 17 of 2016 concerning the stipulation of government regulation instead of law no. 1 of 2016 concerning the second amendment to law number 23 of 2002 concerning child protection to become ri law no. 35 of 2014. at present, sexual violence, according to the law number 35 of 2014, about amendments to law no. 23 of 2002 concerning child protection, is stated in the term sexual crime, which is based on the need for increased commitment from the government, regional governments, and the community and all stakeholders related to the implementation of child protection. in fact, in indonesia, cases of sexual violence have increased every year. the victims are not only adults but also teenagers, children, and even toddlers. cases of sexual violence against children continue to increase from time to time (ochieng et al., 2022; ruslan & suryaningsi, 2021). this increase is not only in terms of the quantity of cases but also the quality. what is even more tragic is that most of the perpetrators are from the family or the environment around the child, including in their own houses, schools, other educational institutions, and the child’s social environment. the central and regional governments, the society, the families, and the parents are obliged to provide protection and guarantee the fulfilment of the child’s human rights through their duties and responsibilities. child protection that has been carried out has not provided government’s responsibilities in handling cases of … (suryaningsi, rachmat, wingkolatin, and ichsani) 107 guarantees for children to get treatment and opportunities according to their needs in various areas of life, so that in carrying out efforts to protect children’s rights, it must be based on the principles of human rights, namely respect, fulfilment, and protection of children’s rights (ayoub et al., 2019; covell et al., 2018; dao et al., 2020; drummond, 2016; kooli & muftah, 2020). based on the data compiled from the sub-directorate of youth, children, and women (renakta) of the east kalimantan police’s crime investigation unit, sexual violence against children has increased in the last two years. in east kalimantan, three cities occupy the highest ranking of violence cases against women and children. in 2021, the city of samarinda had 293 cases, the city of bontang had 70 cases, and the city of balikpapan had 51 cases. as of july 1, 2022, there were around 441 cases, but in july-august, the number increased by 138 cases. based on these data, as of september 1, 2022, there were 579 violence cases against women and children in east kalimantan, with a total of 612 victims. in the last few months, cases of child sexual abuse have been on the rise again in samarinda. as reported by several metropolis media, it has been noted that cases of sexual abuse against children in samarinda are increasing. the number of victims of child violence is 313, while there are 308 cases of adults. violence against women and children in east kalimantan is quite high, and around 3 or 4 cases occur in a day. out of 10 regencies or cities in east kalimantan, samarinda is ranked first with the most cases (173 cases). samarinda also has the highest number of victims. there were 26 male victims, 77 female victims, and 87 adult female victims. it should be noted that the total numbers of victims and cases are different because one case can have more than one victim. in 2012 there were 30 cases of sexual abuse on the etam continent. the number increased by ten a year later. until march 2014, 9 cases were recorded. sexual intercourse with minors has also increased. in 2012, 76 cases happened. meanwhile, in 2013 the number increased to 78 cases. until march 2014, there were 18 cases (corkery et al., 2018). if we look further, there are various cases of child molestation. there are sexual harassment committed by teachers, sexual abuse of street children committed by coordinators, and others. child molestation is of great concern to many schools and mothers who have children (brown et al., 2020; gatuguta et al., 2018). child sexual abuse is a form of treatment that degrades the dignity of children and causes lasting trauma. forms of sexual abuse such as being raped, molested, or forced to have intercourse have had an endemic impact. from the lens of child psychology, such abuse will aggregate all suffering that has ever existed (gerke et al., 2020; hornor, 2010; wismayanti et al., 2019). sexual harassment that is highlighted these days is proof that forms of exploitation of children are carried out by actors who have more physical strength. this is done for the sexual satisfaction of adults. physical strength is used as a tool to salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 5 no. 2, december 2022 108 expedite evil efforts. the perpetrator easily deceives a child so that s/he wants to obey all the orders of the person who orders him. often the perpetrator promises something or persuades the victim so that, in the end, the victim is treated and harassed in various forms. many incidents of child sexual abuse are often not reported to the police. these cases tend to be kept secret and are rarely even discussed by the perpetrator or the victim. the victims feel ashamed because they see things as a disgrace that must be hidden, or they are afraid of any threats from the perpetrators (herman, 2015). meanwhile, the perpetrator feels ashamed and afraid that s/he will be punished if her/his actions are discovered. sexual harassment of children refers to sexual behavior that is not reasonable that harms the victims who are still children and disturbs the peace in society. namy et al. (2017) have mentioned that sexual harassment, among others, is defined as a form of action unnatural to children and is usually carried out by adults. experts generally give this definition to be a form of wrongdoing against children. it can be physical, such as beatings that injure children and their souls and taking out anger on children by saying dirty and obscene words. another form of child abuse can also take the form of sexual abuse. for example, adults may have direct sexual contact with children based on post-rape or non-coercion. other acts of sexual mistreatment are sexual exploitation, such as child prostitution and child sexual abuse. child sexual abuse is often not identified for reasons that go unnoticed. the child does not understand what is happening to them, the perpetrator threatens the child if they report the incident, or the child’s report is not taken seriously for various reasons. for example, the child is not trusted or denied by adults to whom the child reports what happened (tosh, 2014). sexual harassment can occur within the family environment or outside the family (in the community). these actions can be carried out by a family member, a relative, a neighbor, and even a stranger the child does not know (christian & kennedy, 2011). children are individuals who are not fully developed physically, mentally, or socially because of their being vulnerable, dependent, and still developing conditions compared to adults. it is clear that children are more at risk of violence, exploitation, neglect, and so on. in general, the consequences of violence against children are very serious and dangerous because a child is in a period of growth, both physically and mentally. children who experience sexual abuse, when not well-treated, will experience disabilities not only physically but also mentally and emotionally. this mental and emotional disability will change life and the future and will carry on into adulthood (suryaningsi et al., 2021). children, as the backbone of the nation and as the next generation to be the successors of the nation, must certainly live and grow according to their needs so that they can live according to their dignity and can become the nation’s successors who can be relied upon to advance and prosper the country, not to be ones government’s responsibilities in handling cases of … (suryaningsi, rachmat, wingkolatin, and ichsani) 109 whose mental development is psychologically hampered and who even experience sexual harassment deviations. in this case, the government must immediately intervene to protect children who experience various problems that can hamper their lives. a clear manifestation that the country is the protector of children’s dignity is law number 23 of 2002 concerning child protection and presidential decree no. 77 of 2003 from the indonesian child protection commission, or called the national commission for child protection. the national commission for child protection is an independent state institution whose job is to protect the nation’s children from all actions that harm them. this is by the constitutional mandate: "every child has the right to survival, growth, and development and is entitled to protection from violence and discrimination”. the national commission for child protection also sees the need to establish the women and children empowerment services at the provincial and district/city levels as an effort to oversee and supervise the implementation of child protection in the regions. the women’s and children’s empowerment service is not a representative of the national commission for child protection in a hierarchical-structural sense but is more coordinative, consultative, and functional. the existence of the office for the empowerment of women and children is in line with the era of regional autonomy where the development of child protection is the obligation and responsibility of the local government. issues that are urgent to be examined are as follows: 1. responsibilities of the women and children empowerment service 2. obstacles faced by the women and children empowerment service 3. the concept of providing child protection 4. crimes of sexual abuse of children 5. regulations on child protection 6. cases of sexual abuse 7. community responsibilities in child protection methods this study is qualitative and descriptive using a narrative approach. the research data source is the samarinda city women and children empowerment service. the problem focuses on victims of child sexual abuse in the city of samarinda. the research techniques included observation, in-depth interviews, and documentation. data analysis techniques was carried out through data reduction, data display, and conclusion. results and discussion the office for the empowerment of women and children is located at jalan. milono, no. 1, 75122, bugis, city of samarinda, east kalimantan 76112. to support activities in carrying out their duties, the women and children empowerment service office is salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 5 no. 2, december 2022 110 equipped with facilities and infrastructure. in 2021 the samarinda city empowerment and children service office has six areas to highlight, namely the fields of advocacy, outreach, studies, and documentation. the prominence of cases of sexual harassment in the city of samarinda will encourage the second sector to be more active in carrying out its function as an effort to reduce the number of sexual violence. according to advocate figures in indonesia, including raden soewandi, teuku m. hasan, johannes latuharhary, ahmad subardjo, muhammad yamin, maria ulfah, abdul abbas, soepomo, and r soeleiman e koesoema atmadja, it is important for advocates to advocate for people who are blind to the law. the nine figures are freedom fighters and national fighters. advocates have an important and strategic role in their work in fighting for the rule of law. advocates as an element of law enforcement in criminal justice are one of the pillars of upholding the rule of law and human rights. the guarantee of equality before the law is conceptually mentioned in the 1945 constitution article 27, paragraph 1, which formulates: “all citizens have the same position before the law and government with no exceptions”. therefore, for everyone who needs legal aid (legal aid), apart from being a human right, it is also a movement guaranteed by the constitution. in general, victims of sexual harassment come from the poor and blind to the law. therefore, the presence of advocacy is motivated by these problems, so that the essence of an advocate is to provide legal assistance to people who are unable and do not understand the ongoing law. in addition, it is also a very important principle that a person affected by a case has the right to obtain legal assistance (legal assistance principle), so this is where the position of the advocate profession in the judiciary in the context of providing legal assistance to the community has a very important meaning for the community. according to law number 18 of 2003, advocates have a position in the criminal justice system. that means maintaining a balance between the large role of law enforcers, such as the police and prosecutors and the weak condition of suspects/defendants. figure 1 shows the number of children in samarinda who are victims of sexual harassment. samarinda has 10 sub-districts, namely palaran sub-district, samarinda seberang, samarinda ulu, samarinda ilir, samarinda north, kunjang river, welcome, sungai pinang, samarinda kota, and loa janan ilir. the number of boys is 51.48%, and the girl is 48.52% of the total population. the disaggregated data above can be used as a reference in illustrating that there are more female victims of violence than men, as in the disaggregated data from the gender and child profile book of the 2022 women and children empowerment service office. the number of victims of violence based on the age of boys is 65, while the number of the girl victims is 96. government’s responsibilities in handling cases of … (suryaningsi, rachmat, wingkolatin, and ichsani) 111 figure 1. data of children aged 0-18 years in samarinda city, semester ii of 2021 data source: gender and children profile book 2022 women and children empowerment service office these victims are the responsibility of the government by the principles of the rule of law adopted by the indonesian nation in social and state life, requiring the role of an advocate as a profession that is free, independent, and responsible in legal assistance in the context of enforcing criminal law, in addition to the judiciary and law enforcement agencies such as the police and the attorney general’s office. the list of types of cases faced by the women and children empowerment service from 2022 to june 2022 is presented in table 1. table 1. types of cases faced by the women and children empowerment service from 2022 no case al ap al+ap 1 7 9 16 2 psychological violence 5 9 14 3 sexual violence 5 14 19 4 neglect of rt 1 0 1 5 abh 4 1 5 6 others 1 1 2 total 57 data source: gender and child profile book office of the women and children empowerment office 2022 salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 5 no. 2, december 2022 112 the role of an advocate is to fight for human rights; become the guardian of the constitution and human rights; hold an advocacy oath in the context of upholding the law, justice, and truth; implement the advocate’s code of ethics; uphold and uphold the values of justice, truth and morality; protect and maintain the independence, freedom, degree, and dignity of advocates; maintain and improve the quality of advocacy services to the community by continuing to learn to broaden insights both nationally and internationally; maintain good relations with clients and colleagues; provide legal services, legal advice, legal consultations, legal information, and drafting contracts; defend the client’s interests and represent the client before the court (legal representation); provide free legal aid to people who are weak and economically disadvantaged; and advocate for underprivileged people, both at home and abroad, is part of the function and role of an advocate in fighting for human rights. based on the data sources that the author obtained through the results of documentation at the samarinda women and children empowerment office, it can be seen that the number of cases that came in and received assistance was 57 children consisting of 6 cases and the most reported cases were cases of sexual violence. vision and mission the vision and mission of the samarinda women and children empowerment service are as follows: vision. increasing the effectiveness of child protection for the realization of quality, noble and prosperous indonesian children. mission. disseminating all provisions of laws and regulations relating to child protection 1. collecting data and information about children 2. receiving public complaints 3. conducting studies; monitoring and evaluating the implementation of child protection 4. supervising the implementation of child protection 5. supporting the realization of east kalimantan towards a child-friendly city (kla) management structure the management structure of the samarinda regional indonesian child protection commission is as follows: 1. protector/adviser 2. general chairman 3. daily chairman 4. vice-chairman 5. secretary 6. deputy secretary 7. deputy secretary 8. treasurer 9. members the list of management structures has 5 areas, namely the secretariat, advocacy dissemination of studies and documentation, the field of partnerships, the field of monitoring, evaluation, facilities, and infrastructure as well as the field government’s responsibilities in handling cases of … (suryaningsi, rachmat, wingkolatin, and ichsani) 113 of legal aid. each field has its members. figure 2 tells the forms of violence that occurred in samarinda. figure 2. violence against women and children the number of sexual violence against girls is the highest, reaching 27 victims. the number of violence with the highest number after the number of sexual violence is the level of other types of violence. the number of other types of violence against boys in 2020 was 21. in contrast to adults, in 2020 the number of violence against adult men with the highest number is 1 person, namely at the number of sexual violence. meanwhile, the number of violence against adult women was the highest, namely at the number of psychological violence, with 12 people. this shows that children are very vulnerable to becoming victims of violence. a. physical violence 1. the number of cases of physical violence against boys in 2020 is 9 people. 2. the number of cases of physical violence against girls in 2020 is 6 people. 3. there is no number of cases of physical violence against adult males in 2020. 4. the number of cases of physical violence against adult women in 2020 is 9 people. b. violence 1. the number of cases of psychological violence against boys in 2020 is 9 people. 2. the number of cases of psychological violence against girls in 2020 is 7 people. 3. there is no level of psychological violence against adult males in 2020. 4. the number of cases of psychological violence against salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 5 no. 2, december 2022 114 adult women in 2020 is 12 people. c. sexual violence 1. the number of cases of sexual violence against boys in 2020 is 4 people. 2. the number of cases of sexual violence against girls in 2020 is 27 people. 3. the number of cases of sexual violence against adult men in 2020 is 1 person. 4. the number of cases of sexual violence against adult women in 2020 is 3 people. d. abandonment 1. rate of boys in 2020 is 1 person. 2. the neglect rate of girls in 2020 is 4 people. 3. the abandonment rate of adult males in 2020 is nonexistent. 4. the neglect rate of adult women in 2020 is 2 people. e. other violence 1. the number of cases of other violence against boys in 2020 is 21 people. 2. the number of cases of other violence against girls in 2020 is 13 people. 3. there are no cases of other types of violence against adult males in 2020. 4. the number of cases of other types of violence against adult women in 2020 is 1 person. based on the data above, it can be concluded that the level of sexual violence against girls in 2020 is the highest. the level of sexual violence against girls in 2020 is 27 people. the level of violence with the highest number after the number of sexual violence is the number of other types of violence. the number of other violence against boys in 2020 is 21. in contrast to adults, in 2020 the number of violence against adult men with the highest number is 1 person, namely at the number of sexual violence. meanwhile, the number of violence against adult women was the highest, namely at the number of psychological violence, with 12 people. this shows that children are very vulnerable to becoming victims of violence. it is different from the violence that occurred in 2021 which was experienced by children, and the types of cases in physical violence, which amounted to 39 victims were children. figure 3 shows the data from the women’s and children’s empowerment service in 2022. the office for the empowerment of women and children for 2022 is as follows: a. physical violence 1. the number of cases of physical violence against boys in 2021 is 5 people. 2. the number of cases of physical violence against girls in 2021 is 4 people. 3. there was no case of physical violence against adult males in 2021 4. the number of cases of physical violence against adult women in 2021 is 20 people. government’s responsibilities in handling cases of … (suryaningsi, rachmat, wingkolatin, and ichsani) 115 figure 3. violence against women and children data source: profile book samarinda 2022 b. violence 1. the number of cases of psychological violence against boys in 2021 is 14 people. 2. the number of cases of psychological violence against women in 2021 is 25 people. 3. there is no case of psychological violence against adult males in 2021. 4. the number of cases of psychological violence against adult women in 2021 is 19 people. c. sexual violence 1. the rate of sexual violence against boys in 2021 does not exist. 2. the level of sexual violence against girls in 2021 is 18 people. 3. there is no adult male sexual assault rate in 2021. 4. the number of cases of sexual violence against adult women in 2021 is 13 people. d. abandonment 1. the rate for boys in 2021 is 1 person. 2. the neglect rate for girls in 2021 is 2 people. 3. the abandonment rate in adult males in 2021 is nonexistent. 4. the abandonment rate in adult women in 2021 is nonexistent. e. other violence 1. the number of cases of other types of violence against boys in 2021 is 17 people. salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 5 no. 2, december 2022 116 2. the number of cases of other types of violence against girls in 2021 is 8 people. 3. the number of cases of other types of violence against adult males in 2021 is 2 people. 4. the number of cases of other types violence against adult women in 2021 is 4 people. f. trafficking violence 1. there is no case of violence against boys in 2021. 2. the number of trafficking violence against girls in 2021 is 1 person. 3. there is no case of adult male trafficking violence rate in 2021. 4. there is no case of violence against trafficking in adult women in 2021. based on the data above, it can be concluded that the number of cases of psychological violence in 2021 against girls is the highest. the number of cases of psychological violence against girls in 2021 is 25 people. the number of cases of violence with the highest number after the number of cases of sexual violence is the level of physical violence. the number of cases of physical violence against adult women in 2021 is 20 people. the number of cases of other types of violence is the highest level of violence experienced by boys totaling 17 people. whereas in adult men the highest number of cases of violence is 2 people at other levels of violence. this shows that girls and women are vulnerable to becoming victims of violence. the numbers of cases of violence in 2020 and 2021 are different. in 2020 the number of cases of sexual violence against girls is the highest. in 2021 the number of cases of psychological violence against girls is the highest. the highest number of victims experiencing both sexual and psychological violence in 2020 and 2021 were girls. this shows that girls are vulnerable to violence. it is important to design a safe environment for children’s growth and development, and therefore, it is important to establish a safe and healthy home as the first madrasah for children before entering formal education. however, at home, children are subject to violence by the people closest to them. they should get early education from their parents, and this is where parents become the first teachers before children enter formal education. not only parents but grandparents, and people who are more mature at home, are also the first teachers. according to simarmata (2013), the protection of children’s lives and livelihoods is still the responsibility of various parties, namely both parents, family, community, and state. this protection can be in the form of fulfilling the needs of clothing, food, and boards. the protection given to children can be in the form of protection against the psychological condition of the child, namely especially his psychological development so that the child can develop and live normally, not only for physical development but also for mental or psychological development. family is important, being a place where children initially grow and build their skills to later succeed in the society (gunarso, et al, 1995: 27) government’s responsibilities in handling cases of … (suryaningsi, rachmat, wingkolatin, and ichsani) 117 the responsibility of the government in dealing with sexual violence in children the focus of responsibility is directed to the women and children empowerment service that has duties and functions, according to article 76, law number 23 of 2002 about child protection, of socializing all provisions of laws and regulations relating to the protection of children, collecting data and information, receiving public complaints, conducting studies, monitoring, and evaluating and supervising violations of child protection. albert venn dicey put forward three main elements of the rule of law, namely (a) supremacy of law, (b) equality before the law, and (c) constitution based on individual rights. even though there are different backgrounds in the understanding of rechtsstaat and the rule of law, it cannot be denied that the presence of the term rule of law or in terms of the 1945 constitution “state based on law” cannot be separated from the influence of these two concepts. efforts to control the state or government from the possibility of acting arbitrarily require the idea of a rule of law or a state based on the law (rechtsstaat or the rule of law), which contains the principles of the principle of legality, the principle of separation (sharing) of powers, and the principle of judicial power that is independent. efforts to enable people to live in harmony, safety, and prosperity are the responsibility of the state (fernandes, 2014; tyas & naibaho, 2020). however, in reality, everything that is desired is not in line with the actual conditions. as happened in 2021 there has been violence against children, the cases included in the report from the office for the empowerment of women and children are from january to june 2022. the office for the empowerment of women and children received 41 cases, of which the most cases were 8 cases regarding child custody, then 7 cases of children dealing with the law, and a further 5 cases of sexual abuse. according to the women and children empowerment service, there were 8 cases of child custody. this happened because many families experienced divorce in the household, causing parents to fight over custody of their children. in cases of children in conflict with the law, 7 cases are the responsibility of the women’s and children’s empowerment service, which are urgently needed to assist children in conflict with the law. while there were 5 cases of sexual harassment, out which was one case where the perpetrator was his own family, namely the father, and the victims were his 3 children. chilren will become more withdrawn, afraid, depressed, and so on, and this will have an impact on the child’s psychology so further treatment is needed from the women and children empowerment service. based some of the data obtained, sexual abuse of children occurs by family members themselves such as the victim’s parents, the reason for the perpetrators is that other people enjoy it better than me, this is concerning for parents who are expected to be protectors for their children but instead become perpetrators which resulted in the salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 5 no. 2, december 2022 118 family can not be a safe place for children. seeing cases of sexual harassment which are increasingly worrying, the responsibility of the women and children empowerment service is very important as the protector of children’s rights in indonesia. this can be proven by the results of monitoring, evaluating, and supervising violations of child protection both in efforts to fulfill the rights of victims (children) when deviations occur cases such as the disclosure of cases of wisdom or rape committed by the family itself. because in this area, often the victim or the party concerned does not want the case to be prosecuted for the reason that it is a family disgrace. the finding of the women and children empowerment service in handling cases of sexual abuse involving family members was that some people considered it a disgrace and should not be exposed when the case was to be resolved. for example, the women and children empowerment service often visits parties affected by sexual harassment cases, and the family say, ‘never mind. we don’t want to be exposed because of the family’s disgrace.’ however, on the other hand, the office for the empowerment of women and children often approaches families to continue to fight for and find solutions for children’s rights. another important aspect of the responsibility of the women’s and children’s empowerment service is the need for special handling in dealing with cases involving children, as explained above that both victims and perpetrators when dealing with cases of sexual harassment must obtain their rights such as assistance, supervision, assistance law, not tortured by the state, e.g. in a case involving a child who is a victim who does not get rehabilitation and so on. for this reason, the responsibility of the women and children empowerment service in outreaching, monitoring, and supervising the protection of children’s rights is very necessary. based on the data above, cases of sexual abuse were committed against 3 children at once. children are the generation and successors of the nation who can develop the potential that exists within them so children’s rights should be protected by the state. the responsibility of the state is to protect children’s rights by the preamble of the 1945 constitution, namely to prosper the people, educate the nation’s life, defend and secure and uphold justice. this confirms that the survival of every individual in indonesia, especially children, gets the protection of rights from the government of indonesia, including the protection of children’s rights which are part of human rights. this is by kozier barbara responsibility is the responsibility for behavior expected by other people towards someone according to their position in a system. responsibility is the obligation of a person as a rational and free being not to evade and explain his actions, retrospectively or prospectively (bertens, 1993:133). based on the above understanding, responsibility is defined as the readiness to provide answers to actions that have been carried out by nurses in the past or government’s responsibilities in handling cases of … (suryaningsi, rachmat, wingkolatin, and ichsani) 119 actions that will result in the future (lenita & anggraini, 2019). for example, if the nurse deliberately installs contraceptives without the client’s consent, it will have an impact on the client’s future. clients will not have children even though having children is the right of all humans. nurses retrospectively must be able to take responsibility even though the nurse’s actions are considered correct according to medical considerations. responsibility is influenced by social conditions both from within and from outside and is stable. responsibility is a form of behavior expected of someone in certain social situations. and also by the responsibilities of the women and children’s empowerment service, the women’s and children’s empowerment service has duties and functions according to article 76, law number 23 of 2002 concerning child protection, namely to socialize all provisions of laws and regulations relating to child protection, collecting data and information, receive public complaints, conduct studies, monitor, evaluate and supervise violations of child protection. one of the main tasks of the women and children empowerment service is by article 76, letter an of law no. 35 of 2014 concerning amendments to law number 23 of 2002 concerning child protection. the women and children empowerment service is a state institution that is independent in defending the best interests of the child. every citizen who cares about the fate of children should protect children both physically, mentally, and economically which ranges from violence to social and legal. it should be realized that children are also a population group that is vulnerable to violence, neglect, and coercion. one of the duties of the women’s and children’s empowerment service is to receive public complaints about violations of children’s rights. plus, to resolve public complaints, the women and children empowerment service can follow up on handling complaints through services to functional agencies or institutions that are responsible for providing protection, rehabilitation, reintegration, and reunification of children into the living environment of the family and the surrounding community. in the view of ethics, it is very important to understand the duties of nurses to be able to understand their responsibilities. nurses need to understand the concept of basic human needs. one of the most wellknown concepts of basic needs according to maslow is the concept of basic human needs according to abraham maslow. based on the concept of basic needs, nurses hold responsibility for meeting the basic needs of clients. an example of responsibility when caring for a fractured client is that the nurse not only fulfills the need for rest, comfort, and avoidance of pain (sleep and comfort need), but views the client as a whole being that has an impact on psychological disorders such as anxiety, fear, sadness, alienation as a result of fractures, or social problems such as (unable to work, missing family, separated from friends to spiritual problems such as prejudice against god, refusal to pray and feelings of guilt. salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 5 no. 2, december 2022 120 obstacles of the empowerment in samarinda the women’s empowerment service and children are tasked with independently considering children so that they are free from influence or intervention from other interests beyond the best interests of the child. the provisions intended are stated in article 74 of the child protection act. the women and children empowerment service can be inconsistent and in line with various options including policies executive, legislative, or judiciary in dividing interests and protecting children’s rights. after conducting research, the authors found the obstacles to the women and children empowerment service, including the following: 1. not having public means of transportation. the location is far, and there are complaints from the public to the women and children empowerment service, coming to the location or place where the victim, to use a motorcycle. this is considered an obstacle because the performance of the women and children empowerment office will not be optimal. after all, if there are victims who are to be picked up while the officers only use motorbikes, it will be a problem so the women and children empowerment office must have a car as a support for their service. 2. insufficient coordination with related partner institutions, both government and nongovernment another obstacle that has become an inhibiting factor for the women and children empowerment service is the lack of coordination with related partner institutions, both government and nongovernment. the partner here is the empowerment agency of samarinda city society and women, samarinda’s city health office, samarinda’s city education office, and samarinda’s city social welfare service. therefore, there needs to be good coordination between institutions to work together to help and protect children’s rights. efforts made by the empowerment in handling cases of sexual abuse crimes in children from the results of the author’s research there are 2 efforts by the empowerment women and children handling cases of crimes of sexual abuse against children including the following: 1. coordination with the prosecutor’s office and the police in every case of sexual abuse involving children the women’s and children’s empowerment service coordinates with the prosecutor’s office and the police to assist children in assisting them during the trial process because it involves protecting their rights because one of the duties of the empowerment is to protect children’s rights as stipulated in the 1945 constitution article 28 b (2), which states that “every child has the right to survival, growth and development, and the right to protection from violence and discrimination”. thus, the office for the empowerment of women and children must be expected government’s responsibilities in handling cases of … (suryaningsi, rachmat, wingkolatin, and ichsani) 121 that the prosecutor and the police work together to help protect children. as we know, children are the next generation who will determine the future of the nation as a whole. the urgency of protecting children’s rights to grow and develop according to their gifts and abilities must be protected. therefore, all forms that can disturb or damage children, including worldly violence, discrimination, and exploitation, must be eradicated without exception. 2. rehabilitation if acts of sexual abuse of children occur, the empowerment tasked with providing supervision is not in charge of solving problems so the women and children empowerment service is passively responsible, meaning that as long as the child is in a case of sexual abuse, the women and children empowerment service commits assistance and supervision as well as looking for the best solution such as rehabilitation for children who experience cases of sexual abuse. articles 28i (4) and (5) state that the protection, promotion, enforcement, and fulfillment of human rights is the responsibility of the country, especially the government, and to uphold and protect human rights by the principles of a democratic rule of law, the exercise of human rights are guaranteed, regulated, and outlined in laws and regulations. constitutional responsibility that must be carried out by the state, in this case the government, is to carry out efforts to promote human rights (arquisola & walid ahlisa, 2019). some of the efforts made by the women and children empowerment service in dealing with cases of sexual abuse crimes in children aim to create happiness for children. as children are still at a stage of physical and mental growth and development, they require attention from the environment. moving on from an environmental approach, children will have characters that shape the personalities better. they also need security, protection against danger, threats, and guarantees of security. behaviors that create uncertainty related to continuing work or that reflect attitudes and differences, and unexpected administrative policies will be a powerful motivator in terms of feeling safe at every stage of the employment relationship. according to john locke in the tabularasa theory, what makes a child good or bad is strongly influenced by the child’s environment. therefore, there is a need for synergy with parents or the community, schools, and the government to knit well together for the generation of a nation that is healthy, strong, resilient, and with character (sahlén et al., 2020). conclusion the responsibilities of the government through the women and children empowerment service are as follows: conducting outreach, collecting data and information, carrying out public complaints, salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 5 no. 2, december 2022 122 conducting research, monitoring, evaluating, and supervising. this can be seen in law no. 35 of 2014 concerning amendments to law number 23 of 2002 concerning child protection that the women and children empowerment service functions and is tasked with: disseminating all provisions of laws and regulations relating to child protection, collecting data, receiving public complaints, conducting reviews, monitoring, evaluating and supervising violations of child protection. efforts to encourage interested parties such as the government, policymakers, law enforcement officials, parents, or the community to be able to influence through improving regulations, and outreach to all indonesian people that the interests of a child’s development must still be maintained. some of the obstacles experienced by the women and children’s empowerment service while carrying out their duties are as follows: a) not having public transportation and b) coordination with related partner institutions, both government, and nongovernment. based on the responsibilities and obstacles of the women’s and children’s empowerment service in dealing with cases of sexual abuse in children, the authors found several important points that need to be observed. by their duties, in this context, their task is to deal with cases of sexual harassment, the women and children empowerment office has collected data, received information, received public complaints, conducted reviews, monitored and supervised. next, the efforts that have been made by the women and children empowerment services include the following: a) coordination with the prosecutor’s office and the police and b) rehabilitation. references aini, tn, marwiah marwiah, & suryaningsi, s. (2021). implementation of the regulation of the minister of pppa no. 6 of 2015 concerning the role of the office of women’s empowerment and child protection during the covid-19 pandemic in samarinda city. educational studies: conference series, 1(1). https://doi.org/10.30872/escs.v1i1.8 73 antonio, cd, & suryaningsi, s. (2022). analysis of acts of human rights violations experienced by underage children in indonesia. nomos: journal of legal research, 1(7 se-articles), 279–286. https://journal.actualinsight.com/index.php/nomos/arti cle/view/876 arquisola, mj, & walid profesionalsa, su (2019). do learning and development interventions motivate employees at pt danone indonesia? applying mcclelland’s theory of motivation to fmcg industries. firm journal of management studies, 4(2), 160. https://doi.org/10.33021/firm.v4i2. 780 ayoub, m., briley, da, grotzinger, a., patterson, mw, engelhardt, le, tackett, jl, harden, kp, & tuckerdrob, em (2019). genetic and government’s responsibilities in handling cases of … (suryaningsi, rachmat, wingkolatin, and ichsani) 123 environmental associations between child personality and parenting. social psychological and personality science, 10(6), 711–721. bjørnseth, i., & szabo, a. (2018). sexual violence against children in sports and exercise: a systematic literature review. journal of child sexual abuse, 27(4), 365–385. https://doi.org/10.1080/10538712.2 018.1477222 brown, c. s., biefeld, s. d., & elpers, n. (2020). a bioecological theory of sexual harassment of girls: research synthesis and proposed model. review of general psychology, 24(4), 299–320. christofher, da, & suryaningsi, s. (2021). analysis of acts of human rights violations experienced by underage children in indonesia. nomos: journal of legal research, 1(7), 279–286. covell, k., howe, rb, & blokhuis, jc (2018). the challenge of children’s rights for canada. wilfrid laurier univ. press. christian, j., & kennedy, l. w. (2011). secondary narratives in the aftermath of crime: defining family members’ relationships with prisoners. punishment & society, 13(4), 379–402. corkery, j. m., loi, b., claridge, h., goodair, c., & schifano, f. (2018). deaths in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender united kingdom communities associated with ghb and precursors. current drug metabolism, 19(13), 1086–1099. dao, bt, tran, nt, barysheva, ga, & tran, ls (2020). social security and population aging in vietnam: a guarantee for the elderly people’s life. international journal of criminology and sociology, 9, 381– 390. drummond, o. (2016). when the law is not enough: guaranteeing a child’s right to participate at sen tribunals. educ. lj, 149. fernandes, hp (2014). supplemental material, appendix_a talking to the shameless?: sexual violence and mediation in intrastate conflicts. 1, 139. gatuguta, a., merrill, k. g., colombini, m., soremekun, s., seeley, j., mwanzo, i., & devries, k. (2018). missed treatment opportunities and barriers to comprehensive treatment for sexual violence survivors in kenya: a mixed methods study. bmc public health, 18(1), 1–18. gerke, j., rassenhofer, m., witt, a., sachser, c., & fegert, j. m. (2020). female-perpetrated child sexual abuse: prevalence rates in germany. journal of child sexual abuse, 29(3), 263–277. herman, j. l. (2015). trauma and recovery: the aftermath of violence-from domestic abuse to political terror. hachette uk. hornor, g. (2010). child sexual abuse: consequences and implications. journal of pediatric health care, 24(6), 358–364. kooli, c., & muftah, h. al. (2020). impact of the legal context on protecting and guaranteeing women’s rights at work in the mena region. journal of international women’s studies, 21(6), 98–121. leniwita, h., & anggraini, y. (2019). practical instructions for the nursing ethics module. 189. mega oktavia simamora;, simanjuntak, momnj, & hutasoit, pj (2022). the impact of domestic violence on child maturity disorders. khatulistiwa: journal of education and social humanities, 2(2), 122–131. namy, s., carlson, c., o’hara, k., nakuti, j., bukuluki, p., lwanyaaga, j., namakula, s., nanyunja, b., wainberg, m. l., & naker, d. https://doi.org/10.1080/10538712.2018.1477222 https://doi.org/10.1080/10538712.2018.1477222 salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 5 no. 2, december 2022 124 (2017). towards a feminist understanding of intersecting violence against women and children in the family. social science & medicine, 184, 40–48. newson, je (2017). seven years old in the home environment. routledge. ochieng, w., sage, eom, achia, t., oluoch, p., kambona, c., njenga, j., bulterys, m., & lor, a. (2022). sexual violence trends before and after the rollout of covid-19 mitigation measures, kenya. emerging infectious diseases, 28(13), 270–276. https://doi.org/10.3201/eid2813.22 0394 ramayanti, l., & suryaningsi, s. (2021). analysis of child victims of sexual harassment and violence in the perspective of law and human rights. nomos: journal of legal research, 1(7), 269–278. ruslan, rdm, & suryaningsi, s. (2021). fulfillment of human rights to social problems by local governments in the shelter house concept. nomos: journal of legal research, 1(9), 355–364. sahlén, p., stålbrandt, ee, & åberg, es (2020). teachers’ work in the swedish school inspectorate’s quality audits in a time of accountability. teaching and teacher education, 96. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2020. 103181 saltiana, a. (2021). police efforts in responding to juvenile delinquency in tenggarong. nomos: journal of legal research, 1(7), 261–268. simarmata, m. (2013). rehabilitation process for children as victims of sexual violence. 5–7. suryaningsi, s., & muhammad, a. (2020). the role of a female head assistant at” al-walidaturrahmah” orphanage in implementing a just and civilized humanity in samarinda. salasika, 3(2), 103–116. suryaningsi, s., warman, w., komariyah, l., mulawarman, w. g., yusak, h., & aziz, t. (2021). legal protection and rehabilitation of victims of child trafficking with the purpose of prostitution in indonesia. journal of legal, ethical and regulatory issues, 24(6), 1–16. tosh, j. (2014). perverse psychology: the pathologization of sexual violence and transgenderism. routledge. tyas, eh, & naibaho, l. (2020). a harmony among religious community is required amidst the covid-19 pandemic. international journal of research granthaalayah, 8(9), 422–428. https://doi.org/10.29121/granthaala yah.v8.i9.2020.1583 wismayanti, y. f., o’leary, p., tilbury, c., & tjoe, y. (2019). child sexual abuse in indonesia: a systematic review of literature, law and policy. child abuse & neglect, 95, 104034. salasika indonesian journal of gender, women, child, and social inclusion's studies volume 1, number 1 – february 2018 table of content a road to the recognition of home-workers: transformation of pos production modes and roles of home-workers in batik industry in central java: case study in cluster batik in central java arianti ina r. hunga 1 advancing women’s digital skills and economic empowerment through girls in tech indonesia: a case study isyfi’afiani 21 women and batik conservation on muria slopes: a study of female batik crafters in kudus zaimatus sa’diyah 33 against ahok: an analysis of emotion-driven movements and network power in jakarta’s 2017 gubernatorial election subekti w. priyadharma 43 women’s circle approach is an alternative path for gender responsive public procurement system in indonesia sartiah yusran, eliyanti agus mokodompit, & ulfa matoka 59 chief editors dr. ir. arianti ina restiani hunga, m.si. (scopus id: 46161114400; google scholar); dr. phil. dewi candraningrum. (google scholar). executive editors indriretno setyaningrahayu, m.pd. (google scholar); daniel kurniawan, m.pd. (google scholar); andi misbahul pratiwi, m.si. (google scholar). board of editors prof. claudia derichs (scopus id: 14026487800). humboldt universität zu berlin, germany; assoc. prof. dr. ida sabelis (scopus id: 6507181398). vrije universiteit (vu) amsterdam, the netherlands; prof. siti kusujiarti.ma. (scopus id: 56276925900). warren wilson college, usa; dr. ratna saptari (scopus id: 6504610910). leiden university; prof. sylvia tiwon (scopus id: 6506468591). university of california; prof. dr. emy susanti, ma. (google scholar). airlangga university; prof. dr. ir. keppi sukesi, ms. (scopus id: 56025803300). brawijaya university; dr. kristi poerwandari, ma. (scopus id: 25628305200). university of indonesia; prof. dr. willemijn de jong (scopus id: 55258294800). university of zurich, switzerland; prof. lyn parker (scopus id: 56273266700). the university of western australia. reviewers prof. lyn parker (scoups id: 56273266700). university of western australia, perth, australia; dr. elisabet titik murtisari (scopus id: 38161752200; google scholar). satya wacana christian university; dr. wening udasmoro (scopus id: 56493135600; google scholar). gadjah mada university; dr. phil. farah purwaningrum (scopus id: 57205254451; google scholar). the university of sydney & rahayu and partners in association with hfw; alimatul qibtiyah, m.si. ma. ph.d. (scopus & google scholar). sunan kalijaga state islamic university; dr. tyas retno wulan, m.si. (scopus & google scholar). the jenderal soedirman university; dr. titik sumarti, msi. (scopus & google scholar). bogor agricultural university; prof. dr. mien ratoe oedjoe, mpd. (google scholar). the university of nusa cendana, kupang; j. casey hammond, phd. (scopus & google scholar). singapore university of technology and design; dr. phil. ratna noviani (google scholar). gadjah mada university; dr. rina herlina haryanti (google scholar). sebelas maret university; dr. ida ruwaida noor (google scholar). university of indonesia; dr. nurjanah, sp.m.pd. (google scholar). state university of jakarta; dr. ir. evi feronika elbaar, m.si. (google scholar). the university of palangka raya; dr. jendrius m.si. (google scholar). andalas university; dr. grace jenny soputan, se. (google scholar). manado state university; dr. anis farida, s.sos., sh., m.si. (scopus & google scholar). sunan ampel state islamic university surabaya; ira desiaanti mangiliko, s.si,.ph.d. (google scholar). the artha wacana christian university. a road to the recognition of home-workers: … (hunga) 1 a road to the recognition of home-workers: transformation of pos production modes and roles of homeworkers in batik industry in central java: case study in cluster batik in central java arianti ina r. hunga interdisciplinary faculty, universitas kristen satya wacana the centre for gender & child studies, universitas kristen satya wacana inahunga@gmail.com abstract home-work (hw) in the putting-out system (pos)-based industry is the real proof of global capitalism existence in domestic space. it utilizes house resources and manipulates domestic area to keep production costs low in order to compete in the global market. pos and hw become paradoxical as they are widely employed and categorized as strategic commodity production, market their products to global market, and involve certain skills, creativity and technology. nevertheless, the facts are obscured from public eyes. efforts to uncover the obscured facts have been done through pos and hw transformation strategies, which are described in this paper. the paper aims at promoting pos and hw into public areas. the data used were gathered through participatory action research on batik industry based on "putting-out" system in cluster batik in central java from gender perspectives. the transformation model was used to promote pos and hw and to seek recognition of the facts that was based on system advantages and capacity enhancement of home-workers while enhancing product values through “fair trade” market. the implemented model has four components, namely: 1) development of innovation and technology that focused on product development, production, and marketing on the alternative market; 2) innovation and technological transfer in product development for better value chain and value added; 3) engineering and strengthening of production institutionalization, which is based on pos clusters; 4) engineering and strengthening of marketing institutionalization of alternative market; and 5) development and strengthening of vocal points that are related to and in support of the implementation. this model gave out positive impact on supporting the implementation of pos and pos roles and promoting this reality. as a model, however, this transformation model needed to be developed that it might be disseminated to a larger scale. keywords: batik, putting-out system, home-workers, central java, cluster batik salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 1 no. 1, february 2018 2 introduction: paradox and “invisibility” of pos and hw in the midst of low industry performance, there is an interesting development of “putting-out” system-based industry, especially in handicraft textile, including batik. the report of the ministry of trade of the republic of indonesia (2012) showed that batik production rate in 2011 increased to 3.9 trillion from its previous rate, 2.9 trillion, in 2010. the demand rate of batik, especially for export, showed a gradually increasing rate. from 2008 to 2012, the average rate of batik export growth was 33.83%. it was also reported that the export rate calculated from the total number of batik products and its derivative products reached us$ 22.3 million in 2010, us$ 69 million in 2011, and us$ 278 million in 2012 ( “kemenperin,” n.d.). one of the fast growing microsmall-medium industries (industri mikro-kecil-memengah/imkm) in the last 10 years is batik industry. this makes batik industry a strategic and important industry for indonesian economic development. it cannot be denied that the driving factor is unesco recognition of batik as indonesia’s cultural treasure and identity. the data acquired from disperindag (office of industry of trade) of central java (2001) showed that there were 11,391 units of batik production spread in 146 production centrals with idr 76 billion production rate. in 2010, there were up to 48,300 business units, 1 the term is often confused with the wrong term, which is home industry or micro industry. actually, they are not independent industry, but they are workers who receive order from their employers, bring and finish their work at home, and, when they finish the work, deliver/send the order to the address organized by the employers (hunga, 2011) absorbing 792,300 workers with export rate reaching us$ 110 million (menperindag-ministry of industry and trade-in media indonesia, 2010). in 2013, the number of batik production units increased to 50,000 units with the number of workers reaching 3.5 million people spread in various industry centrals (balai besar kerajinan dan batik, 2015). the durability of batik industry is the practice of home-based production mode1 or, in academic term, “putting-out” system-based production mode (sub-sequently abbreviated as pos). pos depends on the workers, who are home-workers (abbreviated as hw) and their family members, that work at home or any chosen places (hunga, 2013, 2014). the positive development of posbased industry creates a paradoxical condition if it is seen through six factors (hunga, 2013, 2014). the first factor is obfuscation and reduction of commodity meaning. commodities produced through pos are viewed to be non-strategic. however, it is actually the opposite; commodities produced through pos are increasingly growing and varied. these include strategic commodity, need innovation, technology, and creativity in the work. commodities produced through pos are batik (cloth, convection, and various derivative products for fashion), woven products and other derivative woven products, furniture (wood, rattan, plastic, leather craft, bamboo craft, handicrafts made from coconut husk and coconut shell), footwear, eyelash, food varieties processing, seafood processing, toys, monel and a road to the recognition of home-workers: … (hunga) 3 silver handicraft, and other traditional handicrafts (hunga, 2011, 2013, 2014; ilo, 2014). second, pos production mode provides opportunity of income for women, but, at the same time, marginalizes and manipulates domestic sphere for women. most processes of batik production from the factory are moved to homeworkers (hw), manipulating the workers’ home as ‘factory.’ through pos, industry reaches its efficiency because it does not need a place, working tool, supporting working facility (water, electricity, batik production tool), cost for workers (food and transport), and social security costs of labor (health, accident, etc.). low wage occurs through a system of units (pieces, units, sheets, etc.); even family members’ labor is not paid. low wage is legitimized through the meaning of home as domestic arena. women are only seen as ‘time issue’, parttime. home changes its function to factory, which is dirty, messy and polluted by production waste. furthermore, the family does not have the space to rest and acquire affectionate relations. familial-social relation is replaced by relation measured by its monetary value (hunga, 2013, 2014). third, home-workers and gender-based exploitation are evidenced through the use of hw through the spreading of pos accompanied by the practice of exploitation towards the workers and their family members, and the efforts of parties benefited from this practice to “hide” this fact2 (ilo, 1996; doane, 2007; wiego, 2010). 2 the way business people avoid some risks such as tax, demand for social security for labors and labor demonstration (hunga, 2005, 2010). home-workers phenomenon is not a new issue and it has become significant since the end of global economic crisis in 1990s. the crisis encouraged industry to apply flexible mode of production and triggered the emergence of informal workers who worked from their homes or places they chose, which was known as home-workers (ilo, 2012). according to ilo (2012), there were 33.74 million indonesian formal workers and 73.67 million people (70%) who work in informal economy, and most of those informal workers were vulnerable women. ilo (2014) emphasizes that in indonesia, pos and hw have not been accommodated in the policy and they have not acquired recognition and protection. the number is allegedly lower than the reality because there are many developing home-based or home industries. most of these industries develop in the informal economic areas, which are not formally recorded. researchers and activists who observe the phenomenon in indonesia translated home-worker into tenaga kerja rumahan or pekerja rumahan. however, the author does not use this translation because the term tenaga kerja rumahan or pekerja rumahan is often defined wrongly. it is commonly identified with workers in household or home servants or pembantu rumah tangga (prt). if an individual and society know or hear the term home-worker (subsequently abbreviated as hw), they will usually categorize hw as a wrong group, such as home-industry, micro business, craftsman, housewives, seasonal worker, and even salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 1 no. 1, february 2018 4 unemployment. in fact, hw is commonly translated into varied local terms such as borongan, sanggan3, maklon, rengsi, mancal, jrogan gaok4, tempahan5, bos or bos kecil, pengobeng, jedot or makelar, etc. the difference of these terms highly correlates with the commodities they produce and hw gender role. for example, mancal is known as hw in convection commodity production. meanwhile, sanggan is a term for female hw, and jragon gaok is for male hw in batik production. therefore, the term is not only a word; rather, it has a different discourse and distinguishes between female and male hw in pos if observed through the competence, role, and position regarding the commodities they produce and their gender. this issue emphasizes that hw is not homogenous entity and, on the contrary, has its interaction complexity in pos. this reality might as well criticize the findings and dominant viewpoint of pos and hw that tend to consider them as homogenous entity (hunga, 2005, 2011). the fourth factor is related to environment. the ministry of environment of indonesia confirms that ukm batik becomes one of the contributors for river pollution in indonesia. pollution from batik production comes from the use of wax and excessive use of chemical coloring substances and bleach. every year, batik industry produced the highest co2 emission compared 3 derived from a javanese term songgo that means to prop, support or help. sanggan can refer to the worker or the work given by the employer. 4 jrogan is a term from the word ‘juragan’ (employer). gaok is a bird identified (stereotyped) as a man who flies here and there looking for and taking more jobs or ‘prey’. jrogan gaok is illustrated as a male hw coordinator who takes and divides work and wage. another term for jrogan gaok used in another region is tempahan. 5 derived from javanese word tempohke, which can be interpreted as the represented and vice-employer. to other ukms in terms of the use of kerosene fuel, excessive water and electricity. this serious issue is caused by hw-self-employment and the fact that most batik production process is conducted in homeworkers’ houses. waste production has negative effect on the family members, especially women and children, and the environment. furthermore, ikm attitude in using excessive water implicates in the scarcity of water. consequently, batik has negative image due to the fact that the production process is not environmentally friendly since it produces harmful waster endangering the environment and humans’ lives (hunga, 2004, 2014; clean batik initiative, the germanindonesian chamber of industry and commerce-ekonid, 2011). the fifth is the threat of batik conservation (hunga, 2013; 2014). in case of batik, it is reduced to mere commodity, in which authentic batik is marginalized by textile batik (fullprinting batik), including imported batik textile. authentic batik made through manual process with philosophical meaning is less popular compared to cheap price printing batik mass-produced by mediumbig industry (industri menengahbesar/imb), which is dominated by male workers and do not consider batik’s philosophical meaning, using machine (tirta, 2001; doellah, 2002). this practice will be beneficial for imb, but it will destroy ikm and selfemployment batik production based a road to the recognition of home-workers: … (hunga) 5 on pos (hunga, 2013). in 2012, indonesia imported batik textile and finished product of batik textile from china for us$ 30 million or idr 285 billion. this is an irony and a serious blow for authentic batik identical with indonesia’s cultural work and identity (”kemenperin”, 2012). in the middle of the increasing demand of batik, batik producers face difficulties in finding makers for cantik (batik tool), stamp, and workers/batik workers since most of them know less or nothing of batik design meaning they work on or have ‘lost’ their local knowledge. unesco (2012) in its visit to some batik clusters found that most batik producers were middleaged women. in addition, the un agency also found decreasing interest of young generations on becoming batik producers and batik worker’s lack of knowledge about the philosophy and meaning of batik design. this becomes an irony on how indonesia can defend and conserve batik (“bisnis keuangan”, 2012). furthermore, the popularity of batik in regions where batik used to be popular is dispersing. the example is what happens in kudus, batang, tegal, banyumas, and ciamis. (”kompas”, n.d.; “tempo”, n.d; hunga, 2013). sixth, batik in free trade versus fair trade market. authentic hand-made batik produced manually by pekerja rumahan (home workers/hw), whichstakes relatively long time to produce and has its philosophical meaning, is being sold in a massproduced and fast-produced free trade market focusing on cheap price that ignores the philosophical 6 see rencana strategis pengembangan imkm di indonesia. pos-based industries are not included here (menperindag, 2009). similarly, pos-based industries are also not included in rencana strategis pengembangan industri kreatif of 2010-2025 (menperindag, 2010). 7 formal industry (disperindag, 2005) meaning of a product. therefore, authentic batik is being sold in an improper market. if this continues, authentic batik will lose its position and will eventually die. the mechanism of free trade creates poverty among most producers in micro level, especially in poor and developing countries (“fairtrade”, n.d.). undp (1999) reported that countries with developed industry (22.9% of the total world population) reached 84.2% of the world’s gnp, while developing countries (77.1% of the world population) only reached 15.8% of the world’s gnp. this problem triggers international movement to change the rules of global trade initiated by some ngos, which is called fair trade movement. pakpahan (2004) explains that fair trade is an alternative approach aims to guarantee micro-small producers in poor and developing countries to acquire fair business contract including fair price, long-term purchase, support for the development of knowledge and skills for increasing productivity, fair production relation (gender and children), and friendliness towards the environment. the above paradoxical facts affect the “invisible/hidden” reality of pos and hw (hunga, 2011, 2013). in the middle of ever-growing imkm practicing pos, the opposite happens, the popular factory-based imkm receives more attention and reference in making decision 6. the problems become more complex when the policy7 is applied to posbased imkm. the implementation of this policy becomes a fatal mistake salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 1 no. 1, february 2018 6 because imkms have different characteristics and dynamics in terms of its principle and technical matters (ilo, 2002; hunga, 2005, 2011; homenet, 2010). a concrete example is the passing of law no. 13 of 2003. on the one hand, this law legitimizes industry to employ outsourcing workers that implicates in the emergence of imkm’s industrial work relation (menakerstrans, 2004) informalization, which also means that it will encourage more imkm to employ pos and hw. on the other hand, the law does not accommodate the protection needed by outsourcing workers, including hw. the law also creates a controversy not only between worker and employer, but also between workers—factory workers under the umbrella of labor union— and hw who work at unorganized homes. the factory workers demand hw to be ‘employed’8, but the existence of law no 13 of 2003 (out-sourcing) leads the government to encourage these workers to be ‘put at home’ or conduct their production process at their homes. this implicates in the separation of workers’ power and tends to weaken them in the capitalist production system. in fact, industries implementing pos and hw have existed for a long time in indonesia and in the global world, but it did not receive attention until 1990s, after the global economic crisis. this fact is revealed in some studies conducted in some countries and international scale movement facilitated by ilo (beneria and roldan, 1986; allen and wolkowitz, 1987; dangler, 1985, 1994; ilo, 1996; 8 the factory workers demand for formal relation, fixed, minimum wage, social security, etc. 9 it is also known as out-worker, and home-workers become a part of out-worker category. 10 home-workers are often replaced with or synonymized with home-based work. in indonesia, it is translated into pekerja rumahan. ping-chun hsing, 1999; mccormick, 2002; surman, 2002; doane, 2007; wiego, 2010). this phenomenon in indonesia is shown through some studies conducted by susilastuti (1999), wijaya (2000), ilo (2004), doane (2007), wiego, 2010, and hunga (2000, 2005, 2010, 2011). the crisis encouraged industry in choosing flexible and informal production such as pos. this industry is known as industrial homework or pos-based industry (dangler, 1985)9. ilo (1996) in the homework convention in 1996 defines pos as “a production system in which most of the production process happens outside the company or at the workers’ houses or places chosen by the workers and happens without or with less supervision from the employer or businessman”. this production system uses workers widely known as home-based work or home-worker10. such workers do not have formal work relation with the employer; therefore, the work relation between both parties is informal and exploitative. however, since the emergence of hw issue in public in 1990s and ilo convention related to home-workers (ilo, 1996), hw has become a contradictive debate. this situation is discussed in two publications, homeworkers in global perspective, invisible no more, which is one of the books written by some researchers and edited by eleen boris and elisabet prugl (1999), and a book entitled we are worker too! organizing homebased worker in global economy published by women informal a road to the recognition of home-workers: … (hunga) 7 employment globalizing and organizing (wiego, 2010). the term “invisibility” used by researchers and observers of this phenomenon describes contradictive empirical fact experienced by hw in pos. on the one hand, home workers in pos are not known or falsely known11, unrecognized and being questioned on their number and role in modern economy and relevance to provide protection. they are even considered worthy of receiving discriminative treatment. on the other hand, the use of pos and hw is spreading; it enters a more complex pos, demanding change of more strategic and exploitative hw role. the question on how to reveal the reality of pos and hw to the public so that they will acquire similar recognition for and honor of other business people and workers remains. this question encourages the author to conduct a program of research action transformation of pos and hw to answer the above question. this paper aims to explain and promote pos and hw and the efforts in acquiring recognition of the fact through research-action transformation model based on the power within pos and increase the capacity of home-workers including the commodities they produce through fair trade market. the transformation model is practiced through four integrated and holistic components, they are (1) the development of innovation and technology focusing on the development of product, production, and marketing in ‘alternative’ market; (2) transfer of innovation and technology in product development to increase value chain and value 11 there are many local terms with different meanings. this eventually obscures their identity, for example, by considering them as house servants (pembantu rumah tangga), housewives, etc. added by implementing fair trade principle; (3) engineering and strengthening of production organization based on pos cluster; (4) engineering and strengthening of marketing and marketing in ‘alternative’ market; (5) strengthening and developing related vocal point and supporting the implementation of transformation model. the data for this paper were gathered through research-action by employing participatory action research method with gender perspective. this method combines three matters integrally, which are research and action as one unity and the participation of research subjects, which are mainly women, in the whole process designed to solve the problems faced by the research subjects (cameron, jeny and chaterine gibson., 2004; kindon, s., pain r., & kesby, m., 2010). therefore, this method explicitly considers the reality of woman, especially her existence, experience, and needs if observed through its gender relation as the main relation issue in pos. eventually, they contribute to the change of situation in realizing gender justice and equality (robert, 1981; cook & fonow, 1986; harding, 1983; saptari & holzner, 1997). through participatory action research (par) method, the actions in the form of training, supervision, advocacy, dialogs as the implementation of transformation model through innovation and technology, developed according to the characteristics of batik and pos. this research used the combination of laboratory research in the salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 1 no. 1, february 2018 8 development of innovation and technology and field research for the implementation and development of transformation model of pos and hw. the data collection was conducted through in-depth interview, involved interviews, discussion through focus group discussion (fgd) and experiment in laboratory to strengthen and develop innovation and technology. the author used qualitative analysis technique with gender perspective to analyze the data. the determination factors of research subject12 were: (1) batik commodity, which was chosen because of its long existence13 and the fact that it was mainly produced through pos, has strong javanese cultural symbol, and not garment/convection commonly used in pos research; (2) the approach of imkm batik based on pos and hw as a unity of production chain and marketing or cluster14; (3) gender integration as the central part in the analysis; (4) the determination of actor according to its position and role in relation of production and batik they produced (batik and its production technique and market orientation); (5) region consideration according to the existence of batik, which are: a) cluster with batik tradition; b) cluster with batik tradition, but the tradition dims, even almost disappears, which is encouraged for revitalization 12 becomes the basic distinguishing point of this research with previous studies. 13 interview result with small-medium batik business people, ibu prodjo and bapak karto, in surakarta. they are the third generation who maintain the family business. since the beginning, their family business practiced pos. ibu painem has worked as home-workers batik since she was 10 years old. 14 porter (1998): ”a cluster is geographically proximate group of interconnected companies, linked by commodities, and complementarities”. the research integrates cluster concept to grasp the chain of production into one unified area starting from the raw materials, long chain production, and marketing. 15 term used by feminist researchers in showing gender construction of women originated from the ‘ideology’ of gender. this value does not only exist in domestic area, but also appears in employment world. this value becomes the legitimacy of how women remain objects (brigitte and saptari, 1997)m process; and (c) cluster with no batik tradition, which needs to initiate batik production. transformation of pos and hw: discovering important role of pos and hw one cause of the “invisibility” of imkm based on pos and hw is the assumption, approach, research method, and argument dominating public view that pos and hw play secondary role and are considered less important in economy. the debate is correlated with the biased interpretation (subordination) of the area of pos in domestic sphere, the dominant actors within it who are women that are considered as housewives, the type of work in pos that is considered less important, and type of work with feminine stereotype. the biased argument cannot be separated from the social construction of gender, which is correlated to the actor, place, job, and commodity they produce (beneria, 1981; wolkowitz & allen, s., 1987; saptari, 1992; chotim, 1994; mies, et al., 1996; prugl, 1999; prughl and boris, 1996; hunga, 2005). the description of capitalism that utilizes female workers and women’s femininity15 as cheap human resources has existed for a long time. to support the industry, women’s power a road to the recognition of home-workers: … (hunga) 9 is confined in the house. in a certain condition, they are pushed into the factory and, when economic restructuration takes place due to the crisis, they are escorted back into the house. this strategy is a concrete fact of capitalism that causes these workers to only go after profits (hartmann, 1976). pos becomes a good place for business people (batik industry owners) because hw and household for production place provide justifying reasons for gaining profits from efficiency production caused by the absence need for providing workplace for workers, working tools, workplace maintenance cost, production cost because they do not use electricity and water, social security for workers like factory workers, waste processing cost, etc. however, in a flexible and informal system, the business people still face some risks because all production processes are informal and depend on the condition within the household and the actors’ ability to produce commodities. in this context, actors in pos (arena) spread their ‘power’ in utilizing the existing system. in the context of female hw, they confront ‘powers’ within pos that decide (no option) productive works given by the employers and with the permission of the household’s authority (husband) to accept the work to be finished at home, but they should also accept the fact that, based on the aforementioned view, they are lowly valued. however, women are not actors without any asset. their skill in making batik is an asset they can negotiate with the actors dominating pos. the knowledge and skills in making batik can be the asset for batik makers in production relation based on pos (hunga, 2010, 2011). based on the above explanation, the author explains the phenomenon of pos and hw in batik industry from capitalism logical framework collaborated or cooperated with patriarchy placed in bourdieu’s concept (1977, 1990). therefore, the analysis framework constructed by the author is that the dialectics in pos, which produce batik, can be understood in the context of the actors’ habits in which there is a learning process, both in terms of technique and value that happens in a long process. these habits become batik’s frame of mind and direct home workers to the practice of producing, interpreting, utilizing, and selling batik in a pos area, which involves many powers or capitals. in this arena, the actors know and try to own a capital both technically through the skills for making batik and principally through knowledge and comprehension of values, including the ‘ideology’ of gender, that determines their roles and positions in this arena. in a wider arena such as market, the actors in pos confront capitalism power including the countries that determine their role and position in a bigger market. in this area, the actors find and realize that they have distinction, symbolic oppression, such as male domination and women marginalization, and social class. women often accept gender construction in pos as a normal matter, or by what bourdieu called as doxa, that is supposed to be accepted. however, in the analysis of pos, the researcher still forgets environment (nature) dimension, which can be seen in three things: limited capital, the arena, and its influence on the actors’ habits. including environment aspect is an salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 1 no. 1, february 2018 10 important step due to some reasons. first, the process of making batik also includes natural resources. historically, batik was firstly produced with natural materials taken from plants (wood, root, leaves, and branch) available in the surrounding area. second, batik motif is inspired by nature as an integral part of humans’ awareness of their dependency on nature. some of the examples are: ‘semen’ motif means bud or growing creeper, which also means fertility; ‘sawat’ (eagle) motif drawn with two spreading wings symbolizes courage or rigor; and ‘alas-alasan’ (forest) motif depicting the nuance of a forest reflects the life in the universe, which consists of obstacles and tranquility (pujianto, 2003; hidayat, 2004). third, production process produces production waste disposed in nature that harms soil and ecosystem. fourth, houses become production place, receive waste, and eventually become ‘dirty’. fifth, batik production waste polluting the home-workers’ houses has negative impact on health, especially for children and women (hunga, 2013). the above explanation shows the strength of gender issues and environment in pos and hw. therefore, the analysis should be seen through the perspective of ecofeminism. ecofeminism is a new term from an old term emerging from social movements—feminism, peace, and ecology— at the end of 1970s and at the beginning of 1980s. terminologically, ecofeminism was coined by francoise d’eaubonne in her book le feminisme ou la mort (feminism or death) published in 1974, but it became popular after the emergence of protests against various environmental destructions and occurring ecological disaster (shiva and mies, 1993). injustice against women in environmental aspect initially began after the fact that there were forms of injustice done by human beings towards non-human beings or nature. since conceptually, symbolically, and linguistically women were always related to nature they were also the victims of this form of oppression. karen j warren (as cited in arivia, 2002) states that relation is highly correlated with social construction formed by values, conviction, education, and attitude based on patriarchal framework where there was a justification between domination and subordination relation and oppression of women by men. shiva and mies (1993) in their book, ecofeminism, state that ecofeminism’s critical thought and movement towards the development approach were harmful for ecological sustainability and marginalized and exploited women. ecofeminism derived solution from women’s experience and made the experience as one of the sources for learning process in maintaining and conserving the nature. the solution offered for the fulfillment of humans’ needs acquired from natural resources is to treat nature equally. ecofeminists also state that gender role given to women make them more ‘sensitive’ and ‘closer’ to nature. in a society where they make nature and soil as their source of living, they have created not only material relationship between the soil and the people, but also, the earth and the people that are intimately interconnected (shiva, v., & mies, m., 2005). therefore, feminism and ecological issues are connected in the sense that feminism and ecology a road to the recognition of home-workers: … (hunga) 11 have a mutually strengthening relationship; both try to construct a viewpoint on the world, of which the practices are not based on patriarchal models and dominations. referring to the context of batik and pos, the perspective of ecofeminism becomes an important part in order to explain the process and impact of integrative-holistic transformation. it means that constructing dialectic brings hws and their family members’ position to strategic position in supporting the existence of industry, but marginalizes16 hw and their family members, especially female hws. two question remains. the first is how to reveal the reality of industry based on pos and hw. the second is how actor, product, and system go through a transformation process in which they will be able to actively participate in the efforts in gaining recognition, honor, and empowerment as other workers in other businesses. the selection strategy obviously considers the modern context in the wave of the fourth world economy, the area of unlimited creative economy, focusing on information technology development, flexibility, efficiency, and processing signs that will need humans’ creativity. the development of creative economy, where signs and meanings are the result of creativity, is an interchangeable fact that makes human beings inseparable from the virtual world. this momentum is related to batik, which is included in creative industry (menperindag, 2014). the signs and meanings 16 marginal concept is used by scott to understand the relation between industrialization and women’s work. marginalization is understood as a process of women devaluation because they are more marginalized, forced not to be able to reach productive sources, and treated and honored differently from or lower than men (scott, 1986). included in the commodities become interchangeable keywords for consumers. when consumers buy batik, it also means they do not buy the cloth; rather, they give signs and meanings to it, including where it was made, who made it, how it was made, and the embedded and derivative meanings included in each consumer chain (hunga, 2015). therefore, this paper aims to promote pos and hw, gain recognition of this fact through research-action of transformation model based on the power in pos, and increase the capacity of homeworkers and the products they produce through fair trade market. the model is described in figure 1. reflection: road to recognition of pos and hw the model in figure 1 is a transformation model implemented in and created with the cooperation of batik producers’ communities that become the subject of research by using par method with gender perspective. the following explanation is the reflection of the model implementation, which includes five integrated activities. the transformation model is practiced through four integrated and holistic components, they are: (1) the development of innovation and technology focusing on the development of product, production, and marketing in ‘alternative’ market; (2) transfer of innovation and technology in product development to increase value chain and value added by implementing fair trade salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 1 no. 1, february 2018 12 principle; (3) engineering and strengthening of production organization based on pos cluster; (4) engineering and strengthening of marketing and marketing in ‘alternative’ market; (5) strengthening and developing related vocal point and supporting the implementation of transformation model. the transformation model of the "putting-out" system modus: increased competitiveness, empowerment, & protection of home-worker in batik industries unit that produce innovation and technology for (batik, human resources, and institutional development) information system: “fair trade” = parahita craft = joint marketing groups 4 buyer domestik export micro-small batik industries (general) imkm = industri mikro-kecil-menengah hw = home-workers kkb = joint production group kpb = joint marketing group vocal point (advocacy the public policy 2 1 kkb kkb kkb mitra parahita = joint production group applying the prin ciple of fair trade hw imkm 3 5 model •human resources •product •institution gender equality & ecological justice business association of the industries based on "putting-out" system and home-workers. the transformation model is practiced through four integrated and holistic components, they are: (1) the development of innovation and technology focusing on the development of product, production, and marketing in ‘alternative’ market; (2) transfer of innovation and technology in product development to increase value chain and value added by implementing fair trade principle; (3) engineering and strengthening of production organization based on pos cluster; (4) engineering and strengthening of marketing and marketing in ‘alternative’ market; (5) strengthening and developing related vocal point and supporting the implementation of transformation model figure 1. transformation model of the “putting-out” system modus eco-innovation oriented to the implementation of fair-trade principle and batik conservation the development of innovation and technology focuses on solving three main problems: production risk due to the absence of supervision and innovation transferred by employers, access to and mastery of skills for the advancement of position in production chain development of product in increasing the sustainability of work, and development of capacity (skill) of batik producers in implementing fair trade principles in relation of production and marketing as well as improvement of bargaining power through joint institution in production and marketing according to fair trade principle. therefore, innovation and technology was developed through: (a) product development, (b) development of batik producers’ capacity for their technical and strategic skills for the development of bargaining power, (c) engineering of production chain and production cluster strengthening, (d) marketing through fair trade market, a road to the recognition of home-workers: … (hunga) 13 and (e) vocal point strengthening in supporting the implementation and adoption of this program. first, product development considered some points such as batik design filled with meaning and/or development of its philosophical meaning, eco-friendly coloring, and original batik production technique (not batik textile). product development also focused on continuous production technique, value added and value change, and guarantee of gender equal production relation and children protection. innovation they produced would be used as one of the instruments in the aforementioned transformation process. some other instruments used were eco-friendly coloring and natural coloring catalog, especially of tea waste and wood saws, sustainable production flow chart, product catalog complemented by the description of the product, design catalog and its philosophical meaning according to regional special characteristics, training modules focusing on the unified competence (design development, coloring technique, processing and usage of production waste, guarantee of product quality, and marketing through fair trade), as well as other supporting instruments. from the beginning, the development of innovation and technology is designed to ensure more access for marginalized women. the second was development of batik producers’ and hws’ capacity for their technical and strategic skills for the development of bargaining power. by implementing this support, there was a transformation process of batik producers’ frame of mind that might increase technical capacity of batik production and their bargaining power in business chain as well as enable recognition, honor, and protection for them. third was identification, mapping, and engineering of batik production chain that is initially traditional, specific, and time consuming. in addition, the production chain covers a wide area and agglomerates into one unified relatively close sub-unit production chains. this step was accompanied with installation of workshop that would accommodate the needs of joint production group that would produce batik and process them into varieties of batik products. furthermore, it was important to revitalize the existing producer’s group for production institution (mitra parahita) strengthening. the fourth was the development of internet-based innovation and technology, and its installation for promotion, marketing, and maintenance of local knowledge through cyber world. website was established as a means to support promotion, advocacy, and the spreading of pos and hw reality, especially batik according to fair trade principles and batik conservation. further, revitalization of the existing joint marketing group for strengthening marketing institution and maintaining information (parahitacraft) was carried out. fifth was development of innovation and technology in supporting and strengthening vocal point role that could help batik cluster and build production relation between employers and hws as well as business network among batik entrepreneurs. the above strategies were designed as efforts to prepare the instrument to ensure that the salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 1 no. 1, february 2018 14 implementation of pos and hw transformation model worked smoothly. however, the implementation will be difficult because eco-innovation and technology needs relatively long starting time, high starting cost, and comprehension and commitment of all components within it. the implementation of par method in this process will give a unique experience because the local knowledge of batik producers will directly meet and have discussion with the researchers’ knowledge. however, the indicator of laboratory scale is difficult to be implemented because producers have their own indicator. finally, there will be a negotiation of knowledge that becomes joint knowledge in batik development. one example is the development of design/motif that used to be men’s domain, of which the meaning is dominated by men. to enable women to enter the arena, it is important to do collective reinterpretation. by conducting par method, recording, documenting, and publishing local knowledge through cyber world via internet, public will understand the exploration process of the complex, time consuming, and award-worthy process, which gives an exchange of meaning, of the making of batik. engineering of production chain and production and protection of women’s domestic sphere the transfer of innovation and technology to develop batik producer’s capacity focused on the comprehension and mastery of pos production chain and its hidden bargaining power improvement. therefore, the program was carried out in the form of trainings. first, training of development and maintenance of local knowledge for production development was focused on adopting innovation and technology of product development, both in terms of its concept and technical abilities. conceptually, batik producers have comprehensive knowledge of the products; thus, they know and anticipate hasty change of order and have reference to provide quick and sustainable knowledge and information for buyers. practically, producers have technical ability to make and mass produce color catalog from wide varieties of color, especially natural color. furthermore, producers also have sample products as a form of richness of knowledge and ability to sustainably process this local knowledge. second, knowledge and skills developed in individual level was not enough to support the development of strong and sustainable industry cluster based on pos. in this case, the strength in personal basis needed to be synergized in the form of institution. the importance of group in overcoming the weakness of pos was related to relatively high risk of production damage and some uncertainties such as in deadline, production capacity, productivity, production scale and low unit price. therefore, it was important to construct or revitalize the existing work group into kelompok kerja bersama (kkb) or joint work group, which was called mitra parahita. kelompok kerja bersama for production was based on their relatively close household areas and served as a unified production cluster. this group prepared the members to have and master a chain a road to the recognition of home-workers: … (hunga) 15 of production that would help them in increasing access to order and produce. the process of innovation and technology transfer through training and supervision creates a structural change in the mastery of work type in production chain. for example, women have critical knowledge of social construction (gender) of the innovation that makes it more difficult for them to reach a certain position in a certain chain of work, such as coloring and design/motif. through training, women will have strategies and technical skills in making and developing designs and they will also be able to combine and color batik. such ability will help them in reaching a position in the chain work. this will, eventually, initiate a structural change in the production chain and relation of batik production, which also means that there will be a change of position and authority over knowledge and relation within it. such ability will also have gradual implication in the ability to protect domestic space (household) from batik waste production, which have negative effects on hws’ family members and their surrounding environment (hunga, 2014, 2015). the existence of institution (mitra parahita) was expected to gradually developed bargaining power in relation to production with business people. in this case, this group did not only fulfill the unfinished production target, production quality, production scale, but also conveyed members’ aspiration to develop a fair work relation between business people and themselves, as well as among workers. through this group, there would be a learning process among batik producers to reach a higher position, such as selfemployment and micro business person. ibu sutiyem is a concrete evidence of this process. she is a female batik maker who used to wear traditional cloth, did not finish elementary school, never went out of the market, rarely spoke and asked no question. she gradually transformed into an energetic woman and is able to become a business woman. she speaks out for the struggle of her peers; she often wears trousers for comfort and security when she walks in and out of the market to find and sell batik products; she is able to speak about every sheet of batik her group makes; she can negotiate price with her buyers and promote authentic batik. as a woman, she is able to transfer her ability and spirit so that her children want to continue her business in batik production. if 15 years ago ibu sutiyem spoke in low voice without any hope for batik, now she can speak excitedly and optimistically about batik. she is proud because she can be her children’s partner in business. engineering of marketing chain and “alternative” market penetration it has been explained above that the character of the produced batik products through pos and hw is unsuitable for free market. therefore, the remaining option is to sell batik products in fair trade market. this also means that the community of batik producers based on pos and hw implement the principles of fair trade that focus on empowerment and protection of micro producers through the implementation of fair-trade salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 1 no. 1, february 2018 16 principles in fair relation of production, certainty of payment, transparency, work sustainability, gender justice, children protection, and environmental justice. this is appropriate to be implemented in pos and hw reality, which is still “hidden” until today. to acquire a bigger chain event, one will need to revitalize the existing groups that play roles in maintaining information and marketing of batik products in fair trade market. this institution is named parahitacraft, consisting of group representatives on production basis (mitra parahita) who have experience in marketing, local expert according to group reference, and research. parahitacraft was prepared through a series of training in mastery of internet-based information system, knowledge related to batik products, knowledge related to batik industry based on pos and hw, fair trade principle, fair trade marketing, and the development of network through fair trade union in indonesia. consequently, parahitacraft built a basis for marketing starting from sub-cluster in the form of strengthening store or showroom with fixed batik producers. the effort in strengthening the store was carried out through series of promotion, input of batik producer profiles and some important information as the asset for batik knowledge in the website, training and supervision of store maintenance and marketing, as well as invitation for guests from abroad to visit batik cluster. through specially designed website for this business, the reality of pos and hw based batik industry could be widely promoted in cyber world. there was a process of knowledge transfer between batik and production relation happening within it, the symbol and meaning included in it, and the process of sign dialectics that construct an awareness of the importance of batik conservation. it also gave ‘fair’ recognition and honor for batik makers as well as provided involvement in environment maintenance through promoting eco-friendly batik products bought by people. parahitacraft also developed bases for promotion and marketing in some levels, starting from local level in batik cluste. this was done by, building cooperation with batik business people, such as gallery in semarang and jakarta (gallery prameswari) and building cooperation with the existing batik business people in central java and yogyakarta. furthermore, parahitacraft also promoted batik through national scale exhibition in some strategic regions such as in yogjakarta, jakarta, and bali. strengthening related vocal point in supporting the implementation and adoption of this program. one of the important components in this transformation model is the creation and development of vocal point that takes a strategic role in influencing and strengthening the adoption of innovation and technology, both in batik product and batik producers as a personal and groups (mitra parahita and parahitacraft). therefore, one will need to recruit people who hold strategic position in their institutions that will provide an opportunity for a road to the recognition of home-workers: … (hunga) 17 issuing policy to support the strengthening process of transformation. the actors came from various institutions related to batik industry, batik, business people, fashion, researchers, lecturers, journalists, policy makers, ngos, and other public figures. furthermore, it strengthened network among observing institutions for batik producers, women, fair trade market, environment such as balai besar batik yogjakarta, museum batik danar hadi, museum batik pekalongan, sekar jagad indonesia, batik creative design community and creative community related to batik. one of the strategies developed since the start of this study was the initiation of union establishment for pekerja rumahan indonesia or indonesian homeworkers (homenet indonesia). in her effort, the researcher cooperated with parahitacraft to be involved in chain of seminars and public advocacy for the recognition and honor of pos and hw. some meetings, such as meeting with the ministry of employment, ilo indonesia, and ngos for homeworkers in indonesia were also organized. additionally, some publications through various media are also important strategic efforts in order to promote pos and hw. some publications were also conducted through the publishing of articles in scientific journals and articles in study series (bunga rampai). another effort was to integrate issues within sub-topic of syllabus in education program, multi-year research and dedication program. conclusion imkm batik and integration of hw in wide and intensive market show that industry based on pos and hw plays an important part in modern economy, on one hand, and creates marginalization of hw, especially women, on the other hand. furthermore, the mode of factory production penetrates households (domestic area), manipulates and harms the reproductive space and activity in the household as family arena for acquiring affection, building social-familial solidarity, etc. the condition is getting more harmful because the effect of batik production is not only on its economic meaning but also environmental meaning, in the form of waste. the waste pollutes the home environment and makes the house contaminated with waste. it causes diseases due to water and air pollution and the consumption of energy enhancing drugs to meet deadline and industry production target. the shift of this production mode creates economic burden not only related to the procurement of production tools, production materials, supporting production materials (water, electricity, space, etc.), but also social and health costs as. the burden is becoming heavier since the wage given is very small. this is because the wage is calculated by its units, pieces, and other units (wholesale). additionally, there is no guarantee whatsoever in the transaction process. the shift of factory production mode to worker’s household through pos occurs through dialectic of capitalist and patriarchal logic power attached to the area, commodity, and actor. furthermore, both powers are supported by the government. salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 1 no. 1, february 2018 18 capitalism as a basic material and value becomes a means or instruments to build and maintain pos to fulfill the needs. meanwhile, patriarchal value serves as a basic material and institutionalized value in a household to emphasize gender relation in production and reproduction activity. the actors’ role in pos-based imkm (area/field/arena) is determined by its frame of mind (disposition) based on the combination of capitalist and patriarchy logic and the capital they own (economy, social, culture, symbolic). an important development of pos and hw shows that pos and hw play important roles in indonesia economic development; however, at the same time, it is marginalized and ‘hidden.’ therefore, this paper aims to promote pos and hw, gain recognition of this fact through research-action of transformation model based on the power in pos, and increase the capacity of homeworkers and the products they produce through fair trade market. to achieve this, the transformation model was practiced through four integrated and holistic components, they were: (1) the development of innovation and technology focused on the development of product, production, and marketing in ‘alternative’ market; (2) transfer of innovation and technology in the product development to increase value chain and value added by implementing fair trade principle; (3) engineering and strengthening of production organization based on pos cluster; (4) engineering and strengthening of marketing and marketing in ‘alternative’ market; (5) strengthening and developing related vocal point and supporting the implementation of transformation model. gradual implementation of pos and hw transformation model triggers critical awareness and commitment to increase competitiveness and bargaining power of batik industry and hw, especially in its production relation. unfortunately, it has not been able to formally encourage the issuance of policy in the form of laws that clearly provides recognition and protection for hw. nevertheless, the establishment of asosiasi pekerja rumahan indonesia becomes a proof that pos and hw problems can no longer ‘be hidden.’ the wave of critical awareness emerges in individual and hw community level and keeps spreading, but it cannot transform into a strong movement to fight for protection rights. therefore, this model needs to be revised and developed so that it will be an effective model based on critical actor, vocal point, and will simultaneously influence wider system and structure. a road to the recognition of home-workers: … (hunga) 19 references allen, sheila & caarol wolkowitz. (1987). homeworking: myths and realities. macmillan education beneria, lourdes & martha roldan. (1986). the crossroads of class and gender: industrial homework, sub-contracting, and household dynamics in mexico city. chicago and london: the university of chicago press. boris, eleen & elisabet prugl (eds). (1999). home-workers in global perspective: invisible no more. chicago and london: routigex. bourdieu, pierre. (1977). outline of a theory of practice. cambridge: cambridge university press convention on home work no. 177. (1996). geneva: ilo. dangler, jamie faricellia. (1985). industrial homework in the modern world economy. bunybinghamtan: fernand braudel center. dangler, jamie faricellia. (1994). hidden in the home: the role of waged home-work in the modern world-economy. new york: state university of new york press. doellah, santoso. (2002). batik: the impact of time and environment, danar hadi. harding, sandra & hintikka, merrill (eds). (1983). discovering reality: feminist perspectives on epistemology, metaphysic, methodology and philosophy of science. dordrech and boston: reidel publishing co. hartmann, heidi. (1976). capitalism, patriarchy, and job segregation by sex. source: signs. women and the workplace: the implications of occupational segregation, 1 (3), 137169 retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/317300 1 hunga, arianti ina .r. (2005). marginalisasi tenaga kerja rumahan perempuan dalam industri kecil-mengah batik: studi kasus kabupaten sragen. jurnal penelitian sosial cakrawala. fakultal ilmu sosial politik uksw, 2 (1), issn 1963 – 6248. kindon, s., pain r., & kesby, m. (2010). participatory action research approaches and methods connecting people, participation and place. routledge prugl, elisaabeth. (1999). the global construction of gender. homebased work in the political economy of the 20th century. new york: columbia university press. prugl, elisabeth & eileen boris. (1996). homeworkers in global perspective: invisible no more. new york & london: routledge. shiva, v., & mies, m. (2005). ecofeminism perspektif gerakan perempuan dan lingkungan. yogyakarta: ire press. susilastuti, dwi haryani. (1999). homebased work as a rural survival strategy: a central javanese perspective. home-workers in global perspective: invisible no more. new york: routige. yin, k. robert. (n.d.). studi kasus. desain dan metode. jakarta: pt rajagrafindo persada jakarta. salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 1 no. 1, february 2018 20 0101_00a_cover.pdf 0101_00b_content.pdf 0101_01_hunga.pdf 0101_10_backcover.pdf salasika indonesian journal of gender, women, child, and social inclusion's studies volume 4, number 2 – december 2021 table of content the role of dayak bakati women in kiung village in making bia as a form of maintaining food traditions jaklin ana, theresia pratiwi elingsetyo sanubari, firdhan aria wijaya 61 realizing inclusive public services: “lapo bra” innovation in building a literacy culture for people with disabilities in malang denny iswanto, dewi bayu pamungkas, farida nurani 71 how women lead podcast series: feminist media framing in challenging symbolic annihilation of indonesian women leadership gisa maya saputri 81 reception analysis of breastfeeding mothers towards the instagram feeds of @olevelove account jordy satria widodo, oki turatula narendra wigati 95 cultivating gender sensitivity and critical reading skills using fiction: a classroom action research for the students of english department anggraeni ayu puspitaning winhar, higendika rizky sahid nugroho, dewi candraningrum 107 index 135 editorial team chief editors arianti ina restiani hunga, universitas kristen satya wacana, indonesia (scopus id: 46161114400, google scholar) dewi candraningrum, universitas muhammadiyah surakarta, indonesia (google scholar) board of editors claudia derichs, humboldt universität zu berlin, germany (scopus id: 14026487800) ida sabelis, vrije universiteit (vu) amsterdam, the netherlands (scopus id: 6507181398, google scholar) siti kusujiarti, warren wilson college, usa (scopus id: 56276925900) ratna saptari, leiden university, the netherlands (scopus id: 6504610910) sylvia tiwon, university of california, usa (scopus id: 6506468591) emy susanti, universitas airlangga, indonesia (scopus id: 57213142220, google scholar) keppi sukesi, brawijaya university, indonesia (scopus id: 56025803300, google scholar) kristi poerwandari, university of indonesia, indonesia (scopus id: 25628305200, google scholar) willemijn de jong, university of zurich, switzerland (scopus id: 55258294800) lyn parker, the university of western australia, australia (scopus id: 56273266700) technical editors indriretno setyaningrahayu, universitas kristen satya wacana, indonesia (google scholar) daniel kurniawan, universitas kristen satya wacana, salatiga, indonesia (google scholar) suryaningsi, universitas mulawarman, indonesia (scopus id: 57223402854, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1093-810x, id sinta: 5990865, google scholar) agustinus fritz wijaya, universitas kristen satya wacana, indonesia (scopus id: 56461093400, google scholar) stefanus perangin-angin, universitas kristen satya wacana, indonesia (google scholar) reviewers elisabet titik murtisari, universitas kristen satya wacana, indonesia (scopus id: 38161752200, google scholar) asfa widiyanto, iain salatiga, indonesia (scopus id: 56451676900, google scholar) wening udasmoro, gadjah mada university, indonesia (scopus id: 56493135600) farah purwaningrum, the university of sydney, australia (scopus id: 57192369400, google scholar) alimatul qibtiyah, sunan kalijaga state islamic university, indonesia (scopus id: 57200660732, google scholar) tyas retno wulan, the jenderal soedirman university, indonesia (scopus id: 57205341358, google scholar) nurjanah,state university of jakarta, indonesia (scopus id: 57210948418) ira desiawanti mangiliko,the artha wacana christian university, indonesia keiko hirano, ochanomizu university, jepang (orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3258-6072) anik yuesti, universitas mahasaraswati, indonesia (scopus id: 57214104250, google scholar) nurdiana gaus, stiks tamalanre makassar, indonesia (google scholar) yacinta kurniasih, monash university, australia (google scholar) yafet yosafet wilben rissy, universitas kristen satya wacana, indonesia (scopus id: 57221474276, google scholar) cultivating gender sensitivity and critical reading skills using fiction: … (winhar, nugroho, & candraningrum) 107 cultivating gender sensitivity and critical reading skills using fiction: a classroom action research for the students of english department anggraeni ayu puspitaning winhar english department, muhammadiyah university of surakarta, indonesia higendika rizky sahid nugroho english department, muhammadiyah university of surakarta, indonesia dewi candraningrum english department, muhammadiyah university of surakarta, indonesia corresponding email: dcandraningrum@gmail.com abstract the importance of critical reading skills (crs) and gender sensitivity to support every individual’s success in academic, personal, and social life has long been acknowledged. the accelerating advancement of technology makes crs and gender sensitivity more crucial. however, crs development through the educational process has not been satisfactory due to various factors. this research reviews current ideas and studies on the nature of crs, gender sensitivity, the nature of fiction, and their role in developing crs. to get ideas about using fiction to promote crs and gender sensitivity, this study ends with the practical description of a step-by-step of using fiction with gender sensitivity to promote crs through an instructional model. this study employs classroom action research (car). action research designs are systematic procedures used by teachers to gather qualitative data to address improvements in their educational setting, their teaching, and their students’ learning. this study investigates gender sensitivity and the critical reading strategies employed by indonesian english as foreign language (efl) students. throughout the study, students are also encouraged to believe that the difficulties in reading were due to a lack of strategies and gender sensitivity rather than a lack of ability and skills. keywords: stringer’s classroom action research model, indonesian efl students, critical reading strategies, fiction, gender sensitivity, bloom’s taxonomy. introduction there has been little progress in developing gender sensitivity and critical reading in efl (english as foreign language) classrooms in the last two decades. there is some concern regarding students’ poor mailto:dcandraningrum@gmail.com salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 4 no.1, july 2021 108 thinking skills, which may be due to the neglect of critical reading and thinking in the school curriculum. helping efl students develop critical reading can be a challenging undertaking. a search of the literature related to critical reading provides guidelines for a definition or includes studies by others who have been observed in classrooms to learn about critical reading. using the classics of children’s literature to teach critical reading skills and gender sensitivity, combs (1992) defines critical reading as reasonable, reflective thinking focused on deciding what to believe or do. critical reading is an interactive process that uses several levels of thought simultaneously, and critical readers are constantly asking questions about the text they are reading. hence, individual students increased their critical reading skills (crs) in varying degrees and became problem solvers. using activities and instructions based on bloom’s taxonomy, the students developed a strong foundation in critical reading, and their progress in critical reading should continue in future reading instruction. gender equality does not deny biological differences. gender responsiveness means changing mindsets and attitudes by creating and fostering an environment in which all learners are appreciated, respected, and treated equally. textbooks and learning materials can perpetuate a skewed focus on gender. gender-sensitive communication ensures that women and men–and those who do not conform to the binary gender system–are treated as persons of equal importance and dignity. indicators of gender-sensitive skills include: refraining from discriminating against or stereotyping clients on the basis of sex or gender, treating all learners with equal respect, offering gender sensitivity training to all students, and providing adequate representation of female students and teachers. gender sensitivity skills in the educational context could be put into the reading texts to foster students’ critical thinking. the notions of critical thinking were acknowledged about 2,500 years ago when socrates introduced the need to promote human reasoning skills quality by developing the socratic method, the process of questioning that constitutes the early criteria of what we know today as crs. crs was in a vacuum for twenty centuries until descartes revived and implemented it in the 17th century (rfaner, 2006). however, it began to be a prominent component in educational programs by the mid of the twentieth century after dewey (1934) contended that the fundamental purpose of the education system should be learning to think. he referred to that as “reflective thinking” and an “active, persistent, and careful consideration of a belief or supposed form of knowledge in the light of grounds which support it” (p. 9). prompted by dewey’s ideas, the high importance of crs for academic success and social life keeps on being accentuated in education (facione, 2015; moon, 2008). the need for crs was later strengthened by the accelerating advancement of technology which overloads people with information. the ease of accessing a wealth of information requires people to think cultivating gender sensitivity and critical reading skills using fiction: … (winhar, nugroho, & candraningrum) 109 critically to discriminate factual from fake information; see logical connections between ideas; be openmindedly view things from diverse perspectives; identify, construct and evaluate problems; and get relevant information to solve them. the world economic forum even suggested that in the present economy of constant change and disruption, crs is a skill vital to surviving (gray, 2016). the importance of crs has recently become a buzzword among educators. unfortunately, crs development among students is still unsatisfactory. hirose (1992:1) reported that many students today “lack the basic skills to function effectively when they enter the workforce. a common complaint is that entry-level employees lack the reasoning and crs abilities needed to process and refine information”. belkin (2017) clarified it and reported that large groups of seniors at colleges scored only at basic or below basic levels, and even at “highprofile colleges,” over a third of seniors scored “below-basic skills.” in line with this, berr’s (2016) survey of over 76,000 managers and executives revealed that 60% of new college graduates lack crs. the unsatisfactory development of crs was found in asian countries. rashid and hashim (2008) indicated that the graduates of the malaysian education system could not meet employers’ expectations due to a lack of crs and poor communication skills. in the indonesian context, crs development has not been seriously supported in primary and secondary education. sadli (2002) stated that education in indonesia does not promote crs. rujivanarom (2016) reported that the crs of thai students are very limited. a study evaluating the logical thinking and analytical skills of 6,235 students in ten thai provinces revealed the average final score was just 36,5%, and only 2,09% of participants passed the exam. tung and chang (2009) listed three major causes of the problem in the asian context. first, in their prior learning, students mainly went through reproduction-oriented learning activities. they rarely had the opportunities to question, explain, or evaluate the “knowledge” instructed in the classroom. second, primary and secondary school teachers received little guidance or support regarding crs instruction. their opportunity to integrate crs into curricula is also deprived due to their teaching load and time constraints. third, students are more accustomed to a collectivist society, so they lack the individual voice necessary for crs. these factors make crs development seem to be more challenging for indonesian efl learners than their counterparts from other ethnicities. various current studies confirm these points. ahn (as cited in oh, 2017) stated that since secondary education in korea heavily focuses on rote memorization, most korean students do not have much experience in critical thinking. japanese learners are depicted as group-oriented, harmony-seeking, hierarchical, and non-critical thinkers (atkinson, 1997; fox, 1994). taiwanese students in high school classrooms are depicted as holding the belief that “being quiet is good” because students are supposed to be quiet in the classroom (harklau, salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 4 no.1, july 2021 110 1994). this happens as well in the indonesian classroom. several language learning theorists (davidson, 1998; kabilan, 2000; tang, 2016) have highlighted students’ crucial need for crs for their success in learning, workplaces, and social life. they proposed integrating crs development into the english language curriculum. kabilan (2000) accentuated that the ability to know the meaning and use of english is not enough. proficient esl/efl learners should display crs through the language. moreover, crs tends to expand students’ learning experience and drives language learning more significant and meaningful. this study reviews current ideas and studies on the nature of crs and the promotion of crs in efl classrooms through the use of english fiction. to get ideas about how to implement using fiction with gender sensitivity to promote crs, this research ends with the practical description of a step-by-step instructional model. formulation of the problem this study investigates the implementation of english fiction to improve the students’ crs and gender sensitivity. to this end, the study formulates the following questions: 1. can crs and gender sensitivity be improved by using english fiction? 2. can motivation of the crs and gender sensitivity be improved by english fiction? 3. how can english fiction be implemented to improve crs and gender sensitivity, motivation, and autonomous learning? cultivating gender sensitivity and critical reading skills using fiction: … (winhar, nugroho, & candraningrum) 111 theoretical framework literature review bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives the taxonomy of educational objectives created by (bloom, engelhart, furst, hill, and krathwohl, 1956) has been used to explore concepts related to higherorder thinking and the relationship between language and cognition in today’s classrooms (p. himmele and w. himmele, 2009). potentially, the taxonomy is applicable in all contexts of teaching and learning, including non-verbal and verbal areas. in other words, bloom’s taxonomy assists feelings and movements, and what is seen can be remembered, comprehended, applied, analyzed, synthesized, and evaluated just as much as ideas expressed in language. both covert and overt ‘behaviors” can be classified using bloom’s taxonomy (bloom et al., 1956). therefore, this study used bloom’s taxonomy to describe the ability to think simply for high school efl students (clark, 2004). blooms et al. (1956) elaborate on three domains of educational objectives: i) cognitive: mental skills (knowledge), ii) affective: growth in feelings or emotional areas (attitude), and iii) psychomotor: manual or physical skills (skills). critical reading strategies according to axelrod and cooper (2002), annotate, preview, contextualize, outline, analyze opposition, summarize, paraphrase, synthesize, question, and reflect are the most important applicable strategies for reading critically. along with the same view, hall (2004) adds, “being an effective reader means being able to evaluate your own practices, working to develop your critical reading skills and gender sensitivity.” thus, critical reading strategies are best taught by using “real” assignments. programs to improve these skills should involve changes in the structure, not necessarily the content, of assignments (barton-arwood et al., 2005). they can be taught in one-toone sessions with consultants, in classroom settings by teachers, or at home by parents, siblings, or friends (harvey and chickie-wolfe, 2007). in the literature, the most common type of critical reading strategies requires posing and answering questions about the text. according to axelrod, cooper, and warriner (1999), peirce (2006), and linkon (2008), the basic critical reading strategies include annotating, which means circling keywords and writing comments or questions about the material in the margins, and contextualizing, which requires putting a text within its original historical or cultural context. tovani (2000) discusses that critical readers need to analyze and then interrogate a text. however, before analyzing, it is necessary to understand the text. for this reason, the reader should develop a personal reading strategy for better comprehension and remembering the information. based on all these facts, the following critical reading strategies are suggested by tovani (2000) to help the reading process: setting a purpose for reading (before reading a text), previewing the text before reading, paying attention to print features and text structures, marking the text while reading, making salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 4 no.1, july 2021 112 connections between the text and reader personal experience and knowledge, monitoring comprehension of the text, summarizing the key points when finished reading. applying the mentioned strategies empowers students’ critical reading skills and gender sensitivity, including their judgment and evaluation. it also leads them to reach a real understanding of texts and to think about them. peirce (2006) states that reading is clearly a thinking process. hence, using good strategies allows a better understanding than obtaining the core elements of a text. in addition, using sound questioning strategies and asking the right kind of questions are important. the nature of critical reading skills (crs) crs involves a complex mental process, employing a diverse and multidimensional cognitive ability employed to clarify and evaluate the activities and actions (kong, 2007). due to the complexity, although considerable attempts to define the skills have been made, a single definition accepted by all has not been formulated. up to now, different pundits have defined the skills differently (evers, 2007; lun et al., 2010) because it is “difficult to define satisfactorily and hard to measure” (black, 2007, p.4). however, the majority of ideas attempting to clarify crs offers interpretations that are not very different from another (pardede, 2015). halpren (1993) pointed out that the existing definitions share overlapping similarities. the various available definitions all characterize crs as a mental process, strategies, or representations with slightly different emphases. some of them regard crs as a process of evaluating, some view them as a process of thinking, and others regard them as a means to an end. halpern (2010), for instance, defined ct as the use of cognitive strategies to improve the expected ideas. thus, crs cover the skills employed in conclusion drawing, decision making, problem-solving, and the like. according to ennis (1993), crs are the reasonable reflective thinking focusing on deciding what to believe or do, which comprises thirteen crs dispositions and a set of crs abilities (skills). the consensus definition of crs derived by facione (1990) from a panel of 46 crs experts is probably the most comprehensive, for it covers the cognitive and dispositional dimensions of crs. the definition views crs as “purposeful, self-regulatory judgment which results in interpretation, analysis, evaluation, and inference, as well as explanation of the evidential, conceptual, methodological, criteriological, or contextual considerations upon which that judgment is based” (facione, 1990: 2). the definition adds personal traits of an ideal critical thinker to the construction of crs, i.e., open-mindedness, inquisitiveness, fair-mindedness, flexibility, trust in reason, honesty in facing personal bias, prudence in making a judgment, and clarity about issues. this definition is supported by jones et al. (1995), who described crs as interpretation, analysis, evaluation, inference, presenting, arguments, reflection, and dispositions. besides, paul and elder (2007) described that a critical cultivating gender sensitivity and critical reading skills using fiction: … (winhar, nugroho, & candraningrum) 113 thinker is capable of formulating relevant questions, accumulating appropriate information, and evaluating it for drawing sound conclusions. at the same time, a critical thinker is also willing to accept different systems of thought and share them with others to find a common solution. paul and elder (2007) accentuated that critical reading skills (crs) is a “four-selfincorporating concept” as it is “selfdirected, self-disciplined, selfmonitored and self-correcting thinking.” (p. 4). one of the major breakthroughs resulted from the interest in developing crs as an integral part of education is the increasing publication on crs taxonomies and dispositions, among which the works of bloom (1956), ennis (1987) and facione (1990) are the most influential. bloom (1956) presented the skills of crs in a hierarchical order. since his taxonomy differentiates the lowerorder thinking skills (application, comprehension, and knowledge) from the higher-order thinking skills (evaluation, synthesis, and analysis), integrating these skills in the curriculum and evaluating them becomes fairly easy. the taxonomy of ennis (1987) identifies a group of abilities that a critical thinker should possess as well as several dispositions that will encourage him/her to use these abilities. facione (1990) acknowledged six crs: analysis, interpretation, evaluation, inference, explanation, and self-regulation— and two sets of dispositions: approaches to life in general and approaches to specific issues and questions. developing crs in efl classroom synthesizing the ideas above, in the context of promoting crs in efl classrooms, crs can be viewed as the ability of students to passionately and responsibly apply and control their thinking skills (question, analyze, criticize, reflect, and synthesize), develop proper principles and standards to evaluate their thinking, and willingly judge, accept or reject new ideas, concepts, and viewpoints. when teachers develop crs in efl classrooms, students should be encouraged to apply and evaluate their thinking skills and nurture honesty, openmindedness, inquisitiveness, flexibility, and trust in reason in themselves. shirkhani and fahim (2011) listed three notable reasons for the significance of promoting crs into efl classrooms. first, crs enables students to take charge of their thinking. employing this ability, they can monitor and evaluate their ways of learning more successfully. second, crs expands students’ learning experience and makes the language more meaningful for them. third, crs significantly and positively correlates with students’ achievements (fong et al., 2017). different studies have confirmed the role of thinking in improving students’ language skills. rosyati and rosna’s (2008) study involving malaysian undergraduate students revealed that the participants’ english proficiency is positively related to their crs ability. malmir and shoorcheh (2012) reported that crs training significantly affected indonesian efl learners’ speaking skills. the study also showed that crs strategies assisted the students in becoming active participants who salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 4 no.1, july 2021 114 listened carefully to other students’ lectures, judged those utterances, and decided properly what to say to respond to others during the interaction process. kamali and fahim (2011) reported that levels of crs significantly impacted students’ reading ability of texts containing unfamiliar vocabulary. to facilitate crs development in efl classrooms, every learning activity can and must be integrated with crs development. to illustrate, while reading a passage, the students should not only get information from it but also be encouraged to employ their critical skills to understand, question, and evaluate the text so that they can draw a relevant conclusion from it. they should also passionately discuss their understanding one to another for the sake of getting a common ground. to take another illustration, in a class focusing on listening and speaking, students should not be taught to memorize and drill certain expressions. on the other hand, to involve their crs skills, they can be assigned to watch a speech video and analyze the speaker’s pronunciation, word, and grammar and share the results in small workgroups. the students are finally asked to evaluate the speaker’s main ideas and supporting details (facts or fabricated data), presentation style, and arguments presented in terms of weaknesses and strengths. based on this evaluation, the students (individually or in a group) are asked to make a presentation. in short, in efl learning, students should not only be encouraged to discuss and negotiate words, grammar, dialogues, and discourse meaning but also be facilitated to analyze, assess, question, synthesize, reflect, and be skeptical of topics, data, and evidence brought into their classroom (bedir, 2013). the use of literature in english classrooms literary works (poetry, drama, and fiction) have long been used in esl and efl classrooms. many writers and researchers (collie and slater, 1991; erkaya, 2005; kaplan, 2000; mckay, 1987; murdoch, 2002; pardede, 2011; savvidou, 2004) advocate the use of literature in esl and efl classrooms because literature provides authentic materials, offers meaningful input, improves linguistic knowledge, increases language awareness, enhances communicative competence, develops interpretive skills, promotes cultural understanding, facilitates crs and creativity, and stimulates social development. fiction among the three literary genres, fiction is regarded as the most suitable to use in efl classrooms. a poem communicates thoughts and emotions in a condensed language without spoiling meter and rhyme. to achieve these, poets exploit linguistic convention by producing deviated language (in terms of the lexical, semantic, phonological, morphological, and syntactical domain). to attain the goal of communicating an idea and feeling briefly but beautifully, poets also employ figurative languages that enable them to elicit emotion, help readers form mental images, communicate in a more meaningful, vivid, and expressive way, and draw cultivating gender sensitivity and critical reading skills using fiction: … (winhar, nugroho, & candraningrum) 115 readers into the poem. the deviated and figurative language requires extra thinking and time to grasp the meaning so that students may get bored and discouraged. drama is a literary genre written to be transformed into actions, dialogues, or sights (angelianawaty, 2019). to use drama in the efl classroom, the students must first deal with the language structures and items of the work through reading and analysis. after that, they should prepare and plan how to act the workout. wessels (1987) affirmed: “… drama requires meticulous planning and structuring.” thus, although using drama “allows the teacher to present the target language in an active, communicative and contextualized way” (mattevi, 2005) so that it is very potential to teach the four language skills, pronunciation and gesture, many teachers find it difficult to use due to the preparation complexity. the use of drama could also be problematic in public schools with overcrowded classes, overloaded syllabus, and limited time. pardede (2011) asserted that to act out a play in crowded classes within limited course hours is difficult. fiction refers to invented stories or stories constructed based on imagination, including novels, short stories, novellas, romances, fables, and other narrative works in prose (baldick, 2001, p.96). unlike poetry, which is typically written in stanzas, and drama, which is written to be performed on a stage, fiction is written in prose. derived from the latin word “fictus,” meaning “to form,” or “fictiō,” meaning “the act of making, fashioning, or molding,” the term fiction denotes that this literary work uses prose written words to contrive something (the subject matter) which represents human life. the subject matters of fiction may vary. however, they are all related to human experience or conduct employed to interpret life, entertain, educate, inspire, or express the spirit of its age. it could be based on realities or merely a fantasy. it can be used to explore inner feelings and thoughts, superior but forgotten paradigm, or conflicting values or ideas. it may be placed in a setting taken from the familiar daily life patterns or in an unfamiliar and inventive time or place. although the subject matter is taken from realities, it is not the real actualities for the author has selected, altered, and rearranged everything to achieve focus and make clear his vision of life clear. although the subject matters of fiction are all related to human life, they are all a creation of the author, so are the characters, events, settings, and other elements that construct fiction. those elements are not reality. a fiction may include characters or events that look like individuals or historical events in the actual world. however, they are not identical. the characters and events are the creation of the author. encyclopedia britannica (2019) accentuated that fiction is “created from the imagination, not presented as fact, though it may be based on a true story or situation.” among the many types of fiction, novels and short stories are the modern and living forms of narrative works (taylor, 1999), and both are the most popular literary work since they are the most written and read. a novel is “normally a prose work of quite some length and complexity which attempts to reflect and express salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 4 no.1, july 2021 116 something of the equality or value of human experience or conduct” taylor (1991:46). in the same vein, hawthorn (2001) stated that a novel is a “fiction prose narrative or tale of considerable length in which character and action are representative of the real life” (p. 5). therefore, a novel conveys a connected sequence of events (story) involving a group of people in a particular place and time to present, elaborate, or reflect various real-life problems (as the subject matter). although a short story also tells a story, it typically focuses on a single event involving only a few characters. a short story is essentially short, usually 3,500-7,500 words in length. unlike a novel, which involves some major characters, conflicts, sub-plots, complications, viewpoints, and settings so that it needs to be read over days, a short story omits a complex plot, discloses the character in action, and limits the setting. poe (as cited in abrams, 1970, p. 158) defined the short story as “a narrative that can be read at one sitting of from one-half hour to two hours, and that is limited to a certain unique or single effect, to which very detail is subordinate.” siaj and farrah (2018) listed three benefits of using novels in efl classrooms. first, novels are motivating and enhancing learning materials. most students enjoy reading novels, so they find novels interesting to use as learning materials. also, since a novel deals with events related to life, it enhances students’ motivation to read it (tsai, 2012). second, novels are believed to enrich the cultural knowledge among students (alkire, 2010; lazar, 1990; tsai, 2012). alkire (2010) found that novels enable students to understand other peoples’ cultures, including how the characters think, behave, and believe. third, the use of novels, just like other literary genres, develops students’ language proficiency. tsai (2012) found that students improve the four language skills—reading, writing, speaking, and listening— while reading novels. fourth, using novels enhances students’ ability to interpret and understand the target language. pinar and jover’s (2012) research showed that novels facilitated students to infer meaning and explain because they have more than one level of meaning. despite these advantages, students may face two challenges while reading novels. first, novels may include a large number of unfamiliar words. to overcome this, teachers can provide a glossary for students or encourage them to guess words meaning from the context and infer the general idea instead of focusing on details. second, some novels can be very long. lazar (1990) suggested that teachers should suit the length of the novel to be read with the students’ level of proficiency. teachers can also ask different students to summarize different chapters to manage class time more effectively. the importance of gender a person is identified as a man or a woman by physical attributes and many believe that gender and sex are the same. however, a person’s sex is what s/he has been born to and gender is a person’s perception of themselves defined by the society and culture he/she lives in (the global partnership for education, 2017). gender identity consists of cultivating gender sensitivity and critical reading skills using fiction: … (winhar, nugroho, & candraningrum) 117 three different parts: body, identity, and expression. the body is gendered very much by the cultural context that the individual resides in—the body is seen through masculine or feminine attributes that define the outside world if the body is a male or female (genderspectrum, 2017). society sends strong messages to girls and boys about what is acceptable or expected. when these signals hinder the possibilities of an individual, gender equality does not actualize. gender equity is the process of fairness to both men and women. gender equality, on the other hand, is the result of equity. it means that women and men have the same possibilities to take part in society and realize their full human rights. gender equality recognizes women and men as full partners at home, communities, and societies (unesco, 2003). when gender awareness replaces gender stereotyping, gender equality is possible. only then can a person’s individual needs and strengths be utilized to their full potential. gender awareness does not happen automatically and needs to focus on girls and women, as they are still often at a greater disadvantage compared to boys and men. gender stereotypes stereotypes are assumptions or generalizations connected to a certain group of people. the group is assumed to be homogeneous, and all members are seen to possess certain attributes instead of being individuals with their characteristics. this helps us categorize the world and understand it and is often done unintentionally. stereotypes form in our interactions with other people in the cultural context that we live in (cook and cusack, 2010). for example, someone might believe “a human’s destiny is to be her/his family’s provider.” thus, because of the categorization of a human, all men are seen as someone who has a family and must provide for it. at worst, stereotyping can limit a person’s possibilities to fulfill ones’ potential, make personal plans for the future, and develop one’s identity (cook and cusack, 2010). for instance, if a woman’s role is seen as a homemaker and child bearer, her society will not approve of her plans to study and build a career instead of starting a family. gender stereotyping refers to classifying men and women by socially and culturally constructed categories that the genders are seen to possess. gender stereotyping can consist of assumptions of personality, roles, behavior, appearance, or sexuality. the stereotypes are not constant, as they vary according to cultural context. gender stereotyping becomes harmful when it does not take into consideration an individual’s wishes or needs (cook and cusack, 2010). gender stereotypes differ from region to region and may change over time. the history, culture, and development of a country have their impact, so do the socioeconomic backgrounds, race, religion, education, and ethnicity of individuals. the gender stereotypes a woman or man faces are not identical globally, but often they are united by status, i.e., male dominance and female subordinance (anunobi, 2002). reacting against gender stereotypes in a culture where they are strongly salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 4 no.1, july 2021 118 embedded requires courage. for education, this means reforming and being open-minded to break gender norms. it also means a change in society’s thinking because if girls are seen to be better off at home than school, then a school reform is useless. gender-sensitive education governments worldwide are seeing the benefits of educating girls for greater economic development, and thus the focus on gender is growing (paddison, 2017). awareness of gender-sensitive education is highlighted in laws and policies. gender-sensitive education can be included in teaching in all forms of education, from kindergarten to university. paddison has looked at youth work and gender sensitivity. he defines gender sensitivity as understanding society’s expectations for men and women and how these presumptions guide us to make decisions in our own lives. gender is seen as more than the biological sex of an individual. it means acknowledging the differences of men and women, being aware of gender identity formation, and being able to recognize inequality. expectations and stereotypes are noted, examined, and transformed. adolescents are encouraged to be themselves and work together equally. gender-sensitive education is perhaps often, especially in high income countries, taken for granted. even though societies in highincome countries are considered pioneers in gender rights, the questions around gender have diversified, and educators need to recognize this. the concern is not only the equality between men and women but also gender stereotypes, masculinity, femininity, and binary gender. for a teacher working in high-income or lowand middleincome countries, the starting points in curriculum or the classroom will be different as resources and cultures differ. however, in both, the teacher must explore his/her own views on gender and be open to diversity. in lowand middleincome countries, the focus could start with how to keep girls in school despite possible drawbacks like child marriage, menstruation, labor issues, or gender-based violence (paddison, 2017). it could be concluded that gender sensitivity has to be considered on a governmental level, in education from kindergarten to university and in grassroots curriculums and classrooms. the teacher ensures that both girls and boys have equal means of participation. it is the educator’s responsibility to support the students as individuals and break gender norms. gender sensitivity in classrooms gender inequality refers to unequal treatment or perceptions of individuals based on their gender. it arises from differences in socially constructed gender roles. gender systems are often dichotomous and hierarchical, and gender binary systems may reflect the inequalities that manifest in numerous dimensions of daily life. discrimination based on gender is a common civil rights violation that takes many forms, including sexual harassment, pregnancy discrimination, unequal pay for women who do the same jobs as men, and discrimination in cultivating gender sensitivity and critical reading skills using fiction: … (winhar, nugroho, & candraningrum) 119 employment and education. to overcome gender inequality, we need to have a gender-sensitive society. gender awareness is more analytical and critical since it clarifies issues about gender disparities and gender issues. it pertains to one’s effort to show how gender shapes the role of women and men in society, including their role in the development and how it affects relations between them. our education system needs to be gender-sensitive and genderfriendly. one of the best possible strategies to minimize gender discrimination in society is to promote gender awareness at all levels of society. schools can play an important role in inculcating gender sensitivity in the etiquettes and manners of students. it is necessary to create a gender-responsive school in which the academic, social and physical environment and its surrounding community take into account the specific needs of girls and boys. a detailed action plan with a definite road map is required in the school curriculum to achieve gender equality. teachers play a critical role in the early upbringing of a child. their idea and beliefs can change the thought processes of young children. children in the formative years easily nurture values and virtues taught to them. gender sensitivity training should be mandatory for teachers. the training will enable them to disseminate the desirable attitude based on mutual respect and trust between girls and boys. we all know that the teachers sometimes “inadvertently” make disparaging remarks about capabilities or characteristics of either gender, so we need to cope with knowledge, attitude, skills, and methodologies that promote gender equality. with growing concern over the lack of gender sensitization among youth, the central board of secondary education (cbse) has developed “a kit on gender sensitivity” for teachers to enable them to ensure unbiased participation of both boys and girls in the learning process. classrooms need to be gendersensitive. we have to take care of a few do’s and don’ts for making classroom interaction gendersensitive, such as: 1. encourage both males and females to be class leaders (perhaps one of each sex), 2. appoint two monitors in each classroom, a boy and a girl; 3. address and call on girls and boys equally, 4. do not segregate boys and girls in the classroom in primary classes, 5. make mixes groups for group activities and games, 6. try to ‘switch roles’ for breaking down gender barriers and stereotyping of gender roles, 7. make both boys and girls share activities like cleaning, moving furniture, to the chalkboard during a lesson; 8. plan and conduct activities that give an opportunity to all children accepting one another as equals. academic contents with lessons on gender sensitivity and moral traditions will unconsciously mould the character of the tender mind. it salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 4 no.1, july 2021 120 is time to transform all text reading materials and books that should be free of notion of gender equality as bias is embedded in textbooks and lessons. in this connection, our government has started taking initiatives regarding gender concerns that have been included in the curriculum and the textbooks. the role of an educator even though many of the issues girls and women face when it comes to education can be resolved through funding or policy making at a government or regional level, it is worth noting that, in fact, the foundation of information is laid in society through education. teachers can act as role models, challenge gender norms, and start open discussions diminishing the stigma around growing up and sexuality. they can provide equal opportunities for their students by taking less gender-stereotypical approaches into their teaching. this can be done by paying special attention to gender-responsive pedagogy and developing genderresponsive schools. it has been found that female teachers make going to school easier for girls. school seems more inviting and safer, and thus, the probability of staying in school is higher. in addition, studies show that the number of female teachers in primary education collates with how many girls continue to secondary education (unesco eatlas of teachers, n.d.). it is important for teachers to investigate their attitudes towards gender as they spend a measurable amount of time with their students during the years the children are growing up and forming their identities and views of the world. even though the school system might not acknowledge it, gender stereotypes are very rooted in everyday school interactions. teachers regard boys and girls differently, such as giving boys better grades more leniently than girls, encouraging boys towards physical activities instead of handicrafts, enduring boys’ noise in the classroom better than girls, praising boys for their opinions and girls for their studiousness or neatness or, asking boys instead of girls for help when needing physical assistance. teachers need to look at new ways of teaching instead of relying on traditional lecturing or repetition teaching styles. as teaching focuses more on the students and their working together and encourages reflection, students are more inclined to critical thinking. teaching becomes more interactive, and gender roles can be challenged. it is easy not to be aware of the everyday occurrences that strengthen or weaken a student’s identity and define how they should act or be. it is important to acknowledge this when it comes to gender equality in schools and students’ feeling secure about who they want to be. igbo (2015) discovered that gender stereotypes influence learning as they can cause cognitive or emotional barriers. therefore, educators should be careful of gender stereotyping to provide all students with the same rights and privileges. igbo (2015) found that gender stereotypes have a profound effect on academic learning which strengthens the need for gender-sensitive teachers globally. in turn, jegede’s (1994) research detected that when girls and boys were equally motivated to cultivating gender sensitivity and critical reading skills using fiction: … (winhar, nugroho, & candraningrum) 121 study english, they achieved equal success – indicating that gender was not the reason for possible poor achievement for english language studies in indonesian schools as was first thought. nevertheless, a teacher should not ignore or neutralize gender as the world outside school has very gender-stereotyped expectations for girls and boys, which are relayed to students in everyday relations. an educator must thus recognize gender differences and support students in forming their own gender identities while learning and growing up. to promote gender equality, a teacher needs further training and tools, and this action research is an attempt to do that. stringer’s model of action research (1999-2010) the approach to action research was presented by stringer (1999, 2004, 2007) and stringer, christensen, and baldwin (2010), which was derived from interpretive research processes suggested by denzin (1997). in stringer’s (2007) view, action research, therefore, seeks to give voice to people who have previously been silent research subjects. like other forms of interpretive research, he points out that action research seeks to reveal and represent people’s experiences, providing accounts that enable others to interpret issues and events in their daily lives (stringer, 2007). stringer’s model of action research is a collaborative approach to inquiry or investigation that provides people with the means to take systematic action to resolve specific problems. stringer (2007) argues that action research is not a panacea for all ills and does not resolve all problems but provides a means for people to “get a handle” on their situations and formulate effective solutions to problems they face in their public and professional lives. stringer provides a basic action research routine that provides a simple, powerful framework–look, think, act–that enables people to commence their inquiries straightforwardly and build detail into procedures as the complexity of issues increases. stringer’s model is cyclical in nature since research participants continuously cycle through processes of investigation as they work towards effective solutions to their research problem. stringer (2007) argues that as participants work through each of the major stages, they will explore the details of their activities through a constant process of observation, reflection, and action. at the completion of each set of activities, they will review (look again), reflect (reanalyze), and re-act (modify their actions). method of research the study adopts action research which aims at “making a situation such as a classroom or whole school system better by responding to the continuous need for development or change” (bradbury, lewis, and embury 2019, p.7). in particular, it employs classroom action research (car), in which the research focuses on what happens in the classroom. according to allwright and bailey (in khasinah, 2013, p.108), car is considered “not only a tool to solve pedagogic problems identified at the onset of research but a means to help salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 4 no.1, july 2021 122 develop alternative ways of thinking and improve practices” (dikilitaş and griffiths, 2017, p.3). furthermore, costello (2011, p. 7) describes action research as “cyclic, with action and critical reflection taking place in turn. the reflection is used to review the previous action and plan the next one’. lewin (in costello, 2011) divides action research into four cyclical stages: plan, act, observe, and reflect. the data in this study are the information regarding the implementation of the english fiction application to improve students’ crs and gender sensitivity skill. the source of data in this study consists of informants, document, and the event. the informants refer to the lecturer and the students. the document in the study will refer to the lecturer’s observation and reflection notes, students’ journals, completed questionnaires, and interview transcripts. the event in this study refers to the teaching and learning process while the english fiction application is being implemented. the current study is intended to investigate whether crs and gender sensitivity of the third-semester students of english education, academic year 2021/2022, is improved when using the english fiction application. to collect the data regarding the crs improvement, the study will employ a crs test in which the students will be requested to read set of fiction texts consisting of targeted crs. to gather data regarding students’ motivation, the study will adopt observation using an observation checklist and questionnaire. this study employs triangulation to validate the data. patton (in carter, bryant-lukosius, dicenso, blythe, and neville 2014) describes triangulation as the use of several methods or sources of data to understand a phenomenon. furthermore, denzin and patton list four types of triangulation: (a) method triangulation, (b) investigator triangulation, (c) theory triangulation, and (d) data source triangulation (in carter, bryantlukosius, dicenso, blythe, and neville 2014). this study adopted the method and source data triangulation. the method triangulation used in this study refers to multiple techniques of collecting data: interview, questionnaire, observation, test, and document analysis. the source data triangulation refers to the informants, document, and event. the data in this study consist of quantitative and qualitative data. the quantitative data was collected from the pre and post-crs tests. the data would then be analyzed by comparing the percentage of achievement scores between pre and post-test. the qualitative data derived from interviews, journals, and observation were analysed using a constant comparative method. analysis utilizing stringer’s action research model in recent years, action research has become increasingly popular in second and foreign language teaching classrooms (nunan, 1993; wallace, 2000; haley, 2005; burns, 2009; latief, 2010; stringer, 2007; stringer et al., 2010). over the last cultivating gender sensitivity and critical reading skills using fiction: … (winhar, nugroho, & candraningrum) 123 two decades, language teachers have been committed to their professional development and attracted to the idea of doing action research in their classrooms. in the present action research study, the teacher-researcher employed stringer’s model of action research as a map for a systematic process of teaching and inquiry. 1 lesson planning and preparation (phase 1) this phase lasted for four weeks where each week included two sessions. in phase 1—lesson-planning and preparation, the teacherresearcher followed the usual syllabus of teaching reading in indonesian efl reading classrooms. during the teaching process, the data collection procedure was done based on the current research design. throughout phase 1 (look), to identify the critical reading strategies employed by indonesian efl students, the principal researcher identified the most common reading strategies that the indonesian students used naturally before, during, and after reading. by selecting, sorting, and organizing information (think) through this phase, the researcher formulated a lesson plan (act). the final product of phase 1, the lesson plan, embraced the cognitive domain of bloom’s taxonomy and was supported with critical-thinking strategies to foster students’ learning and growth. in addition, through the triangulation of the observation checklist, semistructured interview, and teacher’s journals, the researcher assessed the students’ knowledge and understanding of reading and students’ usage of critical reading strategies. 2 instruction (phase 2) this phase lasted for ten weeks, and each week included two sessions. throughout the phase of instruction, the researcher conducted the study based on the lesson plan that was prepared in phase 1. stringers et al. (2010) emphasize that “as the students engage in learning, the teachers need to keep track of the multiple activities in which the class is engaged and the progress of each student.” therefore, the action research is continued in phase 2, instruction, by applying the proposed selected critical reading strategies through the prepared worksheets in the indonesian efl reading classroom. the researcher began each lesson by giving students a short illustration and explanation of the proposed critical reading strategy. primarily, the students would actually practice the strategy salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 4 no.1, july 2021 124 as their homework. in the next session, the researcher checked the homework and took notes of the principal points. then, the researcher asked the students about the strategy they used to work out “what it means and what they did.” the class brainstorming allowed the students to share the strategy that they previously practiced as homework. indeed, each of the ten worksheets focused on particular critical reading strategies: annotating, previewing, scanning and skimming, distinguishing facts vs. opinions, drawing conclusions, monitoring one’s own comprehension, summarizing, paraphrasing, and questioning. each worksheet was adapted to teach particular critical reading strategies systematically. the used worksheets and accompanying strategies helped the students meet the standards set by the ministry of education and grow in the key areas of crs. at the beginning of the instruction phase, the researcher held a pre-test to focus more on class procedures and students’ performance useful in addressing practical problems in the classroom. the researcher also used the interview to assist students in extending their understanding. 3 look: observing students activities, performances, and behaviors this part lasted for three weeks. as the students were engaged in learning activities, the researcher tried to monitor and record each student’s progress through observation checklists. based on stringer’s model of action research, the researcher carefully observed the students’ participation, performance, and behavior during the teaching processes (look). the researcher used the observation checklists as the key tools to see “what is happening and what the students are doing.” 4 think: assessing students’ performance and behavior this part lasted for four weeks. in the continuity of stringer’s model, the researcher concentrated on the nature of problems students were experiencing (think). based on stringer’s model, the researcher first tried to identify problems, issues, gaps, or inadequacies in student work, proved reasons for these problems—for example, lack of understanding, carelessness—and identified key issues needing an instructional process (analyze). then the researcher evaluated the quality of each student’s work and assessed whether students understood the content of the work and whether students were clear about the activities they needed to engage in (assess). throughout this cycle cultivating gender sensitivity and critical reading skills using fiction: … (winhar, nugroho, & candraningrum) 125 (think), the researcher also tried to monitor the students, watched all the students work, really kept an eye on them, and observed what they were doing through the observation checklist. 5 act: affirming and remediating this part lasts for three weeks. the instruction phase continued in the third cycle, called “affirming and remediating.” during the first week, the researcher provided positive feedback to encourage and assist students in improving or extending their performances (act). the researcher also tried to understand the nature of the problems the students experienced. hence, the researcher let the students know “what they are doing right” and asked students “what they think of their work.” in some circumstances, the students did not clearly understand the nature or steps in the activity they were engaged in. hence the researcher reviewed and repeated the instructions to clarify and show students what to do. throughout this cycle, the researcher encouraged them to work in pairs and share their work with the class. 6 assessment and evaluation (phase 3) phase 3 lasted four weeks. it included reviewing lesson outcomes, reviewing student performance (look), identifying successes and strengths, identifying weaknesses and gaps (think), planning remedial actions, and planning ways of improving instructions and learning. the researcher looked at students’ demonstration/performance (look), thought about the quality of the students’ work (think), and tried to provide feedback or demonstrate correct performance (act). indeed, the researcher attempted to evaluate the students’ performance and then provided feedback that indicated how to correct or improve the performance. the use of the lookthink-act cycle throughout the phase of “assessment and evaluation” provided the researcher with a systematic process to evaluate their teaching success concerning overall student learning. the researcher provided opportunities for students to practice and review the critical reading strategies with their peers and independently. hence, the researcher helped students to evaluate the critical reading strategies in a cooperative group setting in terms of their learning and understanding of the strategy. salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 4 no.1, july 2021 126 developing crs and gender sensitivity through fictions two underlying reasons support the use of novels to promote crs and gender sensitivity skills. first, like other literary works, a novel is allegorical. it has a literal meaning and implied meaning which is beyond the surface. to get the appropriate meaning, the reader should reflect, infer, analyze, and synthesize the presented information. by doing it, the reader has practiced crs and gender sensitivity skills. tung and chang (2009: 291) accentuated that literature reading is a complex process requiring the readers to recall, retrieve, and reflect on their prior experiences or memories to construct meanings of the text. to do so, they should exhibit various capacities, including 1. distinguishing facts from opinions, 2. comprehending the literal or implied meanings and the narrator’s tone, 3. identifying details related to the issues discussed, 4. searching for the causal relationship or the connections between the events or actions 5. inferencing the relationship of the details perceived, 6. considering the multiple points of view, 7. making ethical reasoning and fair-grounded judgments, and above all, 8. applying what they have learned from this process to other fields or real life. secondly, as previously described, novels are closely related to life; they are even about life. although the subject matter is about life, a novel presents it uniquely. the characters may look like people in reality. the actions can take place as if they belong to daily life. however, they are different from the people and the actions in actual life. these cultivating gender sensitivity and critical reading skills using fiction: … (winhar, nugroho, & candraningrum) 127 features let novels be perceived as a “simulation of society,” which allows the students to explore from other perspectives to improve their understanding of others (oatley, 2016). as novels are close to life, reading them also facilitates students to promote the ability to make a decision, which is one of the major features of crs. by studying novels containing matters directly related to daily life, the students can get schemata about particular matters, store them in their minds, and use them later as a reference in taking up action. riecken and miller (1990) supported these ideas by stating that students will evaluate evidence, draw conclusions, make inferences, and develop a line of thinking if they approach fiction through a problemsolving perspective. lazere (1987) accentuated that “literature…is the single academic discipline that can come closest to encompassing the full range of mental traits currently considered to comprise critical reading skills (crs)” (p. 3). selecting fictions to use one of the crucial factors to consider in using fictions to promote crs is selecting the work. mckay (1982) highlighted that selecting suitable literature is “the key to success in using literature in the esl classroom.” the most important criteria of selecting the literary works to use include student’s language proficiency, personal involvement, length (it suits the time available), cultural competence, intellectual merit (issues and ideas explored in works should be relevant, interesting, and challenging to students), literary merit (the work is really worthy of academic study), and contemporary (it uses modern english). to meet the length and complexity criteria, we were fortunate because fictions include novels and short stories. since novels are generally longer and more complex, they could be employed in advanced and upper intermediate classes. short stories, due to their relative simplicity and shortness, are appropriate in primary and intermediate levels. instructional models for promoting crs in efl classrooms by combining the conceptual frameworks of how people think critically and creatively and teaching experiences, various researchers (bobkina and stefanova, 2016; savvidou, 2004; sousa, 2004; wssu, 2013) have developed their teaching models for developing crs in english classrooms. bobkina and stefanova (2016) built a model by covering the new london group’s four curricular components for addressing the full range of literacies (p. 68). the model consists of four stages: (1) situated practice, (2) overt instruction, (3) critical framing, and (4) transformed practice. this model is essentially generic. so, it could be easily adapted to suit any classroom environment and meet the students’ needs. it should be underlined that the objective of including crs in the teaching-learning process is not to teach about crs but to let students employ their thinking skills in the learning process. in short, the aim is to facilitate students to infuse their crs while studying. to see how the model works, in the following section, it is described in the scenario of studying animal farm, a novel by orwell (1944). salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 4 no.1, july 2021 128 conclusion there is a great deal of evidence for the importance of critical reading strategies and gender sensitivity. one source of evidence is that successful readers know when and how to use deliberate strategies to repair comprehension. one implication from the current research findings is that teaching critical reading strategies to struggling readers may be a key toward helping them to improve crs, gender sensitivity, and higherorder thinking abilities. the suggested procedure in this study attempts to increase utilizing critical reading strategies directly as a medium for improving the deep understanding to find the concepts behind the lines. comprehension will also be facilitated by instructional attention to teaching reading based on the cognitive domain of bloom’s taxonomy. critical reading in the current study was supposed to be a more systematic reading activity than other reading models. hence, the students were encouraged to employ critical reading strategies systematically thorough their reading process to engage gender sensitivity. the instruction of the critical reading strategies based on cognitive domain of bloom’s taxonomy was also explicit and direct, so students were able to ask many organized and higher-order questions. throughout the study, students were also encouraged to believe that their reading difficulties were due to a lack of strategies and gender sensitivity rather than a lack of their ability and skills. references abrams, m.h. (1999). a glossary of literary terms. 7th ed. massachusetts: heinle and heinle, thompson learning inc. angelianawati, l. (2019). using drama in efl classroom. journal of english teaching, 5(2), 125-134. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.33541/jet.v5i 2.1066 atkinson, d. (1997). a critical approach to critical thinking in tesol. tesol quarterly, 31, 71-94. anunobi, f. 2002. women and development in africa. from marginalization to gender inequality. african social science review. 2,(2), article 3. retrieved 2018 october 23 from https://digitalcommons.kennesa w.edu/assr/vol2/iss2/3 axelrod, r. b., and cooper, c. r. (2002). reading critically, writing well: a reader and guide. bedford/st. martin’s. axelrod, r. b., cooper, c. r., and warriner, a. m. (1999). reading critically, writing well: a reader and guide. st. martin’s press.bedford/st. martin’s. barton-arwood, s. m., wehby, j. h., and falk, k. b. (2005). reading instruction for elementary-age students with emotional and behavioral disorders: academic and behavioral outcomes. exceptional children, 72(1), 7-27. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0014402 90507200101 bloom, b. s., engelhart, m., furst, e. j., hill, w. h., and krathwohl, d. r. (1956). taxonomy of educational objectives, handbook i: cognitive domain (pp. 19, 56). new york: david mckay. baldick, c. (2001). the concise oxford dictionary of literary terms. oxford: oxford university press. http://dx.doi.org/10.33541/jet.v5i2.1066 http://dx.doi.org/10.33541/jet.v5i2.1066 https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/assr/vol2/iss2/3 https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/assr/vol2/iss2/3 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/001440290507200101 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/001440290507200101 cultivating gender sensitivity and critical reading skills using fiction: … (winhar, nugroho, & candraningrum) 129 belkin, d (2017). exclusive test data: many colleges fail to improve critical-thinking skills. retrieved june 2018 from https://www.wsj.com/articles /exclusive-test-data-many-colleges-failto-improve-critical-thinkingskills-1496686662 bedir, h. (2013). reading and critical thinking skills in elt classes of turkish students. world applied sciences journal, 21(10), 1436-1439. berr, j. (2016). employers: new college grads aren’t ready for workplace. retrieved june 2018 from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ employers-new-college-gradsarent-ready-for-workplace/ black, b. (2007). critical thinking a tangible construct? research matters: a cambridge assessment publication, 3, 2-4. bloom, b. s. (1956). taxonomy of educational objectives. vol. 1: cognitive domain (pp.20-24). new york: mckay bobkina, j. and stefanova, s. (2016). literature and critical literacy pedagogy in the efl classroom: towards a model of teaching critical reading skill (crs) skills. ssllt, 6(4), 677-696. doi: 10.14746/ssllt.2016.6.4.6 bretz, m. l. (1990). reaction: literature and communicative competence: a springboard for the development of critical thinking and aesthetic appreciation. foreign language annals, 23(4), 335-338. burns, a. (2009). doing action research in english language teaching: a guide for practitioners. routledge. chi-an, t. and shu-ying, c., (2009). developing critical thinking through literature reading. feng china journal of humanities and social science, no. 19, 283-317. collie, j. and slater, s. (1991). literature in the language classroom. (5th ed.). glasgow: cambridge university press. cook, r. j. and cusack, s. 2010. gender stereotyping: transnational legal perspectives. university of pennsylvania press. retrieved 2021 september 5 from https://ebookcentral-proquestcom.ezproxy.hamk.fi/lib/hamkebooks/detail.action?docid=3441 913 davidson, b. (1998). a case for critical reading skill (crs) in the english language classroom. tesol quarterly, 32, 119-123 dewey, j. (1934). art as experience. new york: minton, balch, and co. clark, d. r. (2004). bloom’s taxonomy of learning domains. retrieved from http://www.nwlink.com/~donclar k/hrd/bloom.html combs, r. (1992). developing critical reading skills and gender sensitivity through whole language strategies. denzin, n. k. (1997). interpretive ethnography. thousand oaks, ca: sage publications, inc. ennis, r. h. (1987). a taxonomy of critical reading skill (crs) dispositions and abilities. in j. baron and r. sternberg (eds.), teaching thinking skills: theory and practice (pp.9-26). new york: w.h. freeman. encyclopaedia britannica. (2019). fiction. retrieved may 2019 from https://www.britannica.com/art/f iction-literature erkaya, o. r. (2005): benefits of using short stories in the efl context. asian efl journal, vol. 8, 1-13. evers, a. (2007). does discipline matter? pedagogical approaches to critical reading skill (crs) in english for academic purposes (eap) and economics. unpublished master’s thesis, https://www.wsj.com/articles https://www.cbsnews.com/news/employers-new-college-grads-arent-ready-for-workplace/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/employers-new-college-grads-arent-ready-for-workplace/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/employers-new-college-grads-arent-ready-for-workplace/ https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.ezproxy.hamk.fi/lib/hamk-ebooks/detail.action?docid=3441913 https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.ezproxy.hamk.fi/lib/hamk-ebooks/detail.action?docid=3441913 https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.ezproxy.hamk.fi/lib/hamk-ebooks/detail.action?docid=3441913 https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.ezproxy.hamk.fi/lib/hamk-ebooks/detail.action?docid=3441913 http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/bloom.html http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/bloom.html salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 4 no.1, july 2021 130 carleton university, ottawa, ontario, canada. elliott, j. (1991). action research for educational change. buckingham: open university press. facione p a (2015). critical thinking : what it is and why it counts. insight assessment https://doi.org/isbn 13: 978-1891557-07-1 facione, p. a. (1990). critical reading skill (crs): a statement of expert consensus for purposes of educational assessment and instruction. millbrae, ca: the california academic press. fong, c. j., kim, y., davis, c. w., hoang, t., and kim, y. w. (2017). a metaanalysis on critical reading skill (crs) and community college student achievement. thinking skills and creativity, 26, 71-83. fox, h. (1994). listening to the world: cultural issues in academic writing. urbana, illinois: national council of teachers of english. genderspectrum. 2017. understanding gender. retrieved 2021 october 22 from https://www.genderspectrum.org /quick-links/understandinggender/ gray, a. (2016). the 10 skills you need to thrive in the fourth industrial revolution. retrieved may 2019 from https://www.weforum.org/agend a/2016/01/the-10-skills-youneed-to-thrive-in-the-fourthindustrial-revolution/ haley, m. h. (2005). action research in language learning. retrieved from http://www.thefreelibrary.com/a ction hall, n. (2004). critical reading strategies, 9-11. retrieved from http://writing.umn.edu/home/wr itinglinks.htm halpern, d. f. (2010). creativity in college classrooms. in r. a. beghetto and j. c. kaufman (eds.), nurturing creativity in the classroom (pp. 380-393). new york, ny: cambridge university press. halpern, d. f. (1993). assessing the effectiveness of critical reading skill (crs) instruction. the journal of general education, 42 (4), 238-254. harklau, l. (1994). esl versus mainstream classes: contrasting l2 learning environments. tesol quarterly, 28, 241-272. hirose, s. (1992). critical reading skill (crs) in community colleges. ashe-eric higher howie, s. h. (1993). critical reading skill (crs): a critical skill for students. reading today, 24. harvey, v. s., and chickie-wolfe, l. a. (2007). fostering independent learning: practical strategies to promote student success. guilford press. himmele, p., and himmele, w. (2009). the language-rich classroom: a research-based framework for teaching english language learners. association for supervision and curriculum development. igbo, j. n. 2015. impact of gender stereotype on secondary school students’ self concept and academic achievement. sage open, 5(1). jegede, j.o. 1994. influence of motivation and gender on secondary school students’ academic performance. the journal of social psychology, 134(5), p. 695. jones, e. a., hoffman, s., moore, l. m., ratcliff, g., tibbetts, s., and click, b. a. l. i. (1995). national assessment of college student learning: identifying college https://www.genderspectrum.org/quick-links/understanding-gender/ https://www.genderspectrum.org/quick-links/understanding-gender/ https://www.genderspectrum.org/quick-links/understanding-gender/ https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/01/the-10-skills-you-need-to-thrive-in-the-fourth-industrial-revolution/ https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/01/the-10-skills-you-need-to-thrive-in-the-fourth-industrial-revolution/ https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/01/the-10-skills-you-need-to-thrive-in-the-fourth-industrial-revolution/ https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/01/the-10-skills-you-need-to-thrive-in-the-fourth-industrial-revolution/ http://www.thefreelibrary.com/action http://www.thefreelibrary.com/action http://writing.umn.edu/home/writinglinks.htm http://writing.umn.edu/home/writinglinks.htm cultivating gender sensitivity and critical reading skills using fiction: … (winhar, nugroho, & candraningrum) 131 graduates’ essential skills in writing, speech and listening, and critical journal of english teaching, volume 5 (3), october 2019 thinking. final project report (no. nces 95-001): national center on postsecondary teaching, learning, and assessment, the pennsylvania state university. kabilan, k.m. (2000) creative and critical thinking in language classroom. internet tesl journal, 6(6). http://iteslj.org/techniques/kabil an-criticalthinking.html kamali, z., and fahim, m. (2011). the relationship between critical reading skill (crs) ability of indonesian efl learners and their resilience level facing unfamiliar vocabulary items in reading. journal of language teaching and research, 2(1), 104-111 kaplan, g. 2000. passion in the classroom. iatefl literature and cultural studies, 19, 19-21. kong, s. l. (2007). cultivating critical and creative thinking skills. in a.g. tan (ed.), creativity: a handbook for teachers (pp. 303326). hackensack, nj: world scientific publishing. kuta, k. w. (2008). reading and writing to learn: strategies across the curriculum. libraries unlimited. latief, m. a. (2010). classroom action research in language learning. retrieved from http://syaifullaheducationinform ationcenter.blogspot.com/2010/0 9/classroom-action-esearch-inlanguage.html linkon, s. (2008). critical reading strategies. retrieved from http://digital.maag.ysu.edu:8080/ xmlui/handle/1989/136 lun, v. m., fischer, r., and ward, c. (2010). exploring cultural differences in critical reading skill (crs): is it about my thinking style or the language i speak? learning and individual differences, 20, 604-616. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.20 10.07.001 mattevi, y. (2005). using drama in the classroom: the educational values of theatre in second language acquisition. (dissertation). stony brook university. umi number: 3189394 mckay, s. (1987). literature in the esl classroom. tesol quarterly, 16. 529-236. malmir, a., and shoorcheh, s. (2012). an investigation of the impact of teaching critical reading skill (crs) on indonesian efl learners’ speaking skills. journal of language teaching and research, 3(4), 608-617. moon, j. (2008). critical reading skill (crs). an exploration of theory and practice. london; new york: routledge. murdoch, g. (2002). exploiting wellknown short stories for language skills development. iatefl lcs sig newsletter 23, 9-17. mcniff, j. (2002). action research for professional development. concise advice for new action researchers. mills, g. e. (2003a). action research: a guide for the teacher researcher. pearson education, limited. mills, g. e. (2007b). action research: a guide for the teacher researcher. pearson merrill prentice hall. nunan, d. (1993). action research in language education. teachers develop teachers’ research. papers on classroom research and teacher development, 39-50. oatley, k. (2016). fiction: simulation of social worlds. trends in cognitive sciences, 20 (8) http://iteslj.org/techniques/kabilan-criticalthinking.html http://iteslj.org/techniques/kabilan-criticalthinking.html http://syaifullaheducationinformationcenter.blogspot.com/2010/09/classroom-action-esearch-in-language.html http://syaifullaheducationinformationcenter.blogspot.com/2010/09/classroom-action-esearch-in-language.html http://syaifullaheducationinformationcenter.blogspot.com/2010/09/classroom-action-esearch-in-language.html http://syaifullaheducationinformationcenter.blogspot.com/2010/09/classroom-action-esearch-in-language.html http://digital.maag.ysu.edu:8080/xmlui/handle/1989/136 http://digital.maag.ysu.edu:8080/xmlui/handle/1989/136 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2010.07.001 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2010.07.001 salasika: indonesian journal of gender, women, child, & social inclusion's studies vol. 4 no.1, july 2021 132 oh, k. (2017) developing critical reading skill (crs) skills through a mandatory english course in korean higher education. english teaching, 72(4), 53-80. doi: 10.15858/engtea.72.4.201712.53 paddison, l. 2017. educating girls: the key to tackling global poverty. the guardian. retrieved 2021 november 5 from https://www.theguardian.com/op portunity-internationalroundtables/2017/oct/04/globalpoverty-child-marriageeducation-girls peirce, w. (2006). strategies for teaching critical reading. retrieved from http://academic.pg.cc.md.us/~wp eirce/mccctr/critread.html pardede, p. (2015). a priority agenda for mental revolution in education: developing critical and creative thinking through learning. in proceeding mental revolution in education for human character building, 104-121 pardede, p. (2011). using short stories to teach language skills. journal of english teaching, (1): 14-27. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.33541/jet.v1i1 .49 paul, r., and elder, l. (2007). the miniature guide to critical reading skill (crs): concepts and tools. near university of california at berkeley. prodromou, l. (2000). reason, not the need: shakespeare in elt. iatefl issues, 156. retrieved july 2017 from http://www. iatefl.org/archives/texts/156prod morou phillips, d. k., and carr, k. (2010). becoming a teacher through action research: pprocess, context, and selfstudy. routledge. rashid, r.a. and hashim, r.a. (2008). the relationship between critical reading skill (crs) and language proficiency of malaysian undergraduates. edu-com 2008 international conference. retrieved september 8, 2014, from ro.ecu.edu.au/ceducom/36/ rear d. (2016). critical reading skill (crs), language and problemsolving: scaffolding thinking skills through debate. in ruth breeze and carmen guinda (eds.): essential competencies for english-medium university teaching, pp. 51 – 63. springer international publishing. rfaner, s. (2006). enhancing thinking skills in the classroom. humanity and social sciences journal, 1(1):2836 rosyati, a. r., and rosna, a. h. (2008). the relationship between critical reading skill (crs) and language proficiency of malaysian undergraduates. proceedings of the edu-com 2008 international conference. sustainability in higher education: directions for change (pp. 373-384). perth, western australia: edith cowan university. retrieved from http://ro.ecu.edu.au/ceducom/36 rujivanarom, p. (2016, december 14). school system’s failure to teach logical thinking linked to low pisa scores. the nation. retrieved from http://tinyurl.com/l68ugux sadli, s. (2002). feminism in indonesia in an international context. in k. robinson and s. bessell (eds.), women in indonesia: gender, equity, and development (pp. 80-92). singapore: institute of southeast asian studies. savvidou, c. (2004). an integrated approach to the teaching of literature in the efl classroom. the internet tesl journal, 10 (12) retrieved july 2018, from http://iteslj.org/techniques/savv idou_literature.html https://www.theguardian.com/opportunity-international-roundtables/2017/oct/04/global-poverty-child-marriage-education-girls https://www.theguardian.com/opportunity-international-roundtables/2017/oct/04/global-poverty-child-marriage-education-girls https://www.theguardian.com/opportunity-international-roundtables/2017/oct/04/global-poverty-child-marriage-education-girls https://www.theguardian.com/opportunity-international-roundtables/2017/oct/04/global-poverty-child-marriage-education-girls https://www.theguardian.com/opportunity-international-roundtables/2017/oct/04/global-poverty-child-marriage-education-girls http://academic.pg.cc.md.us/~wpeirce/mccctr/critread.html http://academic.pg.cc.md.us/~wpeirce/mccctr/critread.html http://dx.doi.org/10.33541/jet.v1i1.49 http://dx.doi.org/10.33541/jet.v1i1.49 http://ro.ecu.edu.au/ceducom/36 http://tinyurl.com/l68ugux http://iteslj.org/techniques/savvidou_literature.html http://iteslj.org/techniques/savvidou_literature.html cultivating gender sensitivity and critical reading skills using fiction: … (winhar, nugroho, & candraningrum) 133 shirkhani, s. and fahim, m. (2011). enhancing critical thinking in foreign language learners. procedia social and behavioral sciences, 29, 111 – 115 siaj, r.n. and farrah, m.a.a. (2018). using novels in the language classroom at hebron university. journal of creative practices in language learning and teaching (cplt), 6(2), 44-59. spalding, w.b. (1961). teaching language and literature. new york: harcourt, brace and world, inc. stapleton, p. (2011). a survey of attitudes towards critical reading skill (crs) among hong kong secondary school teachers: implications for policy change. thinking skills and creativity journal, 6(1), 14-23. stapleton, p. (2002). critical thinking in japanese l2 writing: rethinking tired constructs. elt journal, 56, 250-257. stringer, e. t. (1999a). action research. sage publications. stringer, e. t. (2004b). action research in education. pearson/merrill/prentice hall. stringer, e. t. (2007c). action research. sage publications. stringer, e. t., christensen, l. m. f., and baldwin, s. c. (2010d). integrating teaching, learning, and action research: enhancing instruction in the k-12 classroom. sage publications. tovani, c. (2000). i read it, but i don’t get it: comprehension strategies for adolescent readers. stenhouse pub. tung, c. and chang, s. (2009). developing critical reading skill (crs) through literature reading. feng chia journal of humanities and social sciences, no. 19, 287-317 tang, l. (2016). exploration on the cultivation of critical reading skill (crs) in college intensive reading course. english language teaching, 9(3), 18-23. http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/elt.v9n 3p18 taylor, r. (1981). understanding the elements of literature. london and basingstoke: the macmillan press ltd. the global partnership for education. 2017. guidance for developing gender-responsive education sector plans. retrieved 2021 september 3 from https://www.globalpartnership.or g/content/guidance-developinggenderresponsive-educationsector-plans. unesco. 2003. unesco’s gender mainstreaming implementation framework. retrieved 2021 november 19 from http://www.unesco.org/new/filea dmin/multimedia/hq/bsp/g ender/pdf/1.%20baseline%20d efinitions%20of%20key%20gende r-related%20concepts.pdf unesco eatlas of teachers. (n.d.). women in the teaching profession. retrieved 2021 october 10 from https://tellmaps.com/uis/teachers /#!/tellmap/-677553166 wessels, c. (1987). drama. oxford: oxford university press. young, a. (1996). introducing critical thinking at the college level with children’s stories. college teaching, 44(3), 90 wallace, m. j. (2000). action research for language teachers. cambridge university press. http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/elt.v9n3p18 http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/elt.v9n3p18 https://www.globalpartnership.org/content/guidance-developing-genderresponsive-education-sector-plans https://www.globalpartnership.org/content/guidance-developing-genderresponsive-education-sector-plans https://www.globalpartnership.org/content/guidance-developing-genderresponsive-education-sector-plans https://www.globalpartnership.org/content/guidance-developing-genderresponsive-education-sector-plans http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/multimedia/hq/bsp/gender/pdf/1.%20baseline%20definitions%20of%20key%20gender-related%20concepts.pdf http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/multimedia/hq/bsp/gender/pdf/1.%20baseline%20definitions%20of%20key%20gender-related%20concepts.pdf http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/multimedia/hq/bsp/gender/pdf/1.%20baseline%20definitions%20of%20key%20gender-related%20concepts.pdf http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/multimedia/hq/bsp/gender/pdf/1.%20baseline%20definitions%20of%20key%20gender-related%20concepts.pdf http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/multimedia/hq/bsp/gender/pdf/1.%20baseline%20definitions%20of%20key%20gender-related%20concepts.pdf https://tellmaps.com/uis/teachers/#!/tellmap/-677553166 https://tellmaps.com/uis/teachers/#!/tellmap/-677553166 v04-02_00 0402_05_winhar, nugroho, candraningrum v04-02_0x