Between Public Participation and Patriarchal Persistence: Women’s Agency and Gendered Power in an Indigenous Community in Eastern Indonesia

Abstract

Women’s increasing participation in paid employment and public life does not necessarily translate into an equivalent redistribution of domestic responsibilities or institutional authority. This study examines how women negotiate their agency within the intersecting structures of family, social expectations, and customary governance in Batu Merah, Ambon, Eastern Indonesia. Using an interpretive qualitative case study design, the research draws on in-depth interviews, observation, and document analysis to explore women’s experiences of employment, household responsibilities, social participation, and access to customary decision-making. Preliminary insights indicate a tension between the growing social acceptance of women’s economic contributions and the persistence of gendered expectations concerning domestic labour and family obligations. Women’s participation in public and community activities also appears to coexist with unequal access to positions of customary authority, suggesting that changes in economic participation, domestic relations, and institutional representation do not necessarily occur at the same pace. The study advances the concept of uneven gender transformation to explain how women’s agency may expand within existing social structures without producing equivalent changes in the distribution of power. By connecting everyday negotiations of gender relations with customary institutions in an underrepresented Eastern Indonesian context, the study contributes a context-sensitive perspective to debates on gender, social change, and community development. It recommends that gender-responsive community initiatives move beyond increasing women’s participation to address the distribution of domestic responsibilities and women’s substantive involvement in collective decision-making.