Broken Pathways to Politics: Clearing a Path from Grassroots to Representative Politics

Women are under‐represented in Indonesian legislatures, and those women who are elected are disproportionately from ‘elite’ backgrounds. This research sought to understand the conditions for women to succeed in politics in conditions of patriarchy and clientelist politics. Research in North Sumatera, Indonesia, revealed that many women did not make the conscious decision not to enter politics, but rather found that they had not established the required preconditions earlier enough in life. Patriarchal social norms and a transactional political culture frustrate women's ability to acquire these conditions, yet they are also subject to change. Interviews with women elected representatives and women who had never contested an election revealed three sites that are critical to women either acquiring the preconditions to contest elections, or frustrating that pathway: the household, the ‘community’ and religious/ethnic associations. We demonstrate how women's actions in these sites transform the conditions to make them more conducive to women's political participation.

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Broken Pathways to Politics: Clearing a Path from Grassroots to Representative Politics

Cited by 2 publications

References 41 publications

Self help groups and politics: A complex relationship

Self help groups and politics: A complex relationship

Sites of infrastructure, apprenticeship and possibilities for self: Locating Indonesia's missing women in representative politics

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