Democratic Transition and Women’s Rights: Understanding Gender-Egalitarian Policy Change in Indonesia (Project Brief 10)

In 1998, after three decades of authoritarian rule, women’s organizations re-emerged across Indonesia in the participatory spaces opened up by the democratic transition and the decentralization process. This Brief outlines how women’s rights advocates have taken advantage of this renewed participation to influence policy change on the issues of violence against women and domestic work. Progress has been made thanks to the ability to forge broad-based alliances beyond women’s organizations. However, alliance and consensus can also collapse along the fault lines of custom and religion.

For more information on the project, see Project Brief 5. The Project Brief on the India case study is also available online.


UNRISD Project Briefs pose questions, flag ideas and contribute knowledge that can improve the quality of development debates, policy and practice. They provide a concise summary of an UNRISD research project, situating it within wider social development debates; outlining its focus, objectives and methodology; and highlighting interim findings.