Assessing the Efficacy of Gender Mainstreaming Strategies: A Case Study on Indonesia’s Rural Participatory Development

My thesis evaluates the efficacy of gender mainstreaming strategies, in the context of rural participatory development in Indonesia. I have endeavoured to uncover what gender inequality means; what factors shape its interpretations; how these are translated into strategies; how they manifest in outcomes and lasting impact. Results show gender mainstreaming strategies as broadly successful, but important variations also occur. Contextually-driven factors, like culture, politics and geography, reveal as potent in conditioning outcomes and impact of gender mainstreaming strategies. Ignoring these diminishes the transformative potential of strategies and also extend long-held notions that maintain the inequalities between men and women.