ABSTRACT
Analysing the national and Jakarta municipal government policies and practices on eviction is significant for examining how the governments contribute to women’s empowerment or disempowerment, particularly in Kampung Rawa. My frameworks on women’s empowerment place power as a core element so that in discussing women’s struggles in informal settlement I need to discuss women in countering power structures that obstruct their housing rights. Power wielded by individual actors, groups in society or State institutions and actors at different levels may operate very visibly or more subtly, e.g. through physical coercion or by keeping the powerless ignorant (Bourdieu, 1989; Risseeuw, 1988; Rowlands, 1998). In this part, I analyse power represented by the government. Theoretically, governments can contribute to women’s empowerment if they provide assistance and services that help women to address their problems, and if they open spaces of negotiation for them. Conversely, governments can obstruct women’s empowerment by blocking their access to resources and excluding them from negotiation processes.
