International Women's Day: Grassroots women most marginalised

Jakarta — Perserikatan Solidaritas Perempuan (Women’s Solidarity) has argued that women remain the subjects most impacted by patriarchal development, resulting in multidimensional crises including ecological crises, economic crises, and exploitative policies.

“Grassroots women continue to face policies and global political economic systems based on neoliberalism and translated through a patriarchal development paradigm, which systematically marginalises women’s lives from their access to and control over natural resources through to their participation in decision-making spaces,” said Armayanti Sanusi, Chair of the National Executive Board of Women’s Solidarity, in a statement in Jakarta on Wednesday.

This statement was made in response to the observance of International Women’s Day 2026.

“Women are pushed into low-wage work systems, losing their sources of livelihood, and continue to bear reproductive work burdens that are not recognised by the state,” she said.

Women’s Solidarity also argued that women’s sovereignty is continuously undermined through various Indonesian international policies, including the signing of the Indonesia–United States Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), which are claimed as efforts to increase economic growth, investment, and food security.

“However, behind this narrative, communities including women often bear layered impacts and lose their sovereignty,” said Armayanti Sanusi.