CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 35Gender, Education, and Development IssuesMicrofinance and Financial InclusionGender, Labor, and Family Dynamics

Women’s involvement in economic opportunities in water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) in Indonesia: Examining personal experiences and potential for empowerment.

Open access
Indarti, Nurul, Rostiani, Rokhima, Megaw, Tamara, Willetts, Juliet·2019·Development Studies Research
DOI 10.1080/21665095.2019.1604149
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

The involvement of women in economic activity in water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) in Indonesia is increasing, and yet this is the first study to examine empowerment in this context. This qualitative study explored the experiences of 18 women business owners, mobilizers, and public sector employees in WASH-related activities. The women were observed to have strong social motivations, and only those responsibile for household income expressed economic motivations. Women’s experiences were analyzed against four dimensions of empowerment: ‘power within,’ ‘power to,’ ‘power over,’ and ‘power with.’ Significant evidence of empowerment was found, and in some cases, economic empowerment. Equally, the complexity of the empowerment process as well as challenges, contradictions, and negotiations were observed. Evidence of self-belief and recognition that women had capabilities equal to men was tempered by adherence to gender norms concerning men’s roles in technical matters and decision-making. While some women experienced support from close family relatives, others were limited by household duties, restricted mobility, and limited financial independence. Based on the results, the WASH programs and policies promoting involvement in economic activities need more nuanced consideration of women’s empowerment, and to develop multi-pronged strategies that can support women in negotiating pathways towards greater gender equality.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1080/21665095.2019.1604149

Cites

35 of 35 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

We couldn’t retrieve this paper’s full text, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Formal positions include leadership on water and sanitation committees; leadership or management of WASH businesses, value chain companies, and organizations; leading community-level projects; and fundraising for and monitoring community-based water and sanitation initiatives.

    “Formal positions include leadership on water and sanitation committees; leadership or management of WASH businesses, value chain companies, and organizations; leading community-level projects; and fundraising for and monitoring community-based water and sanitation initiatives [59, 66, 83, 85, 89, 93, 112, 120, 126, 133, 139, 149, 154].”

    From Water, sanitation, and women’s empowerment: A systematic review and qualitative metasynthesis (2022) · cites this paper as [66]

  • In Indonesia, women exercised independent choice in selecting WASH-related jobs.

    “In Indonesia, women exercised independent choice in selecting WASH-related jobs [66].”

    From Water, sanitation, and women’s empowerment: A systematic review and qualitative metasynthesis (2022) · cites this paper as [66]

  • Restricted movement has limited women's access to training opportunities and therefore engagement in piped water enterprises and posed barriers to women's WASH businesses.

    “Restricted movement has limited women's access to training opportunities and therefore engagement in piped water enterprises (Cambodia [30]), and has posed barriers to women's WASH businesses (Indonesia [66]).”

    From Water, sanitation, and women’s empowerment: A systematic review and qualitative metasynthesis (2022) · cites this paper as [66]

  • Women have organized to form lending groups to support women-led WASH businesses, provide community education about water safety, monitor open defecation, and respond to sanitation-related harassment.

    “Women have organized to form lending groups to support women-led WASH businesses, [66] provide community education about water safety, [56, 61, 73, 78, 89, 91, 125, 129, 163, 165, 168, 169, 193, 296] monitor open defecation, [145] and respond to sanitation-related harassment.[174]”

    From Water, sanitation, and women’s empowerment: A systematic review and qualitative metasynthesis (2022) · cites this paper as [66]

  • Women expended great amounts of time meeting sanitation needs and fulfilling sanitation-related responsibilities, including long walks to sanitation sites when lacking private home toilets, waiting in long toilet queues, going for sanitation in early morning or late at night to avoid queues or ensure privacy, or open defecating rather than walking to and queuing at latrines.

    “Women expended great amounts of time meeting sanitation needs and fulfilling sanitationrelated responsibilities [64, 66, 121, 122, 125, 127, 128, 132, 133, 135, 138, 141, 168, 173, 174, 182, 184, 185, 187, 189,190,195,219,226,228,236,239,240,248,250,256,265].Women in India, [125,195] Kenya, [256] and South Africa [265] reported long walks to sanitation sites when they lacked private home toilets,”

    From Water, sanitation, and women’s empowerment: A systematic review and qualitative metasynthesis (2022) · cites this paper as [66]

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Indarti, N., Rostiani, R., Megaw, T., & Willetts, J.
Affiliations
  • Universitas Gadjah Mada (ID)
  • University of Technology Sydney (AU)
Corresponding author
Indarti, Nurul
ORCID
Venue
Development Studies Research
Publisher
Informa UK Limited
Published
2019-01-01
Volume
6
Issue
1
Pages
76-91
ISSN
2166-5095 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1080/21665095.2019.1604149
OpenAlex
W2936373234
Cited by
35
References
35
Citations by year
2026: 2 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 1
FWCI
6.75
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Development Studies Research (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
  • UTS ePRESS (University of Technology Sydney) (submittedVersion)
Funders
Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (66466)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Education › Gender, Education, and Development Issues
  • Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Microfinance and Financial Inclusion
  • Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics
Keywords
women's empowerment, water, sanitation and hygiene, women's economic participation, economic empowerment, gender norms, gender equality, women entrepreneurs, household income, women's mobility, financial independence, Indonesia

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review