Grassroots Ecofeminist Resistance: Legal and Political Advocacy of "Wadon Wadas" Against Structural Misogyny and Extractive Policies

Abstract

In Indonesia, rural and environmental conflicts often push women physically and intellectually to the periphery because development policies ignore women’s environmental knowledge and create their own margins. This study examines the legal and political protection strategies of the Wadon Wadas women’s group in Purworejo, Central Java, which seeks to protect its living space from andesite stone mining and to deconstruct misogyny in structural development and environmental conservation. Using a qualitative approach that integrates Feminist Participatory Action Research with Critical Discourse Analysis, the study draws on in-depth interviews, participatory observation, and analysis of mining and spatial planning policy documents. It identifies three core indicators of exclusion. First, women are systematically excluded from formal decision-making structures for spatial and land-use planning, including village deliberative forums, traditional land boards, and technical planning committees. Second, resource management frameworks are based on a household norm that treats men as the sole heads of households, so women’s rights to land, forests, and water are not recorded in policy documents or fund allocation and are treated as if they never existed. Third, no formal mechanism recognizes or documents women’s indigenous and local ecological knowledge, which is passed down through generations but excluded from official land-use assessments. These policies, pursued in the name of progress, have long produced vulnerabilities in women’s living spaces and bodies since mining began. It finds that through body politics, culturally grounded manganan and angonan rituals, and cross-gender solidarity networks, Wadon Wadas has created new cultural and political definitions of environmental advocacy. It demonstrates that gender equality, environmental justice, and sustainable construction cannot be separated in public policy. Effective and transformative environmental advocacy draws on women’s embodied experiences and local knowledge.