WOMEN'S EMPOWERMENT IN INDONESIA'S DIGITAL LABOR PLATFORMS:A QUALITATIVE STUDY OF LIVED EXPERIENCES

Ayu Lestari

doi:10.36563/pt92ec96

Authors

Ayu Lestari Yalova University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.36563/pt92ec96

Keywords:

Women's Empowerment, Digital Labor Platforms, Kabeer's Framework, Negotiated Autonomy, Algorithmic Governance, Platform Economy, Gender Equity, Structural Precarity

Abstract

Digital labor platforms are expanding rapidly across the Global South, raising questions about whether they empower women or reproduce precarity under the guise of flexibility. Indonesia, one of Southeast Asia’s largest platform economies, illustrates how digital work intersects with entrenched gender norms, regulatory gaps, and structural inequalities. This study applies Kabeer (1999) framework of resources, agency, and achievements, supported by Sen (1999) capability approach, Malhotra & Schuler (2002) indicators, and Cornwall & Rivas (2015) call to politicize empowerment. Semi-structured interviews with ten women in ride-hailing and reselling platforms were thematically analyzed to foreground lived experiences. Findings show that platform work generates real but fragile empowerment. Resources such as digital skills and income enable entry, while achievements like financial independence and confidence are genuine yet undermined by five constraints: physical safety, algorithmic precarity, taxation burdens, social stigma, and capability gaps. Agency emerges as negotiated autonomy; women exercise choice, but only within structural limits imposed by algorithms, household norms, and unsafe conditions. Empowerment in Indonesia’s platform economy thus remains contingent, partial, and dependent on broader institutional transformation

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