Women's Group Empowerment Practices: Knowledge Construction Study at The Liza Mangrove Studio in Pematang Johar Village

Abstract

Women are often the subject of empowerment programs at both the national and local levels. The importance of women as the target group for empowerment practices makes women's positions often subordinated so that they are considered a group that (must) be empowered, based on data on education and employment where women's place is always lower than that of men. The work participation rate of women is also much lower than that of men. The intense involvement of women in public spaces and productive work is due to women's inherent patriarchal values and placement as domestic workers. So far, women's participation in productive workspaces is informal through empowerment programs. Empowerment programs for women's groups can provide increased family welfare. Therefore, this paper looks at how the empowerment programs carried out by women's groups come from local knowledge through social construction theory. This qualitative research method was used with a case study on women in the Batik Liza Sanggar, Pematang Johar Village, to obtain data and analyze it. Research data mining was carried out by conducting in-depth interviews, which were determined through purposive selection of informants by determining criteria based on the level of knowledge and intensity of policy formulation to policy implementation in empowering women's groups. Research data was carried out by in-depth interviews with one key informant and four regular informants who were ordinary batik makers at Liza Mangrove Studio. From the research results, it was found that there were three dialectical moments in the empowerment practice of the Saanggar Liza Mangrove women's group, namely: first, the moment of externalization, which was a process of objectification through the emergence of unique ideas, ideas, and knowledge which were then socialized and institutionalized. Second, the moment of objectification is through mutual agreement by making the rice field batik icon the identity of Pematang Johar Village and then stipulated in Village Regulation (Pardes) No. 11 of 2019. Third, moments of internalization are represented by identifying individuals with their sociocultural world. This moment includes primary socialization and secondary socialization, manifested from the interaction between the village government, village communities, and batik users.