An opportunity to go "here and there" on the empowering vehicle of education -A minor field study of women’s empowerment through education in Gerupuk, Indonesia
By utilizing the concept of empowerment and how education can serve as an empowering tool for women, this bachelor thesis aims to examine women’s empowerment through education in the village of Gerupuk in south Lombok, Indonesia. The thesis is based on empirical material consisting of interviews with women from Gerupuk and representatives from Non-Government Organizations (NGOs), United Nation (UN) agencies, and the Indonesian government. In line with Jo Rowlands’ theory of women’s empowerment, this study accounts for core values, inhibiting and encouraging factors, and changes arising due to the interactions within the empowerment process through education. The field study indicates that women from Gerupuk who have completed nine years or more of education have become empowered by developing core values in their personal life, in relation to others and collectively. Empowerment showed not only to be equated with core values but also what happens as a result of developing them. Factors contributing favorably to the empowerment process and overriding the inhibiting factors include an increased ability to act in one’s own interest and to acquire a wider array of opportunities for life choices
