Abstract
Despite formal gender inclusion reforms, executive representation in decentralized democracies remains unequal. This study investigates whether gender inequality in Indonesia’s 2024 Simultaneous Local Elections is embedded within informal political network structures rather than confined to formal institutional rules. Using an interpretive Social Network Analysis approach based on available documentary data, the study reconstructs coalition, sponsorship, and endorsement networks across eight provincial and district-level contests. Structural indicators, including degree, betweenness, and eigenvector centrality, clustering patterns, brokerage roles, and peripheral positioning, are employed to assess gendered differences in network embeddedness and relational influence. The findings reveal systematic relational disparities between male and female candidates. Female candidates occupy less central network positions, demonstrate weaker brokerage capacity, maintain fewer high-value sponsor ties, and are disproportionately concentrated at the network periphery. Structural whole analysis shows that cross-coalition bridging roles are overwhelmingly dominated by male actors, reinforcing cumulative structural advantages in coalition-building and political sponsorship. These patterns remain consistent across diverse regional contexts, indicating that gendered exclusion is embedded within the architecture of coalition and patronage networks. By empirically mapping informal political structures, this study advances feminist institutionalist scholarship and highlights the value of interpretive Social Network Analysis for examining relational inequality in decentralized political systems.
- Ahnaf, M. I., & Lussier, D. N. (2019). Religious leaders and elections in the polarizing context of Indonesia. Humaniora, 31(3), 227–237. https://doi.org/10.22146/jh.49420
- Amin, M., & Ritonga, A. D. (2022). The differential effect of women politicians' communication, efficacy, and ideology in building citizens' political satisfaction and trust: A case of a developing nation. Journal of Ethnic and Cultural Studies, 9(4), 87–105. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejecs/1375
- Asiedu, E. A. (2023). Achieving gender equality and empowering women and girls through gender responsive budgeting in Ghana. Journal of Business Management and Social Studies, 3(1), 1–11.
- Aspinall, E., & Berenschot, W. (2019). Democracy for sale: Elections, clientelism, and the state in Indonesia. Cornell University Press.
- Aspinall, E., White, S., & Savirani, A. (2021). Women's political representation in Indonesia: Who wins and how? Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs, 40(1), 3–27. https://doi.org/10.1177/ 1868103421989720
- Bellotti, V., Ambard, A., Turner, D., Gossmann, C., Demkova, K., & Carroll, J. M. (2015). A muddle of models of motivation for using peer-to-peer economy systems. In Proceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1085–1094). Association for Computing Machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/2702123.2702272
- Bjarnegård, E., & Kenny, M. (2016). Comparing candidate selection: A feminist institutionalist approach. Government and Opposition, 51(3), 370–392. https://doi.org/10.1017/gov.2016.4
- Bjarnegård, E., & Zetterberg, P. (2022). How autocrats weaponize women's rights. Journal of Democracy, 33(2), 60–75.
- Blackburn, S. (2014). Women and democracy in Southeast Asia. In Routledge handbook of Southeast Asian democratization (pp. 198–212). Routledge.
- Bonacich, P. (1987). Power and centrality: A family of measures. American Journal of Sociology, 92(5), 1170–1182.
- Borgatti, S. P., Agneessens, F., Johnson, J. C., & Everett, M. G. (2022). Analyzing social networks using R. SAGE Publications.
- Burt, R. S. (2005). Brokerage and closure: An introduction to social capital. Oxford University Press.
- Clayton, A., Josefsson, C., & Wang, V. (2017). Quotas and women's substantive representation: Evidence from a content analysis of Ugandan plenary debates. Politics & Gender, 13(2), 276–304. https://www.cmi.no/publications/6076-quotas-and-womens-substantive-representation#external-link
- Clayton, A., O'Brien, D. Z., & Piscopo, J. M. (2019). All male panels? Representation and democratic legitimacy. American Journal of Political Science, 63(1), 113–129. https://www.jstor.org/stable/45132466
- Coleman, J. S. (1988). Social capital in the creation of human capital. American Journal of Sociology, 94, S95–S120.
- Crossley, N., & Widdop, P. (2025). Introduction to handbook of culture and social networks. In Handbook of culture and social networks (pp. 1–14). Edward Elgar Publishing. https://doi.org/10. 4337/9781803928784
- Dahlerup, D. (2013). High representation of women without gender quotas. In Breaking male dominance in old democracies (pp. 146–172). Oxford University Press.
- Diprose, R. (2023). Brokerage, power and gender equity: How empowerment‐focused civil society organisations bolster women's influence in rural Indonesia. Journal of International Development, 35(3), 401–425. https://doi.org/10.1002/jid.3770
- Faguet, J.-P. (2014). Decentralization and governance. World Development, 53, 2–13.
- Fang, R., Li, W.-D., & Brass, D. J. (2025). Coevolution of newcomer network structures and supervisor support and undermining: A latent change score approach. Journal of Management. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/01492063251368810
- Fernando, D., Susanto, J. P., Riyadi, A., Prayogo, T., Widodo, L., Adhi, R. P., Dewa, R. P., Adibroto, T. A., Lusia, A., & Handayani, S. S. (2023). Local community perceptions of impacts and future support for sustainable tourism: A case study of the Borobudur tourism area, Central Java, Indonesia. Journal of Namibian Studies: History Politics Culture, 39, 254–281. https://doi.org/10. 59670/tsr5md77
- Franceschet, S., Krook, M. L., & Tan, N. (Eds.). (2019). The Palgrave handbook of women's political rights. Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59074-9
- Funk, K. D., Hinojosa, M., & Piscopo, J. M. (2017). Still left behind: Gender, political parties, and Latin America's pink tide. Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society, 24(4), 399–424. https://doi.org/10.1093/sp/jxx012
- Gatiningsih, & Saputra, R. (2026). Population and civil registration as the spearhead of inclusive and effective domestic governance. Journal of Ethnic and Cultural Studies, 13(3), 179–206. https://doi.org/ 10.66815/ejecs/2974
- Gerring, J. (2007). Is there a (viable) crucial-case method? Comparative Political Studies, 40(3), 231–253. https://doi.org/10.1177/0010414006290784
- Granovetter, M. (1983). The strength of weak ties: A network theory revisited. Sociological Theory, 1, 201–233.
- Grosser, T. J., Obstfeld, D., Choi, E. W., Woehler, M., Lopez-Kidwell, V., Labianca, G., & Borgatti, S. P. (2018). A sociopolitical perspective on employee innovativeness and job performance: The role of political skill and network structure. Organization Science, 29(4), 612–632. https://psycnet.apa.org/ doi/10.1287/orsc.2017.1201
- Hadiz, V. R., & Robison, R. (2017). Competing populisms in post-authoritarian Indonesia. International Political Science Review, 38(4), 488–502. https://doi.org/10.1177/0192512117697475
- Haridison, A. (2026). From welfare to votes: Social assistance, incumbency, and electoral outcomes. Representation. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/00344893.2026. 2461234
- Hasanudin, M., Ruhaeni, N., Yusdiansah, E., & Chotidjah, N. (2025). Reformulating governor elections between popular sovereignty and government effectiveness in Indonesia's decentralised system. Walisongo Law Review, 7(2), 215–232. https://doi.org/10.21580/wal rev.2025.7.2.27332.
- Hassan, S. A., & Minja, D. (2024). Youth participation and political governance in Mandera County, Kenya. International Academic Journal of Arts and Humanities, 1(4), 339–361. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59074-9_3
- Jalalzai, F. (2013). Shattered, cracked, or firmly intact? Women and the executive glass ceiling worldwide. Oxford University Press.
- Jiang, L., Rundo, J., Shi, L., & Zhou, N. (2026). Network centrality and information cascades in executive and director networks. Encyclopedia, 6(1), Article 11. https://doi.org/10.3390/ encyclopedia6010011
- Krook, M. L. (2010). Why are fewer women than men elected? Gender and the dynamics of candidate selection. Political Studies Review, 8(2), 155–168. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1478-9302.2009.00185.x
- Laeli, T., Chumaedy, A., Nurlukman, A. D., & Fadli, Y. (2025). Social network analysis (SNA) of Anies Baswedan's campaign through #DesakAnies in social media "X." In Democracy and democratization in the age of AI (pp. 337–358). IGI Global Scientific Publishing.
- Lestari, P., & Kurniawan, G. F. (2025). Intersectionality and political representation: Challenges and policy implications for marginalized women in Indonesia. Journal of Social Studies Education Research, 16(2), 1–38.
- McPherson, M., Smith-Lovin, L., & Cook, J. M. (2001). Birds of a feather: Homophily in social networks. Annual Review of Sociology, 27(1), 415–444.
- Mietzner, M. (2014). Indonesia's 2014 elections: How Jokowi won and democracy survived. Journal of Democracy, 25(4), 111–125.
- Mietzner, M. (2020). Authoritarian innovations in Indonesia: Electoral narrowing, identity politics and executive illiberalism. Democratization, 27(6), 1021–1036. https://doi.org/10.1080/13510347.2019. 1704266
- Mustofa, I., Adi, B. T. S., Sukmana, O., & Salviana, V. (2024). Leadership and cultural changes: Village head elections in shaping traditional values, Indonesia's case study. International Journal of Research in Engineering, Science and Management, 7(5), 142–149. https://journal.ijresm.com/index.php/ijresm/ article/view/3045
- Pierson, P. (2004). Politics in time: History, institutions, and social analysis. Princeton University Press.
- Pratama, B. I., Wike, W., Said, M., Sentanu, I. G. E. P. S., Ari, D. P. S., Alfattahu, N. F., & Pratomo, D. A. (2026). Mapping national and local political coalitions in Indonesia: Multistage social network analysis oversized coalition governor, regent, and mayor elections 2024. Cogent Social Sciences, 12(1), Article 2611443. https://doi.org/10.1080/23311886.2025.2611443
- Rahayu, S., Sakuntaladewi, N., Sumirat, B. K., Widyaningsih, T. S., Yusnikusumah, T. R., Muin, N., & Bisjoe, A. R. H. (2024). The role of local governments in supporting social forestry implementation in Indonesia: A social network analysis and evidence from Eastern Indonesia. Forest and Society, 8(1), 154–178. https://doi.org/10.24259/fs.v8i1.28524
- Rugeiyamu, R., & Msendo, A. (2025). Success, challenges and prospects of decentralization in Africa: A systematic review. Cogent Social Sciences, 11(1), Article 2458700. https://doi.org/10.1080/23311886. 2025.2458700
- Sales, T., & Tavares, F. C. (2025). 45 years of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the challenges for global governance regarding gender inequality. Pensar-Revista de Ciências Jurídicas, 30, 1–12. https://ojs.unifor.br/rpen/article/ view/15880
- Sealy, R., Doldor, E., & Vinnicombe, S. (2016). Female FTSE Board Report 2016: Women on boards—Taking stock of where we are. Cranfield School of Management.
- Sidiq, F., Azahra, A. S., & Pirdaus, D. I. (2024). Implications of changes in the criminal procedure law of the ITE law on individual rights in the Indonesian legal system. International Journal of Humanities, Law, and Politics, 2(2), 56–61.
- Silva, R., Wahabzada, T., & Idele, P. (2025). Advancing legal identity, gender equity and women's empowerment via inclusive civil registration and vital statistics systems. Statistical Journal of the IAOS, 41(3), 613–632. https://doi.org/10.1177/18747655251368376
- Singh, S. (2024). Women in politics: Barriers to participation and strategies for inclusion. International Journal of Social Science Research, 1(2), 19–28.
- Tawakkal, G. T. I. (2025). What election is this? Candidate versus party contests in Indonesia. Asian Journal for Public Opinion Research, 13(3), 327–346. https://doi.org/10.15206/ajpor.2025.13.3.327
- Virágh, E. A. (2025). Capitalist messiahs fighting small-mindedness: Hegemonic startup masculinity in a semi-peripheral context. International Journal of Gender and Entrepreneurship, 17(3–4), 431–448. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJGE-04-2024-0136
- Warburton, E. (2025). The politics of Indonesia. In Oxford research encyclopedia of politics. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.013.2210
- Watts, D. J., & Strogatz, S. H. (1998). Collective dynamics of 'small-world' networks. Nature, 393(6684), 440–442.
- Waylen, G. (2014). Informal institutions, institutional change, and gender equality. Political Research Quarterly, 67(1), 212–223. https://doi.org/10.1177/1065912913510360
- Widyanawati, D. M., & Aisyah, S. (2025). Analysis of the role of women in development in Indonesia. Indonesian Interdisciplinary Journal of Sharia Economics, 8(1), 7651–7660. https://doi.org/10.31538/iijse.v8i3.7272
- Yarmar, Y., Yang, T., & King, M. D. (2026). When women stick together: Network dynamics and shared resources following disruptive events. Academy of Management Journal. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2024.0199
- Yavaşoğlu, F., & Eceral, T. Ö. (2025). Network structures shaped by cooperative development and local collaboration models: A social network analysis approach. Sustainability, 17(11), Article 5087. https://doi.org/10.3390/su17115087
APA 7th edition
In-text citation: (Saputra & Jaelani, 2026)
Reference: Saputra, R., & Jaelani, R. (2026). Gendered structural exclusion in local political networks: Social network analysis of Indonesian local elections.
Feminist Encounters: A Journal of Critical Studies in Culture and Politics, 10(2), Article 31.
https://doi.org/10.20897/femenc/19214
AMA 10th edition
In-text citation: (1), (2), (3), etc.
Reference: Saputra R, Jaelani R. Gendered structural exclusion in local political networks: Social network analysis of Indonesian local elections.
Feminist Encounters: A Journal of Critical Studies in Culture and Politics. 2026;10(2), 31.
https://doi.org/10.20897/femenc/19214
Chicago
In-text citation: (Saputra and Jaelani, 2026)
Reference: Saputra, Romi, and Riyan Jaelani. "Gendered structural exclusion in local political networks: Social network analysis of Indonesian local elections".
Feminist Encounters: A Journal of Critical Studies in Culture and Politics 2026 10 no. 2 (2026): 31.
https://doi.org/10.20897/femenc/19214
Harvard
In-text citation: (Saputra and Jaelani, 2026)
Reference: Saputra, R., and Jaelani, R. (2026). Gendered structural exclusion in local political networks: Social network analysis of Indonesian local elections.
Feminist Encounters: A Journal of Critical Studies in Culture and Politics, 10(2), 31.
https://doi.org/10.20897/femenc/19214
MLA
In-text citation: (Saputra and Jaelani, 2026)
Reference: Saputra, Romi et al. "Gendered structural exclusion in local political networks: Social network analysis of Indonesian local elections".
Feminist Encounters: A Journal of Critical Studies in Culture and Politics, vol. 10, no. 2, 2026, 31.
https://doi.org/10.20897/femenc/19214
Vancouver
In-text citation: (1), (2), (3), etc.
Reference: Saputra R, Jaelani R. Gendered structural exclusion in local political networks: Social network analysis of Indonesian local elections. Feminist Encounters: A Journal of Critical Studies in Culture and Politics. 2026;10(2):31.
https://doi.org/10.20897/femenc/19214