Gender and Conflicts: Patterns and Causes of Masculinization of Land Conflicts in Indonesia

Abstract

. The conflict associated with land-use change led by oil palm expansion has been published intensively. However, analysis of the conflict from a gender perspective is still lacking, so it does not have a balanced view of the involvement of women and men. By paying attention to gender issues, this paper attempts to fixes this knowledge gap. Based on the use of gender-sensitive conflict analysis and mixed method, the results of the study of 150 conflicts that occurred between 2010-2019 overland conversion for oil palm plantations in four provinces (West Sumatra, Riau, West Kalimantan, and Central Kalimantan) will be presented and explained. This paper would suggest that while households and community members risk losing access to land within village areas, women are much less involved than men in struggling for land defense and conflict resolution processes. Consequently, when land struggles are successful, men benefit. Our explanation is the dominance of male involvement in land-use change conflicts because of male- oriented of customary land tenure.