BEYOND PROTECTION: A CRITICAL FEMINIST ANALYSIS OF VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN SERVICE GOVERNANCE IN RURAL INDONESIA

Abstract

Violence against women remains a pervasive global crisis requiring effective institutional responses, yet conventional public service approaches often fail to address the structural power relations that perpetuate such violence. This study examines service governance for violence against women in a rural Indonesian district, applying critical feminist analysis to interrogate whether state-provided protection services challenge or reproduce patriarchal structures. Employing qualitative methodology with in-depth interviews, participant observation, and document analysis across multiple stakeholders—government agencies, law enforcement, healthcare providers, civil society organizations, and survivors—the research evaluates service quality through five dimensions: tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy. Findings reveal a fundamental paradox: while institutions provide crisis intervention, they simultaneously perpetuate gender inequality through absent standardized protocols, differential treatment favoring certain violence types over others, and reconciliation mechanisms that prioritize family preservation over survivor safety. Sexual violence cases consistently receive legal prosecution, whereas domestic violence is channeled toward mediation despite power imbalances and recidivism risks. This differential treatment creates conditional protection regimes that privilege institutional convenience over survivor autonomy. The absence of dedicated psychological services, written operating procedures, and comprehensive risk assessment protocols further undermines service credibility. Critical feminist analysis exposes how ostensibly neutral bureaucratic processes embed patriarchal assumptions about women's roles, agency, and deservingness of protection. The study demonstrates that service quality deficiencies represent not merely technical or resource failures but ideological manifestations of deeply rooted power relations. Meaningful transformation requires moving beyond capacity-building toward fundamental restructuring of institutional cultures, accountability mechanisms, and inter-agency coordination guided by survivor-centered, rights-based feminist principles. The findings challenge public administration assumptions of bureaucratic neutrality, contributing to scholarship on feminist governance, violence against women service delivery, and state responses to gender-based violence in rural contexts across the Global South