Gender Blindness and Legal Recognition: Feminist Critique of Indonesia’s Law 7/2016
Keywords:
Law No. 7/2016, Feminist Legal Theory, A.G. Mazur, Gender Bias, Women Fishers, Legal RecognitionAbstract
Women in the fisheries sector serve as vital pillars of production, reproduction, and social cohesion. Despite their vital roles in production and social cohesion, women fishers face systemic exclusion and marginalization within a patriarchal maritime framework that fails to recognize them as legal subjects under Law No. 7 of 2016. This research employs a normative legal analysis integrated with Feminist Legal Theory and Amy G. Mazur’s Feminist Policy analysis to scrutinize the gendered substantive gaps within the legislation. The study reveals that the law’s gender-blind definition of "fisherfolk" results in indirect discrimination by adopting male-centric standards, which effectively strips women of their identity and obstructs their access to state protection and fundamental rights. Beyond mere regulatory failure, this study utilizes a humanities-based legal analysis to conclude that the law ignores the lived experiences, cultural narratives, and socio-historical presence of women in maritime life. Consequently, this research contributes to the field by advocating for a reframing of legal recognition through a holistic and inclusive modification of statutory definitions to ensure substantive justice for all individuals in fish-resources, independent of gendered assumptions. By deconstructing gendered assumptions, this study seeks to transform the law into a site of substantive justice that honors the intersectional reality of maritime communities, ensuring state protection is no longer a gendered privilege.
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