Women's Economic Empowerment Policy as a Mechanism to Reduce Household Poverty

Abstract

This study examines women’s economic empowerment policy as a mechanism for reducing household poverty by tracing how policy design and implementation translate into welfare outcomes. Using a qualitative multiple-case study design with mechanism tracing, the research investigates pathways linking empowerment instruments to income stability, resource control, intra-household allocation, and vulnerability reduction. Fieldwork was conducted in Bandung City and Garut Regency, West Java Province, Indonesia, selected to capture variation in labor-market opportunity structures and service access across urban and semi-rural contexts. Data were gathered from 30 informants, including women beneficiaries, frontline implementers, and policy stakeholders, purposively sampled to represent diverse livelihood strategies and governance roles. Findings indicate that empowerment programs reduce household poverty when they stabilize income through market linkage and mentoring, strengthen women’s agency and control over spending, and shift intra-household allocation toward welfare-enhancing investments. Impacts are weakened when interventions are fragmented, returns remain volatile in informal markets, and unpaid care burdens generate time poverty. The study recommends sequenced policy bundles integrating skills, job placement or market access, financial planning support, and care-sensitive services to enable sustained poverty reduction.