Marginalised Womanhood and Inclusive Development

This paper explores the conceptualizations of ‘inclusive development’ as a meeting point for navigating what can appear as diametrically opposed ideals of economic growth and social justice and equity. There are many endeavors to intersect gender equity, inclusive growth and inclusive development (c/f Asmorowati and Schubert 2018).We draw on our research of the East Java Government’s ‘Feminisation of Poverty Program’ (PFK) that sought addressing poverty of rural women heads of households through a one-off conditional cash transfer aimed at enabling economic entrepreneurship. Given the social imperative of marriage for women,there is inherent social stigma for widows and divorcees (Mahy, Winarnita & Herriman 2016; Parker & Creese 2015). Nonetheless, our findings point to the simultaneity of inconsequential economic empowerment with substantial re configuring of women’s social presence through inclusion in the program.Indeed, inclusion of ‘all’ does not necessarily eradicate exclusion and may indeed reinforce and reinvent different forms of social exclusion (c/f Hickey, Sen & Bukenya 2015: 6). And yet, we argue that there are avenues formarginalised women to navigate repositioning of social identities and their place as social and civic actors.