From protest march to digital campaign: women’s movement and critical literacies in Indonesia

Abstract

ABSTRACT By employing a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), this paper examines the issues of women’s movement and empowerment by exploring the literacy practices of feminist activists. The narratives of literacy and its impact on women’s empowerment have been dominated by economic approaches. Freire’s notion of consciousness-raising has provided insight into the importance of women’s agency and their ideological struggle in fighting patriarchal ideologies through critical literacy practices. By taking the case of Women’s March Serang (WMS), we explore alternative stories of critical literacies and women’s empowerment and argue that critical literacies serve as a valuable mediating tool by which the women’s movement group could both transform themselves and engage in wider social activism. More specifically, WMS employs critical literacies to advocate gender equality and social inclusion in order to mobilize resources in a relatively patriarchal culture. From marching on the street to digital campaigns in social media, WMS has challenged the dominant discourse of functional literacy and women’s empowerment and demonstrated the adaptability of critical literacy practices in ongoing ways to support social activism and advocacy.