Women in Changing Coastal Areas of the Global South: Local Gender Dynamics, Intersectional Marginalization, and Everyday Negotiation from the Margin

Summary

This study is part of POWERE, a collaborative initiative aimed at enhancing women’s participation in renewable energy projects in off-grid coastal areas of South Sulawesi. Coastal regions in the Global South, including Sulawesi, often epitomize localities that are marginalized and vulnerable, presenting limited opportunities and resources for their women residents. This socio-geographical context should be understood as a space where various factors intersect, complicating the notion of locality. While such intersections may lead to multiple layers of marginalization for local women, they can also create new opportunities for learning and negotiation. This study systematically reviews the literature on intersectionality, marginalization, and gender dynamics to explore how coastal areas act as both sites of intersectional marginalization and spaces for critical negotiation. Based on initial observations of local gender dynamics and experiences in remote coastal regions of South Sulawesi, this paper presents the lived experiences of coastal women, highlighting their unique strategies for self-negotiation and empowerment. By analyzing the diverse gendered experiences of women in these coastal areas of the Global South, this study offers a critical understanding of gender as a central element of their realities, illustrating how they adapt, negotiate, challenge, and transform various forms of marginalization shaped by intersections of socio-geographical context, class, ethnicity, and potentially religion. It emphasizes the crucial roles that coastal women play in social transformation within their communities, showcasing their ability to reinterpret marginality as a space of radical potential, a site of resistance (hooks, 1989), and a locus of negotiation. This study contributes to understanding coastal areas as evolving and transformative spaces, where the marginal position is not simply one of deprivation and oppression for women, but also a domain of empowerment.