This article explores the issue of women’s potential as political agents within an oligarchic power structure. It focuses on the dynamics of local politics in Indramayu, West Java. The region was previously led by two women, Anna Sopanah and Nina Agustina, who were elected through direct electoral mechanisms at different periods. The main points examined in this article are as follows: first, oligarchic power structures frequently have an impact on the dynamics and procedures of local politics in Indramayu. This suggests that it is extremely difficult for elected regional heads and deputy regional leaders to remain free from the oligarchy’s influence, control, and even dominance. The second factor is that in the past 15 years, women have been re-elected to head the local administration in the deeply patriarchal society of Indramayu. These elected women are yet connected to male-controlled familial ties. This research exposes once again the potential for elected women as agency to maneuver in the fight to achieve gender equality and justice through oligarchy theory and gender theory. When oppression happens because of male domination, agency is not what liberal feminists interpret as resistance to subordination or oppression. To explore Indramayu’s local politics, however, it is more reasonable to consider agency as it is described by Naila Kabeer and Saba Mahmood.
Subono et al. (Wed,) studied this question.