STRATEGIES FOR WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT IN HOUSEHOLD INDUSTRIES IN THE PROVINCE OF SOUTH SULAWESI

Abstract

The study was conducted in 4 districts or cities in the province of South Sulawesi, namely Takalar, Maros, Gowa, and Barru. The locations were deliberately chosen with the consideration that they are the potential development areas for women working in product diversification processed in domestic processing industries. The study had been carried out for six (6) months, from May 2019 to October 2019. The subjects of the study were 50 groups of women in small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The data was analyzed by using the analysis of excellence, analysis of R/C ratio, and SWOT analysis. The results of the study showed that the level of financial feasibility of the women groups in product diversification processed in domestic processing industries needed to be developed. Therefore, strategies that can be applied for women’s empowerment are: increasing work motivation and skills to support the sustainability of the production, improving product quality and quantity to access broad market especially the export market, improving the government programs for women’s empowerment, and conducting mentoring and coaching needed for the women’s groups. The W-O strategies that can be done are strengthening capital for business development, building partnerships and strengthening networks, ensuring that the production equipment assistance programs are equitable and in accordance with the groups’ needs, improving the quality of faculty of political sciences and communication graduates in accordance with the quality assurance standards (ISO) through mentoring and coaching. In addition, the S-T strategies that can be applied are strengthening the SME institutional groups and improving coaching to SME groups. Furthermore, the W-T strategies that can be implemented are conducting market research on the development of product quality and quantity.