Empowerment for Women Laborers Based on "Civic Education" A Case Study of Women Laborers of Cigarette Industry in Malang, Indonesia

Based on our previous research it was known that women workers were in weak position both personally and in the context of industrial relations. The weaknesses were caused by the lack of knowledge and understanding of: rights and obligations as workers, gender, and the rights and obligations as members of society and citizens. The research aimed to increase civic knowledge (cognitive) and understanding (affective) of labor women, especially related to politics. This research uses qualitative experimental approach. The data were mainly obtained from interviews with labor women at post-civic education training. The results of the study show that, first, after training, there were little increase in knowledge and understanding about the politics of labor women. Second, qualitatively the improvement of knowledge and understanding was influenced by the quality of labor women's education and the patriarchy culture shared by the family of labor women.