Every year, 18 September marks International Equal Pay Day, a global moment to highlight the continuing importance of equal pay and equal opportunities for women and men in the workplace.
This year, Soedirman Center for Global Studies (SCGS) responds to this moment by publishing our latest research report, “Inclusive for Whom? The Reality of Women’s Work Behind Banyumas’ Waste Management Success.”
Banyumas has been recognized as a success story in community-based and decentralized waste management. Its approach has received international recognition, including the ASEAN Environmentally Sustainable Cities Award 2025, and has often been presented as a model of participatory and inclusive waste governance.
Yet, when we talk about inclusivity, the experiences and positions of women workers often remain less visible. This report unpacks this dimension of inclusivity.Our findings reveal persistent gender inequalities in wages, access to training, participation in decision-making, and workplace protection, with women concentrated in lower-authority roles across the facilities.
These findings urge us to reconsider how we understand participation and inclusivity. Women’s presence in the waste management workforce does not automatically translate into equal access to authority, resources, skills development, remuneration, or workplace protection. For some women workers, paid employment also intersects with continuing domestic responsibilities, creating an often invisible double burden.
Through this report, SCGS seeks to highlight the people behind Banyumas’ waste management achievements and encourage a broader conversation about whose labor sustains successful systems, how that labor is valued, and what meaningful gender inclusivity should look like in practice.
This report is the result of a collective effort involving researchers, field data contributors, facility managers, workers, and many others who generously opened their doors, shared their experiences, and supported the research process. We are deeply grateful to everyone who contributed to this work.
We hope this report contributes to ongoing discussions on building waste management systems that are environmentally sustainable, socially inclusive, and fair to the people whose work keeps them running.