Role of Women Politician in Political Contestation in Sikka (Phenomenological Study of Participation in Women Legislative Candidates)

The representation system as a modern form of democracy implies the opening of equal access and opportunities for citizens in politics. But political reality shows that women occupy a small part of political positions. This is because women's opinions that politics is dirty. A patriarchal culture that develops in society and places women in a lower position participates in perpetuating this. This study aims to: 1) Understand and analyze the meaning of female candidates in the role of women politicians, 2) To explain the meaning and experience of women legislative candidates in political contestation, 3). illustrate the meaning of the existence of female candidates as women politicians in political competition the method used is a qualitative method with a phenomenological approach and a liberal feminist perspective with participants of women politicians from several political parties. The struggle for gender equality in politics has several limitations: 1) Not all women legislative candidates understand the gender agenda, 2) Women politicians who understand and fight for the gender agenda have not been elected as legislators, 3) Women politicians who understand the gender agenda and are chosen as legislators, do not optimal for managing gender issues because there are still cultural constraints related to patriarchy and its domestic role. Not all women politicians fight for gender issues. The meaning of the role of each woman politician is different.