Emmanuel Levinas’s Ethics of Alterity and Its Relevance to Gender Equality in Patriarchal Indonesian Culture

Abstract

Patriarchal culture in Indonesia continues to produce unequal gender relations and places women in subordinate positions across various areas of social life. This article aims to examine Emmanuel Levinas’s philosophical concept of alterity and to explore its relevance for efforts to promote gender equality within the context of patriarchal culture in Indonesia. Levinas’s philosophy of alterity asserts that ethical relations are grounded in an unconditional responsibility toward the “Other,” understood as the recognition of the dignity and uniqueness of every individual who must not be reduced to an object of domination. This study employs a qualitative descriptive approach using a literature review method, drawing on an analysis of Levinas’s major works as well as scholarly literature on gender and patriarchy in Indonesia. The data were analyzed interpretively to identify the conceptual relevance between the ethics of alterity and the struggle for gender equality. The findings indicate that the concept of ethical responsibility toward the Other provides a strong normative foundation for rejecting subordination, discrimination, and gender-based violence. Levinas’s thought thus offers a reflective framework that encourages the recognition of women as autonomous and dignified ethical subjects, thereby contributing to the development of more just, equal, and humane social relations in Indonesian society.