<![CDATA[A 30 percent quota for women candidates has appeared in Indonesian election law since the early 2000s and is now a requirement for legislative nomination, yet women's representation in elected bodies has never reached that level. This article examines what the national literature says about the barriers women face in candidacy and the strategies they use to overcome them. Using a narrative literature review, ten Indonesian-language journal articles published between 2019 and 2025 were read in full, extracted into a matrix, and synthesized through the supply and demand model of political recruitment (Norris & Lovenduski, 1995) and the distinction between descriptive and substantive representation (Pitkin, 1967; Phillips, 1995). First, supply-side barriers (the cost of politics, domestic burdens, limited networks, and the willingness to run) consistently appear alongside demand-side barriers (instant party recruitment, ballot position, and weak quota sanctions), so women's willingness to run should be read as an outcome of structure. Second, reported strategies are mostly recorded descriptively and rarely tested for results; kinship serves as an entry route while reproducing the structures women contest. Third, and most important, the literature almost entirely measures success by seats won rather than by what elected women do, and party gatekeepers are nearly absent as data. The article contributes to political and government studies by identifying these two gaps as a research agenda and by drawing implications for political parties and affirmative-action policy.]]>
