This paper endeavors to understand how Indonesian new-developmental state addresses gender equality and women’s empowerment in its effort to institutionalize the participatory approach into the state bureaucracy. It pays attention to the way the new developmental ideology has shaped the participatory governance policy as an instrument of village development instead of an alternative mechanism of deepening democracy and reworking the structure of the traditional gender ideology. Utilizing qualitative data and longitudinal monitoring study, this paper argues that the new set of participatory village governance policies under Law No. 6/2014 on Villages has a narrow focus on village economy and infrastructure and ignores sensitive issues, such as transforming the traditional gender ideology. However, the government has room to make the law more progressive toward gender equality by revising the implementing regulations.