The Determinants of Married Women's Autonomy in Indonesia

Abstract

This paper investigates the determinants of married women's autonomy in Indonesia using the 2000 Indonesian Family Life Survey 3 (IFLS3). It considers the role of kinship norms and the effect of labor force participation on married women's autonomy. The measure of autonomy is based on self-reported answers to an array of questions relating to decision-making authority in the household. They include own-clothing, child-related and personal autonomy, physical mobility, and economic autonomy. The analysis examines if variations in women's autonomy are due to the prevailing kinship norms related to marriage in the community. In keeping with the anthropological literature, the analysis finds that living in patrilocal communities reduces physical autonomy for married women, whereas living in uxorilocal communities improves personal and child-related decision-making autonomy. Estimation results show that labor force participation, higher educational attainment, and increases in household wealth all have positive effects on married women's autonomy in Indonesia.

Keywords:

• Female autonomy
• kinship norms
• labor force participation
• Indonesia

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the Associate Editor and three anonymous referees for their useful comments on a previous version of this paper. All errors are our own.

Notes

¹ See Naila Kabeer (1999) for a review of studies on the measurement of female empowerment. She uses the term “agency” to refer to the decision-making process.

² Ambilocal post-nuptial residence refers to kinship norms where the married couple move together to set up a different home or if a pattern cannot be established.

³ The arisan is a popular form of women's gathering in Indonesia. It is a group lottery where each member contributes a predetermined amount of money at periodic meetings. The member whose name comes out at a random drawing keeps the sum of all contributions at that meeting and hosts the next meeting at her house where the next drawing takes place. Arisan is particularly popular among women because in addition to its financial aspect, it is a form of informal social gathering and is seen as an important means of information sharing. In general, arisan participation is voluntary (sometimes by invitation), and members know each other quite well. Older, married women typically attend the community arisan, while younger women tend to participate in their workplace's arisan.

⁴ We are grateful to an anonymous referee for pointing us in this direction.