Female Labour Force Participation in Indonesia: Why Has it Stalled?

Abstract

This paper examines and disentangles the factors that have led to the largely unchanged participation (about 51%) of women in Indonesia’s labour force in the past two decades. We use data from the National Socio-economic Survey (Susenas) and Village Potential Statistics (Podes) from 1996 to 2013 in order to conduct a cohort analysis that distinguishes the effects of time and age on female labour force participation. We find that the raw labour market participation figures, which show little change over time, mask changes that offset one another in the current population. Evidence suggests that social norms are changing to support female participation, but this is offset by the changing industrial structure. Our projections show that the government’s current policies are unlikely to allow Indonesia to reach its G20 goal of decreasing the gender gap in labour force participation by 25% between 2014 and 2025.