Gender Inequality and the Division of Household Labor: a Comparative Study of Middle-class, Working Married Men and Women in Japan and Indonesia&#x0D;

Jenny Simulja,Endah H Wulandari,Sri Ayu Wulansari

doi:10.7454/mssh.v18i2.3466

Abstract

Seeking to offer a balanced perspective to gender inequality and the division of household labor among middle-class, working married men and women in Japan and Indonesia, this paper examines the effects of individual-level characteristics (relative income, working hours, gender ideology) as well as the country-level factors (e.g. GEM: Gender Empowerment Measure) on the dynamics of housework distribution between spouses in both countries. Statistical analyses show a number of significant correlations between these variables, among which gender ideology seems to be of particular importance. Perhaps the most enlightening finding of all is that despite their lower GEM rank compared to Japan, the Indonesian respondents have relatively egalitarian division of labor in their households. This finding provides a new insight that GEM, which emphasizes the political economy aspects of a country, may not be sufficient to capture gender disparities without considering other socio-cultural factors in the complexity of day-to-day actual division of housework. Keywords: Blumberg’s theory of gender stratification, gender empowerment measure (GEM), Japan-Indonesia, gender inequality, the division of household labor

Highlights

With the approach of the 21st century, the examination of gender inequality in any given society is extended to almost all areas of social studies
Wives in Indonesia -- a less gender-egalitarian country, are more likely to be burdened with a traditional division of household labor yet benefit more from their individuallevel assets in the negotiation over housework
This study is among the first to examine the effect of individual-level characteristics and country-level gender inequality on the division of housework in Japan and Indonesia

Summary

Introduction

With the approach of the 21st century, the examination of gender inequality in any given society is extended to almost all areas of social studies. It is believed as one of the basic way to presage the possible emergence of a gender-equal society, a situation that has become one of the main goals of most countries in the world. As married women’s labor force participation has increased in the past several decades (Cohen & Bianchi 1999; Goldin 1990), the traditional division of household labor ---“women at home and men at work”--- has been eroding. These women still do the majority of the housework (Bianchi et al 2000; Coltrane 2000), which is to say that women’s primary task is still considered to be housekeeping and child rearing

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