COMPLETION REPORTGender norm and Female’s Post-Marital Labour Force Participation in Indonesia and Japan
Dr. Diahhadi Setyonaluri
Research Associate
Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Indonesia
Indonesia and Japan also share similar norm towards the gender role of married women. Marriage and childbearing
are associated with the beginning of women’s role as a caretaker of the family. In Japan, women tend to leave work
during parenting years and return later after children are older. In Indonesia, the traditional gender norm seems tocreate barrier to entry to labour market for all women although a study found that employment break after marriage
was also quite common (Setyonaluri 2013).
This research examines the post-marital labour force participation among female in Indonesia and Japan. For
Indonesia, this study uses the Indonesian Family Life Survey (IFLS), a longitudinal survey that capturessocioeconomic and demographic characteristics across the life course. The data provides women’s employment
across different life stage, including during the transition to marriage and childbearing. For Japan, the study uses theJapanese General Social Survey (JGSS) 2012, a cross sectional survey that portrayed Japanese society, attitudes andbehavior. The main advantage of JGSS is the availability of reasons of quitting a job in the past, including marriageand childbirth. The JGSS data is analyzed using multinomial logistic regression, to examine factors affecting
decision of a married woman to leave work due to marriage and childbearing, quitted work due to other reasons, ornever had an employment break.
The result of analysis show that marriage and childbearing are associated with leaving job in both countries. In Japan,
type of job, education, strata, values over gender role, and age are significant predictors of decision to quit due tomarriage and childbearing. Contrary to the result of Indonesian analysis, women with higher education are more
likely to quit work than those with lower education which is associated with higher motherhood penalty for highly
educated women than those with lower education. Women who worked as a non-employee (executive of company,family worker, contract worker) are less likely to quit after marriage and childbearing. This finding indicates therigidity in the Japan’s working environment which is lacking in flexibility of work hours and space. Such situation
creating a disadvantage for married women to continue their employment since they had to juggle between workand childrearing. Women’s belief toward gender role at home is significant predictor with those who believe thatmale should be the main breadwinner tend to quit work due to marriage/childbearing than to other causes. In
Indonesia, entering marriage and first birth increase the likelihood to leave work for women who started work when
they were single. Having a university degree and worked in formal sector significantly reduce the likelihood to leave
the labour market. Formal work is often associated with better job security, including guarantee to return to work
after maternity leave. Moreover, women with university degree and worked in formal sector tend to have a better
income than those in informal sector and might afford to hire domestic work to take care of children while they work.

Publication of the Results of Research Project:
Verbal Presentation (Date, Venue, Name of Conference, Title of Presentation, Presenter, etc.)
Date: February 2019
Venue: Demographic Institute Faculty of Economics and Business Universitas Indonesia
Name of Seminar: Regular Seminar at Demographic Institute Faculty of Economics and Business Universitas
Indonesia
Title of Presentation
Presenter: Diahhadi Setyonaluri/Jazman Ihsanudin
Thesis (Name of Journal and its Date, Title and Author of Thesis, etc.)
Book (Publisher and Date of the Book, Title and Author of the Book, etc.)
Journal Article (Plan to publish)
Name of journal: Asian Population Studies
Title of article: Gender norm and post-marital female labour force participation in Indonesia and Japan
Authors: Diahhadi Setyonaluri/Jazman Ihsanudin
Estimated date of submission: 31 Januari 2019