Marrying Up? Trends in Age and Education Gaps Among Married Couples in Indonesia (original) (raw)

Marriage and Socioeconomic Change in Contemporary Indonesia

Journal of Marriage and Family, 2008

This study investigates the relationship between economic trends and entry into marriage in a rapidly developing setting. We examine Indonesian marriage in the 1990s, a decade of substantial economic growth followed by a sudden financial collapse in 1998. We use discrete-time hazard models to analyze information on 4,078 women and 4,496 men from the Indonesia Family Life Survey. Although previous research has shown that marriages may be postponed after economic downturn, we find no evidence of such delays at the national level following the 1998 financial crisis. In contrast, we use regional wage rate data to show that entry into marriage is inversely related to economic growth throughout the decade for all women and for men from lower socioeconomic strata.

Demographic Characteristics Related to First Married Age in Indonesia

Jurnal Kesehatan Masyarakat, 2021

Quantitative population growth but does not compensates with the quality will be a problem. One of the efforts to reduce the population growth rate is the age of first marriage. Based on BPS data in 2017, early marriage in Indonesia is 25.71 percent, meaning that in every 100 marriages, there are 25 couples less than 18 years. This study aims to study the factors affecting the age of first marriage (UKP) in Indonesia. The data used were the results of the 2017 RPJMN Survey with a sample of 51,493 people. The data was taken by systematic random sampling, then the unit of analysis was taken FAW (15-49 years) married as many as 40,268 respondents. The variables studied included residence, wealth quintile, education level, employment status, and age at first marriage. The analysis was performed using descriptive and inferential methods using binary logistic regression models. The results showed 21,405 (53.2%) women at first marriage were more than 20 years old. Meanwhile, those under 20...

RECONSIDERING THE MARRIAGE AGES IN INDONESIA

Al-'Adalah: Jurnal Hukum Islam, 2014

Abstrak: Meninjau Ulang Batas Usia Perkawinan di Indonesia. Dalam UU Perkawinan No 1/1974 pemerintah telah menetapkan batasan umur bagi calon suami sekurang-kurangnya 19 tahun dan calon isteri sekurang-kurangnya 16 tahun. Namun pernikahan dini atau pernikahan di bawah umur masih kerap terjadi di Indonesia dengan Sunnah fi'liyyah Rasulullah yang menikahi 'Âisyah sebagai dalih yang digunakan para pelakunya. Diperlukan semangat dan keberanian dari para pembuat kebijakan untuk merevisi aturan tentang batas minimal usia perkawinan serta peninjauan kembali tentang aturan umur pengantin tersebut, termasuk melakukan kajian ulang terhadap Sunah di atas. Hal tersebut menjadi penting karena hak anak adalah bagian dari hak asasi manusia yang wajib dijamin, dilindungi, dan dipenuhi oleh orang tua, keluarga, masyarakat dan pemerintah. Abstract: Reconsidering the Age of Marriage in Indonesia. The Government has made the rule about age of marriage, namely the male must be at least 19 years old and the female must be at least 16 years old. Nevertheless, early marriages or under-age mariages are still common in Indonesia since people reffer to the prophet's Sunnah fi'liyyah who was married to 'Âisyah. Passion and courage from policy makers to revise the rule of minimum marriage age are required to revise that rule and reviewing the Sunnah is also imperative. It is important because the right of children is a part of human rights that must be guaranteed, protected, and filled by parents, family, society and government.

Explaining the Recent Upturn in Divorce in Indonesia: Developmental Idealism and the Effect of Political Change

Social Science Research Network, 2017

Divorce trends in Indonesia during the latter half of the 20th century provide an interesting contrast to Western societies. While the social forces associated with modernisation resulted in a dramatic rise in divorce in Western societies, the process of modernisation produced an equally dramatic decline in divorce in Indonesia. Recent evidence, however, suggests that the divorce trends have reversed direction in Indonesia, and the divorce rate has begun to rise. The purpose of this paper is to present both statistical evidence of a possible rise in divorce and qualitative evidence of possible changes in reasons for divorce. The statistical evidence is based on fi ve rounds of the Indonesia Demographic and Health Surveys conducted between 1987 and 2007. Qualitative evidence comes from interviews with marriage registrars, court officials, and other informed community members. Divorce trends in Indonesia during the latter half of the 20th century provide an interesting contrast to Western societies. While the social forces associated with modernisation resulted in a dramatic rise in divorce in Western societies, the process of modernisation produced an equally dramatic decline in divorce in Indonesia. Recent evidence, however, suggests that the divorce trends have reversed direction in Indonesia and the divorce rate has begun to rise. The purpose of this paper is to present statistical evidence of a possible rise in divorce and qualitative evidence of possible changes in reasons for divorce. The statistical evidence is based on five rounds of the Indonesia Demographic and Health Surveys conducted between 1987 and 2007, and from the fourth round of the Indonesia Family Life Survey conducted in 2007-2008. Qualitative evidence comes from interviews with marriage registrars, court officials and other informed community members.

Special Issue: Emerging Dimensions of Marriage in Asia

Article published in Journal of Family Issues, Vol 0(0) I-22, , 2023

In the past 20 years, divorce has increased in Indonesia. Indonesian statistics show that divorces initiated by women exceed those by men. One issue that is often neglected is how socioeconomic differences also play a role in this matter. Drawing on our collaborative research on Muslim divorces in Indonesia, this paper focuses on the interplay between divorce strategies and socioeconomic differences among Muslim couples. Our in-depth interviews with 93 Muslim men and women and 19 judges from Islamic courts show that class differences shape distinctive dynamics of divorce among Muslim Indonesians. Couples from less educated, lower-income backgrounds accept marriage dissolution more easily, with women becoming much less tolerant of men's behaviors such as infliction of domestic violence, infidelity, and failure to provide financial support. Educated, middle-class urban couples divorce for similar reasons but tend to experience a lengthier process accompanied by complex layers of conflict. Many educated women's narratives emphasize their ability to support themselves through working, and a desire to be free of a bad marriage at any cost. Class and education thus contribute to significant differences in the experience and trajectories of divorce in Indonesia.

Transition into marriage in Greater Jakarta: Courtship, Parental Influence and Self-Choice Marriage

This paper addresses the question whether a shift to a self-chosen marriage partner means that traditional cultural norms stressing family influence on spouse selection have been weakened by inroads of modern norms of greater individual autonomy in the marriage process. Using a representative sample of 1,552 married young adults (aged 20-34) in Greater Jakarta, we explore the courtship processes, and the degree of parental role in spouse selection. Although only 4% of the respondents cited that their marriage was arranged by others, over half of the respondents reported their parents or in-laws played a major role in their marriage decision. Our multivariate analysis suggests that tertiary educated respondents are those most likely to report their parents playing a major role. We reflect on the prevailing cultural norms to discuss the centrality of family in studying the interactions between marriage, education, and social mobility in modern Indonesia.

Why is the Divorce Rate Declining in Indonesia

Journal of Marriage and The Family, 2001

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WOMEN AS SECONDARY EARNERS: The Labour Market and Marriage Expectations of Educated Youth in Urban Indonesia

""In the face of rapid increases in women’s labour force participation and educational attainment, gender disparities in other measures of labour force outcomes in Indonesia remain persistent. Even for the tertiary educated sub-group of the urban population, sizeable gender disparities in hourly wage, total wage, and occupational segregation continue to materialize. This thesis is an extension of the existing international literature that points to traditional gender roles in marriage as the main supply-side drivers of the persistent gender gap in the labour market. Instead of focusing on the gender gap in observable labour force outcomes, the primary objective of this thesis ventures beyond the labour market, and adopts a micro-level approach to examine the gender dimensions of labour market aspirations in the context of expectations of gender roles in marriage amongst university students in urban Indonesia. The focal argument in this thesis is that gendered labour market expectations showing women’s lower intended labour force attachment relative to men, are a reflection of the prevailing norms in urban Indonesia denoting women’s secondary economic role in marriage. This thesis employs both secondary data sources and primary data collected through fieldwork. First, to provide context to primary data collection, the study utilises secondary data mostly drawn from the Population Module of the 2000 Indonesian Census, a nationally representative cross-sectional data set compiled by the Central Bureau of Statistics, to illustrate the labour market outcomes of the tertiary educated urban population and of tertiary educated couples. Second, fieldwork incorporating survey and in-depth interviews was conducted in 7 universities in Jakarta and 5 universities in Makassar between February – August 2004. The main data collection tool, The University Students Survey 2004: Expectations of Career and Marital Life, was administered among senior university students in the city of Makassar (N=674) and Jakarta (N=1087). The data collected through this research is argued to be of particular significance to the study of gender relations in Indonesia at a time when the country is undergoing a multifaceted transition: (1) Economic development and the ongoing structural transformation of the economy and the labour market, (2) Political reforms and uncertainties following the fall of Soeharto, (3) Demographic transition in urban Southeast Asia denoting delayed age of first marriage and childbearing, and (4) Globalization and the emergence of an increasingly Western-dominated international culture in urban centres. Drawing from the fieldwork findings, the study highlights that there is a preference towards dual-earner marriage among the students surveyed in both Jakarta and Makassar. However, despite the seemingly egalitarian outlook towards marriage nominated by both male and female respondents, their work expectations in the context of marriage continue to underline women’s position as secondary earners. The study finds gender and study sites are factors that differentiate the respondents’ occupational intentions and earnings expectations. Most importantly, in both study sites, female respondents’ intended labour market attachment, as proxied by preference to work in the coming years, is inferior to that of the male respondents. Furthermore, as expected, women’s gender role attitudes, and not men’s, are found to be significant predictors of future work preference. Such findings confirm that there is a persistent perception of male breadwinning responsibility in the students’ expectations. Analysis of in-depth interviews suggests that labour market expectations embody the entrenched socialisation and institutionalisation of gender roles in marriage. This thesis proposes that in societies where cultural values and social control remain highly regarded, such social conditioning affecting the interplay between marriage and labour market expectations should be noted in further inquiries on the gender gap in the labour market. ""

An empirical exploration of female child marriage determinants in Indonesia

BMC Public Health

Background: Child marriage, defined as marriage before age 18, is associated with adverse human capital outcomes. The child marriage burden remains high among female adolescents in Indonesia, despite increasing socioeconomic development. Research on child marriage in Southeast Asia is scarce. No nationally representative studies thus far have examined determinants of child marriage in Indonesia through multivariate regression modeling. Methods: We used data from the nationally representative 2012 Indonesian Demographic and Health Survey and the Adolescent Reproductive Health Survey to estimate determinants of child marriage and marital preferences. We ran multivariate models to estimate the association between demographic and socioeconomic characteristics and the following early marriage outcomes: 1) ever been married or cohabited, 2) married or cohabited before 18 years, 3) married or cohabited before 16 years, 4) self-reported marital-age preferences and 5) attitudes approving female child marriage. Results: Among the child marriage research sample (n = 6578, females aged 20-24 at time of survey), approximately 17% and 6% report being married before 18 and 16 years old respectively. Among the marital preferences research sample (n = 8779, unmarried females 15-24), the average respondent preferred marriage at approximately 26 years and 5% had attitudes approving child marriage. Education, wealth and media exposure have protective effects across marriage outcomes, while rural residence is a risk factor for the same. There are significant variations by region, indicating roles of religious, ethnic and other geographically diverse factors. Conclusion: This research fills a gap in understanding of child marriage determinants in Indonesia. There appears to be little support for child marriage among girls and young women, indicating an entry point for structural interventions that would lead to lasting change. Future research efforts should prioritize rigorous testing of gendertransformative education and economic strengthening interventions, including cost-effectiveness considerations to better understand how interventions and policies can be leveraged to deliver on ending child marriage in Indonesia and globally.

Understanding the ties that bind: early marriage in Yogyakarta

2015

Indonesian Feminist Journal (IFJ) is an annual interdisciplinary publication in the English language that aims to circulate original ideas in gender studies. IFJ invites critical reflection on the theory and practice of feminism in the social, political, and economic context of Indonesian society. We are committed to exploring gender in its multiple forms and interrelationships. The journal encourages practical, theoretically sound, and (when relevant) empirically rigorous manuscripts that address real-world implications of the gender gap in Indonesian contexts. Topics related to feminism can include (but are not limited to): sexuality, queer and LGBT questions, trafficking, ecology, public policy, sustainability and environment, human and labour rights/ issues, governance, accountability and transparency, globalisation, as well as ethics, and specific issues related to gender study, such as diversity, poverty, and education.