Abstract for: Understanding the Low Proportion of Women in Employment in Indonesia: A System Dynamics Approach

Despite considerable economic growth and the introduction of gender equality legislation, the labour market participation of women in Indonesia has been stagnating at a level of 37 percent from the total employment (MMTRI, 2013). As a result, Indonesia’s performance on the Gender Inequality Index (GII) is lower than its neighboring countries in the ASEAN region. Therefore, in order to identify policy scenario’s that may contribute to alleviating the unequal proportion of women and men in the Indonesian labour market, we develop and test a formal system dynamics model that explains the dynamic behavior of women’s employment in the Indonesian labour market.