This paper examines the main drivers of female labour force participation in Indonesia and disentangles the factors that have contributed to female labour force participation remaining unchanged over the past two decades at 51 per cent. We use information from the National Socioeconomic Survey (SUSENAS) and the Village Potential Statistics (PODES) over the period 1996 to 2013 to identify components on the supply and demand side of the labour market. We also implement age and year of birth analysis which separates out life-cycle effects (age) from changes over time (year of birth) on women’s labour market participation. We find that the raw figures on women’s labour market participation which show little change over the last two decades mask behavioural changes and changes in cultural norms which offset one another in the current population.