Childbearing and women’s empowerment in Indonesia
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This paper examines the effect of childbearing on women’s empowerment in Indonesia, a country where the roles of men and women in family and in society are often sharply differentiated. Using data from the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) and employing parental preferences for a mixed sibling-sex composition as an instrumental variable, the paper investigates the causal effect of childbearing on a range of women’s empowerment measures, including female labour supply, female financial and human capital, female household decision-making power, and female attitudes regarding domestic violence. The findings indicate that childbearing reduces female labour force participation, formal employment, and employment in professional occupations. Childbearing also has a negative impact on women’s financial and human capital and reduces the time available for women to enjoy leisure activities. Its impacts on women’s power in making household decisions and their attitudes towards domestic violence are ambiguous.
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