Gender Inequality, Education, and Employment: US, Indonesia, Netherlands

Introduction and Theoretical Framework

This paper examines variations in gender inequality based on educational level — and, subsequently, approximate socioeconomic status — across three countries: the United States, Indonesia, and the Netherlands. These countries are characterized by highly disparate female employment rates, societal welfare arrangements, and family policies. For each country, female hourly pay rates and employment rates at distinct educational levels are compared alongside male work hours and employment rates at equivalent educational levels. The broad hypothesis is that female employment increases with higher educational qualifications, and that the greater employment of qualified women results in improved gender equality in terms of pay, domestic work, and job type (Evertsson, England, and Reci).

How is employment anticipated to differ with educational level among women? Economic theory has put forward two conflicting factors: income effect and opportunity cost. Better-educated women can earn more; therefore, the opportunity cost associated with unemployment — that is, the monetary loss of staying at home — is greater for such women. In economic terms, this is described as the "price of time" effect: individuals with greater earning capacity forfeit more by remaining unemployed (Evertsson, England, and Reci). Consequently, higher employment is anticipated among the highly educated population. However, the income effect holds that women whose spouses earn more can afford to remain out of the paid workforce and raise their children at home.

Considering marital homogamy — the societal tendency to marry someone with comparable earning capacity and educational background — these two factors interfere with and counteract each other. Well-educated women are typically married to men who earn even more; thus, her own qualifications incentivize her to work, while her husband's income acts as a deterrent. In the case of less-qualified women, their low earning capacity deters job-seeking, but their spouse's low earnings may push them toward employment. Which effect dominates remains an empirical question (Evertsson, England, and Reci).

From a sociological standpoint, post-secondary education can promote female employment by providing access to stimulating, identity-enhancing jobs and by fostering more egalitarian gender attitudes. Bianchi and Cohen find that, in recent decades, education has had an increasingly positive impact on female employment in America, alongside a weakening of the negative effect of spousal earnings on women's employment decisions (Evertsson, England, and Reci).

Esping-Andersen (1990), drawing on the neo-Marxist concept of de-commodification, understands social welfare policies — which offer earnings continuance as protection against unemployment, retirement, and disability — as de-commodification strategies addressing problematic dependence on capitalist markets (Esping-Andersen). Within this classification, America serves as the liberal market paradigm, characterized by high market reliance and minimal guarantees of minimum income, while the Netherlands is used as the paradigm for a corporatist political economy.

Welfare State and Family Policy Contexts

In the Netherlands of the 1970s, the male breadwinner model predominated (Lewis): women were rarely employed, and the country lacked government-financed childcare programs. In the latter part of the following decade, the male breadwinner model began to be gradually destabilized within public policy discussions. Lawmakers began promoting welfare state reforms and came to view childcare as a driver of economic competitiveness, expecting that greater female employment would reduce earnings-maintenance payments. The country reshaped its male breadwinner model into a "one-and-a-half-earner" model, which left male working time unchanged but reformed women's time use (Lewis and Giullari; Morgan).

Steep childcare service fees and substantial tax credits for employees with dependents encouraged women to seek only part-time work or remain at home. Roughly six in ten Dutch women hold part-time positions, with the share being even higher among mothers (OECD). A majority of childcare services operate on a part-time basis, with hardly any child attending for four or five days per week (Morgan). Thus, with continued prioritization of maternal care for preschool-aged children, the Netherlands has adopted a secondary-earner/primary-caregiver model in which caregiving remains women's primary role and earning holds secondary significance (Misra, Budig, and Moller).

In the United States, by contrast, family and workplace policy has changed little since the 1970s, with the notable exception of the 1996 welfare reforms. The American system strongly favors private resolution of work-home conflicts. Childcare services are costly, and aside from certain parental tax subsidies that reduce out-of-pocket expenses, only families living in poverty can access government-funded childcare assistance (Morgan). The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) of 1993 entitles parents to twelve weeks of unpaid leave, but this provision is mandatory only for organizations employing more than fifty individuals. The United States strives toward a universal breadwinner model in which both men and women participate in paid work, with women expected to simultaneously fulfill caregiving responsibilities. Few workplace or home policies exist to ease the work-family conflict. Anti-discrimination employment policies remain the primary approach for supporting female employment and earnings (Misra, Budig, and Moller).

Indonesia presents a distinct situation. While outreach and effectiveness challenges persist, Indonesia has achieved improvements over time in key gender equality areas — including education, healthcare, economic support, opportunities, and freedom of expression — and has enacted gender mainstreaming legislation. A complex balance exists: the country has made gains in its educational gender equality index, infant and child mortality rates, maternal wellbeing, and related health outcomes. Female employment is also growing steadily, and qualified women earn better returns relative to their male counterparts (Garcia, Greenley, and Onraet).

Cultural and Structural Factors in Indonesia

Despite this institutional progress, interviews and literature on women's economic opportunities in Indonesia reveal that societal expectations of women and associated cultural norms are typically resistant to change. Early marriage — Indonesian women marry at an average age of twenty-two — and the subsequent early motherhood significantly affect women's access to and continuity of employment. Marriage, domestic responsibilities, and child-rearing remain the primary duties of the majority of Indonesian women, grounded in both religious and non-religious historical beliefs and principles. The key issue is less whether women should work and more what kinds of work are considered appropriate for women and how employment may interfere with domestic responsibilities. Paid work is consistently accorded secondary status relative to domestic duties. Consistent with this view, then-Vice President Jusuf Kalla proposed reducing working hours for female employees in 2014 so that they could return home sooner to care for their children. Both women and employers responded negatively; women in particular believed such a policy would cost them important career opportunities (Garcia, Greenley, and Onraet).

Indonesians' views on gender inequality are closely tied to their gender ideology. Notably, Indonesians' understanding of "caring" differs substantially from Dutch or American conceptions: Indonesians do not generally view caring — especially for elderly family members — as primarily a female responsibility. In a finding that challenges the conventional view, most Indonesian female interviewees reported that holding paid employment meant less time devoted to elderly care in particular and domestic tasks in general. However, this pattern is observed mainly in households without domestic helpers. Since most interviewees reported employing housekeepers to assist with daily chores, including elderly care, women are able to redistribute domestic tasks. This redistribution has enabled routine elderly care to continue regardless of a woman's employment status (Wulansari).

Indonesian interviewees also described societal structural flexibility that generates a family-based domestic support system. Urban Indonesians in particular frequently delegate certain household tasks to others. With rising economic demands, both men and women widely seek paid employment to support the household. Domestic tasks are regarded as equally important as professional responsibilities, and superior time management is considered essential for employed individuals balancing both domains. This situation has led some Indonesian interviewees to hire domestic helpers for babysitting and housework, while others, when at work, entrust their children's care to family members such as parents, siblings, or other relatives (Wulansari).

Indonesian women also face structural barriers to advancement in the workplace. Managers tend to regard female employees as less productive than men, citing perceived or actual differences such as higher absenteeism rates due to maternity leave and family obligations. As a result, men are formally preferred over women for higher-level positions, with women retained in lower-skill roles. A related strategy involves offering contract employment in order to avoid the legal commitments owed to permanent employees. The absence of accessible, affordable childcare further compounds the problem; despite the existence of some daycare options, geographic distance and limited operating hours mean that working mothers' childcare needs remain largely unmet (Garcia, Greenley, and Onraet).

Conclusion and Future Research Directions

Less-qualified women's lower rate of workforce participation underlies the wide gender gap among socioeconomically disadvantaged populations. In the Netherlands, for instance, six out of ten women with the lowest educational attainment (those who have not completed secondary school) are employed, compared to 82% of university graduates. The corresponding figures for America are 50% (no high school diploma) and 74% (completed higher education), while for Indonesia they are 78% (no high school diploma) and 94% (completed higher education) (Garcia, Greenley, and Onraet).

Considering the link between spousal educational levels, less-qualified women tend to live in households that would most benefit financially from their joining the workforce; one might therefore expect greater labor force participation among this group. Yet, contrary to this expectation, less-qualified women are less likely to be in paid employment than their better-qualified counterparts. This underscores the dominance of the opportunity cost and identity-enhancement mechanisms of education over the income effect for most women in these three societies.

Irrespective of educational qualifications, women contribute more to domestic tasks than men across all three countries. However, among women, those with higher qualifications — because of their greater workforce participation — spend less time on household tasks than less-qualified women. This trend is visible in every country studied but is weakest in the Netherlands, where a large proportion of women are employed for short part-time hours (Evertsson, England, and Reci).

Why does the gender employment gap narrow as educational level increases? The answer lies largely in education's strongly positive effect on female employment, which is much greater for women than for men. Better-educated women gain access to more rewarding and financially lucrative positions, and education fosters more gender-egalitarian values. These market and social realities account for the education gradient in gender equity across employment, domestic work, and paid working hours (Wulansari).

An analysis of the impact of class-based disparities in gender inequality — in terms of employment, salary, relative income, and bargaining power within intimate relationships — represents an important avenue for future research. Moreover, given contemporary trends toward single-person households and delayed partnership formation, future studies should also examine the impact of educational attainment on gender inequality among uncoupled individuals (Evertsson, England, and Reci).

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