Indonesia has experienced robust, sustained growth over the past 30 years, accompanied by swift socioeconomic change. However, Indonesian women have remained only moderately engaged in the labor market.

This paper uses over 20 years of data from Indonesia’s labor force survey to study trends in and constraints to female labor force participation. We also survey existing evidence, identify data gaps, and outline a research policy evaluation of female-centered vocational training and job placement services, which may be effective tools to increase female labor force participation.

The study was conducted under the Asian Development Bank's technical assistance on economic analysis for gender and development (RDTA 8620).