Topic: 2024-Unpaid Care and Domestic Work
Country: Indonesia
Delegate Name: Khushi Patel
UN Women
Unpaid Care and Domestic Work
Indonesia
Portage Central High School
Indonesian women continue to face immense strain on their lives related to domestic work and unpaid care. Women in Indonesia are burdened with the expectation to be traditional housewives where they take on jobs such as cooking, cleaning, and tending to their families from a very young age. This burden is carried every single day, causing Indonesian women to lose track of their independence. Opportunities such as education and job prosperity start to slip away, leaving detrimental conditions for prosperity. Indonesia has realized how negative this situation is for the many capable women of their country and is looking for changes to ensure women have equal opportunities along with overall life improvisation for women.
The main reason women in Indonesia face problems with unpaid care and domestic work is because of the gap in gender equality from traditional expectations placed on women after marriage. A married woman in rural areas is 11% less likely to be working than a single woman and 25% less in urban areas. Indonesia has addressed this problem of gender equality by working with UN Women. UN Women works with Indonesia and a range of stakeholders to bring change to the lifestyles of these women. Indonesia has joined international agreements like the Beijing Platform for Action (BPfA), which guide national efforts to promote gender equality. The Ministry of Women Empowerment and Child Protection (MoWECP) leads the preparation of national reports on gender equality, coordinating with ministries, and subnational governments like the Ministry of Law and Human Rights (MoLHR), Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA), and the Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and key stakeholders, including the private sector, business communities, academic institutions, and the media. The ministries have worked to integrate the issues of unpaid care and domestic work when making policies and regulations for gender equality. The BPfA is further supported by Gender Responsive Planning and Budgeting (PPRG) policies at national and subnational levels that are crucial for ensuring that the government reflects on the needs of women in terms of the burden of unpaid care and domestic work. The results of this have been the development of policies and regulations that have been crucial in decreasing the gender equality gap, to help alleviate the traditional pressures of being a caretaker of women. Aside from steps taken by the government, UN Women has been doing campaigns to raise awareness around the traditional expectations placed on women and change them to free them of their burden, helping them become independent again while gaining economic autonomy. Through these collaborative efforts, Indonesia is working to ensure women’s empowerment while overcoming the traditional expectations they face.
Indonesia hopes that many other countries start to work together with organizations to come up with policies and agreements that lead to gender equality and the diminishment of traditional expectations that women face. Indonesia also hopes to be able to strengthen campaigns to encourage women to gain track of their independence and take part in the workforce for prosperity.
Citations
https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/732951615961029941/pdf/Indonesia-Country-Gender-Assessment-Investing-in-Opportunities-for-Women.pdf
https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/2024-09/b30_report_indonesia_en.pdf
https://asiapacific.unwomen.org/en/countries/indonesia#:~:text=Empowering%20Voices:%20Stories%20of%20Change,to%20tackle%20violence%20against%20women.
https://asiapacific.unwomen.org/en/stories/press-release/2024/10/un-women-and-partners-observe-international-day-of-care#:~:text=UN%20Women’s%20Transform%20Care%20Investment%20Initiative%20Asia%2DPacific,work%20by%20at%20least%20two%20billion%20hours
https://data.unwomen.org/country/indonesia
