Gendered marital duties and the double burden of working women in Indonesia: Reconstructing articles 31 and 34 of the marriage law

Abstract

This article examines whether gender-specific marital duties in Indonesia's Law No. 1 of 1974 on Marriage remain compatible with constitutional equality, Indonesia's obligations under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), and contemporary dual-earner family life. The study employs doctrinal normative legal research using statute and conceptual approaches. It analyzes Articles 31 and 34 of the Marriage Law in relation to Articles 27(1), 28D(1), and 28I(2) of the 1945 Constitution, Law No. 7 of 1984 ratifying CEDAW, CEDAW Articles 5(a) and 16, relevant General Recommendations, and Constitutional Court Decision No. 22/PUU-XV/2017. Recent socio-legal and labor-market scholarship is used for contextual, not causal, interpretation. The analysis identifies an internal normative tension: Article 31(1) affirms balanced rights and status between spouses, while Article 31(3) and Article 34 assign the husband the roles of family head, protector, and provider and the wife the role of household manager. These provisions cannot by themselves establish the empirical cause of women's double burden; however, their sex-specific allocation of responsibilities can legitimize and reinforce male-breadwinner/female-caregiver norms that are difficult to reconcile with substantive equality and anti-stereotyping principles.