Female-Headed Households and Educational Participation in Indonesia: Exploring Gender and District-Level Disparities

Indera Ratna Irawati Pattinasarany

Universitas Indonesia (Indonesia)

This study examines the relationship between household headship and children's school participation in Indonesia, with a particular focus on gender disparities and the district-level educational context. Using six waves of nationally representative SUSENAS data (2019–2024), the analysis investigates how household structure, child gender, and district mean years of schooling shape participation across primary, junior secondary, and senior secondary levels. The findings show that children in female-headed households are significantly more likely to attend school than those in male-headed households, even after controlling for demographic, economic, and contextual factors. This effect is especially pronounced at the junior secondary level, suggesting that female-headed households may serve as protective environments during periods of heightened risk of dropout. While girls generally have higher school participation rates than boys, the interaction between child gender and household headship is not statistically significant overall, indicating that the gender gap does not vary systematically by household headship. However, a modest advantage for girls in female-headed households emerges during the junior secondary stage. Although the three-way interaction with district-level educational context is not significant, two-way interactions reveal that girls benefit more from living in better-educated districts, while the positive effect of female headship is more evident in less-educated areas. These results highlight how household dynamics and local educational environments jointly shape children's schooling trajectories.

Article link: https://www.asianinstituteofresearch.org/EQRarchives/female-headed-households-and-educational-participation-in-indonesia%3A-exploring-gender-and-district-level-disparities