Women-Led Enterprises in Indonesia: The Role of Care Burdens and Household Demographics
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Abstract
Women-led enterprises lead to more women’s economic participation. However, little is known in Indonesia about how household care burdens and demographic roles influence women’s participation in these women-led businesses. This study aims to explore the relationship between care burdens, domestic tasks, and women's participation in women-led businesses in Indonesia using cross-sectional microdata from the 2024 National Socioeconomic Survey (Susenas). The analysis is based on 209,494 women. Women-led enterprises are defined as those led by women who are self-employed or employers in their job. The method is based on logistic regression and average marginal effects to assess spatial heterogeneity for full, rural and urban samples. The results show that care responsibilities and household roles are central for women’s enterprise participation. The positive association between the presence of children and women-led enterprises indicates that entrepreneurship can be a flexible work arrangement amid childcare constraints. Women are more likely to be engaged in enterprise activity as household-head status is the predictor of greater responsibility and decision making authority. In urban areas, Internet access is positively associated with participation, whereas higher education levels show a negative association, suggesting that higher levels of schooling may lead to more access to wage employment and higher opportunity costs for entrepreneurship. This study provides representative evidence on women led enterprises by integrating care burdens household roles and rural-urban heterogeneity in Indonesia. The results underline the importance of policies that combine childcare support, digital inclusion, and targeted support for women with household responsibilities.
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