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ABSTRACT:
In many nations, parents exhibit a variety of behaviors that favor sons over daughters. In this paper we provide evidence suggesting that in Indonesia there is no problem of “missing daughters” and that patterns of births, birth spacing and nutrition allocations do not suggest son preference during the cohorts born from 1940’s to the 1990’s. In contrast, gender differences in educational attainment and inheritance were quite prevalent in the recent past. These gaps have narrowed for secondary education and inheritance, and disappeared for primary education. In many nations, parents exhibit a variety of behaviors that favor sons over daughters. In this paper we provide evidence suggesting that in Indonesia there is no problem of “missing daughters” and that patterns of births, birth spacing and nutrition allocations do not suggest son preference during the cohorts born from 1940’s to the 1990’s. In contrast, gender differences in educational attainment and inheritance were quite prevalent in the recent past. These gaps have narrowed for secondary education and inheritance, and disappeared for primary education.

SUGGESTED CITATION:
Michael Kevane and David I. Levine, "The Changing Status of Daughters in Indonesia " (November 20, 2000). Institute for Research on Labor and Employment. Institute for Research on Labor and Employment Working Paper Series. Paper iirwps-077-00.
http://repositories.cdlib.org/iir/iirwps/iirwps-077-00