Strengthening the Ecosystem for Women in the Workforce: Inclusive Corporate Workplace Policies in Indonesia

Indonesia's female labor force participation rate has remained relatively stagnant for the last 20 years, currently standing at approximately 54 percent compared to a male labor force participation rate of 85 percent, creating a 30 percentage point gender gap between men and women. Data from a World Bank study shows that several root causes shape women's economic participation are as follow:

1. the gender gap in labor force participation occurs primarily during childbearing years;
2. with few flexible or part-time work opportunities available, many women opt to drop out of the labor force after marriage and childbirth;
3. significant gaps in workforce protection remain across several areas, including a lack of expanded and harmonized parental leave, worker protections, discrimination in hiring, and sexual harassment;
4. although the wage gap has been shrinking, women continue to see a wage gap of approximately 30 percent compared to similarly qualified male colleagues. Much of these differences can be attributed to discrimination rather than variations in productivity; and
5. social norms in Indonesia continue to see women primarily as wives and mothers and hold that these roles are at odds with sustained work, although there is some evidence that these norms are beginning to shift.

The private sector can play a crucial role in creating an enabling environment to attract and facilitate more women of productive age enter and stay in the labor force by implementing and promoting inclusive corporate policies at the work place. This fourth webinar series will convene multi-sectoral leaders from across the private, public, and development partner spheres to discuss the implementation of inclusive corporate policies in supporting the female labor force participation. In collaboration with Katadata, the webinar aims to achieve the following:

1. raising awareness about gender equity at the company level and on business practices which can contribute to increasing women's participation in the labor force;
2. mobilizing the integration of gender-sensitive policies across the private sector, government, and communities;
3. sharing stories and lessons learned to implement inclusive workplace policies; and
4. sharing the impact, benefits and best practices of inclusive workplace policies.

The event will be live streamed in Bahasa Indonesia and will feature English and sign language interpretation via the Zoom platform. Instructions about how participants can select their preferred language can be found here.