The Effects of Religiosity on Gender-Differentiated Household Decision-Making in Indonesia

Religion is a dominant influence in household decision-making and is an important factor in understanding intra-household bargaining power, especially within developing countries. It is important to understand the extent to which religious beliefs affect decisions made within the household when designing interventions to improve women’s agency. This paper examines the fourth wave of the Indonesia Family Life Survey using the difference-in-differences method to analyze the impact of Islamic religiosity on the likelihood of allowing women within the household to make certain decisions in eight critical categories. While stereotypical beliefs may negatively correlate women’s bargaining power and high levels of religiosity within the Islamic faith, the role of Muslim religiosity on women’s bargaining power is found to be not statistically significant. This suggests that programming catering to religious norms is not adequate in improving women’s autonomy within the household