The Gender Equity Act resulted in increased numbers of women participating in education (Furstenberg, 2015, Hull, 2002, Jones, 2010). In Indonesia, Raden Adjeng Kartini is known as a pioneer of the feminist movement at the end of 1890s (Connell, 2013). Since then, female school attendance has increased to 40 percent of total enrollment in 1965 (Fischer, 1965). In 2015, female school attendance was 60.77 percent, higher than their male counterpart (58.74%) (Badan Pusat Statistik, 2016a). The proportion of women currently commencing university education is slightly higher (2.62%) than for men (2.27%) (Badan Pusat Statistik, 2016c).
With the development of the industrial sector and the growing demand for qualified workers, there has been an increase in professional career opportunities. As more women graduate from university their career opportunities have also increased. Data show that during the last 15 years, women's participation in the workforce has been 9.5 percent higher than for men (Badan Pusat Statistik, 2016b). With regard to career development, women now have superior employment opportunities compared to men (Furstenberg, 2015).
There are two consequences of greater female participation in the workforce. First, their preoccupation to build career paths subsequently reduces leisure time for socializing and meeting potential marriage partners and they may be less prepared to marry before they have established their career (Yoshida, 2017). Secondly, as women have careers and are financially independent, they no longer need to be married to support themselves which gives them the freedom of greater choice as to who to marry. There is now a higher expectation on the qualities of a marriage partner and women in the professions report it difficult to meet males who meet their requirements. At the same time, society still favors the hypergamy norm of marriage, which prescribes the ideal marriage as between a man with higher socioeconomic status and a woman with lower status than that of man (Qian & Qian, 2014). The lower marriage rates are therefore not a result of a shortage of males but a lack of men with higher expected financial and social potential as set by single professional women (Furstenberg, 2015, Hull, 2002, Jones, 2007, Jones, 2010).
With the development of the industrial sector and the growing demand for qualified workers, there has been an increase in professional career opportunities. As more women graduate from university their career opportunities have also increased. Data show that during the last 15 years, women's participation in the workforce has been 9.5 percent higher than for men (Badan Pusat Statistik, 2016b). With regard to career development, women now have superior employment opportunities compared to men (Furstenberg, 2015).
There are two consequences of greater female participation in the workforce. First, their preoccupation to build career paths subsequently reduces leisure time for socializing and meeting potential marriage partners and they may be less prepared to marry before they have established their career (Yoshida, 2017). Secondly, as women have careers and are financially independent, they no longer need to be married to support themselves which gives them the freedom of greater choice as to who to marry. There is now a higher expectation on the qualities of a marriage partner and women in the professions report it difficult to meet males who meet their requirements. At the same time, society still favors the hypergamy norm of marriage, which prescribes the ideal marriage as between a man with higher socioeconomic status and a woman with lower status than that of man (Qian & Qian, 2014). The lower marriage rates are therefore not a result of a shortage of males but a lack of men with higher expected financial and social potential as set by single professional women (Furstenberg, 2015, Hull, 2002, Jones, 2007, Jones, 2010).
