Understanding Women’s Sexual Empowerment: Insights from Indonesian Married Women
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Abstract
This study explored factors that influence Indonesian women’s ability to negotiate sexual relationships by taking into account the differences between the regions. We employed multivariate logistic regression models using data from the 2017 Indonesian Demography and Health Survey (IDHS) to analyze the determinants of women’s capacity to negotiate sexual relationships, including refusing to have sexual intercourse and asking partners to use condoms. According to this study, Indonesian married women were able to refuse sexual intercourse better than to ask their husbands to use condoms. The factors that influenced married women’s capacity to navigate sexual relationships differed among regions, in which the Java region shared more similarities with Indonesia’s conditions than other regions. In all regions, high participation in making household decisions increased the likelihood that married women would refuse sex, while their approval of husbands’ wife-beating decreased the likelihood. Moreover, living in urban areas and wealthier households increased married women’s likelihood of negotiating condom use during sexual intercourse. Indonesian married women’s current contraceptive use determined both sexual refusal and condom negotiation ability. The findings from this study emphasized the need to address gender inequality regions’ socioeconomic and cultural factors that contribute to unequal power dynamics in marital relationships to enhance women’s reproductive autonomy and well-being in patriarchal societies.
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