Bargaining Equal Spousal Roles in Marital Life: The Phenomenon of Wife-Petitioned Divorce Among Middle-Class Muslims in Yogyakarta

Abstract

This study aims to highlight the phenomenon of divorce petitioned by wives among middle-class Muslim communities in Yogyakarta and its relevance to their attempt to negotiate their roles in marriage. This is qualitative research based on data collected through observation, interviews, and documentation. Deploying a sociological approach, this study reveals that while for the majority of cases, economic problems constituted the main ground for divorce, for this case, the main grounds of divorce presented by women include failure of the spouse to express self-esteem, dissatisfaction with gender role, and differences in principles in making decisions which culminate to what we call as 'soft dispute'. The study also argues that among the middle class of society, there has been high awareness of gendered equal roles spread by social institutions and that it has, to some extent, become a threat to legal thought of male masculinity within spouses, who are both highly educated, as both spouses have not evenly held the awareness. This study argues that the 'soft dispute' brought from such conditions as mentioned above is legally considered by judges to have met or been in line with the legal ground of 'protracted disputes' specified by the laws.