12. Divorce Pattern Shift in Indonesia

Abstract

Social media offer so many advantages to interact and to communicate while making access to information even easier. The issues of gender equality and women's empowerment are the content that may has an impact the trend of divorce. About 70% of total divorce rate in Indonesia puts women as the divorce's initiator. As a patriarchal country, women initiate to divorce is an interesting phenomenon in Indonesia. This research is purposed to explain the relationship between social media usage and the impact on divorce pattern shifts in Indonesia. The data were collected by online interview to 16 divorced women within the last 5 years from Madiun, Magetan, and Ponorogo. The data include women's talk of divorce in social media and their view of divorce and widowhood, divorce cases that strengthen their motivation, and other factors that can cause their decision. The study found that: (1) Social media encourage women's valiancy to argue and to express their feelings, (2) Divorce cases exposed in social media strengthens the motivation for divorce, (3) Divorce and widowhood are no longer a taboo, and (4) Women's economic independence and online infidelity become another factor that can initiate divorce.