Gender identity and unpaid carework: an ethnography of the lives of female Indonesian PhD students and their families in Australia

This thesis analyses how female Indonesian PhD students navigate unpaid carework in their households. It focuses on Indonesian women who received scholarships to study for a PhD in Australian universities and moved to Australia with their husbands and children. The thesis found that they did most of the everyday carework themselves and rarely raised the issue with their husbands. The study highlights that doing unpaid carework is a central part of the women’s gender identity and a crucial way for them to fulfil social and state expectations of being a good Indonesian woman, mother, and wife.