My dissertation will overcome the problems of existing explanations by adopting a multi-sectoral case study approach that examines changes over time, and a theoretical framework that integrates the work of feminist labor historians and sociologists with the historical institutional perspective in political science and the Foucauldian notion of discourse. I will argue that “gendered discourses of work” are the key to explaining the varying trends in feminization. In addition to illuminating the gendered aspects of industrialization in Indonesia, my study will also contribute insights to similar (and dissimilar) processes in other countries and bring gender into studies of industrialization in political science.