[Truncated abstract] The 1974 Indonesian Marriage Law required all divorces to be ratified by courts and vested household leadership with husbands. This thesis examines the impact of this law upon the negotiation of divorce, and its implications for the constitution of state and social power. I argue that the New Order state used this law to attempt to control gender relations and reinforce political legitimacy, but that women and men resisted this project in a variety of ways. Divorce may entail the contestation of state ideological prescriptions on gender. It also reveals gender relations operating independently of the state. As such, it is a particularly fruitful site for an analysis of the location and constitution of state and social power. In order to analyse the complex relationship between marriage, divorce, and power, I have adopted several original strategies. I expand the definition of property to encompass