Financial Control to Increase Women’s Autonomy in Madhya Pradesh, India

Can giving women financial control over their income impact female labor force participation? In collaboration with government officials in the state of Madhya Pradesh, India, the team at Inclusion Economics found that providing bank accounts and financial training increased women’s work outside the home, and made this more socially acceptable.

Research to understand and increase female labor force participation

India has one of the world’s lowest rates of women in the workforce. Low female labor force participation – especially in rural areas – constrains India’s economic growth and limits women’s autonomy. But while these challenges are driven in part by conservative beliefs about gender roles, it is not fully clear how these norms function or how they might be changed.

Although financial empowerment provided economic and social benefits for all women, we found that it was particularly powerful for women who (prior to the intervention) faced higher constraints to labor force participation; these women experienced both greater and longer-term increases in labor force participation and increased household bargaining power.

Beginning in 2013, a team including researchers from Inclusion Economics at Yale University and Inclusion Economics India Centre has worked with government officials in the state of Madhya Pradesh to analyze how boosting rural women's financial control over their income can expand autonomy and affect female labor force participation. The project uses a relatively simple intervention, providing bank accounts and a basic account training to a sample of poor women in rural parts of the state, then linking their bank accounts for direct deposit of wages from the Indian government’s national workfare program, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). Findings suggest that having their own bank accounts, and knowing how to use them, led women to work more outside the home and liberalized their beliefs about the acceptability of women’s work outside the home. In light of Covid-19, the team is now planning a long-run follow-up survey to reconnect with participants and assess how and whether the pandemic has affected women's well-being as well as broader gender norms.

Highlights

View of South Delhi — Jean-Etienne Minh-Duy Poirrier_Flickr

Illustration of woman working in the kitchen wearing her graduation regalia. — Assa Ariyoshi

Related Publications

On Her Own Account: How Strengthening Women's Financial Control Impacts Labor Supply and Gender Norms

In a study of rural Indian women, authors Field, Pande, Rigol, Schaner, and Troyer Moore explore the extent to which increased control over earnings incentivizes women to work, and also influences norms around gender roles. Comparing different combinations of interventions, the researchers find that women who received both direct deposit of their wages and training in bank account use worked more in public and private sector jobs, and this helped to liberalize women's own work-related norms.

FIELD ET AL. 2021

RESEARCH SUMMARY

Male Social Status and Women’s Work

Female labor force participation varies significantly even among countries with similar levels of economic development. Authors Bernhard, Field, Pande, Rigol, Schaner, and Troyer Moore present novel data on spouses’ preferences and community attitudes – and explore the channels through which social norms impact women's employment decisions.

BERNHARDT ET AL. 2018