Key Social Norms Take-aways This study demonstrates that enhancing women’s financial control can lead to shifts in both individual and community-level gender norms about female labor. Without directly targeting norms, the intervention resulted in more progressive personal beliefs and a reduction in perceived social stigma around women working—particularly among women who were initially constrained by gendered expectations. These findings highlight the power of economic interventions in catalyzing social norm change, especially by demonstrating the acceptability of counter-stereotypical behavior like female employment.

Objectives The study sought to examine whether increasing rural Indian women’s control over their earnings could incentivize their labor force participation and, in turn, shift entrenched gender norms regarding women’s work.

Methods The researchers conducted a randomized controlled trial in 197 rural village clusters (gram panchayats) in Madhya Pradesh, India. The sample included 5,851 married couples eligible for the government’s public workfare program (MGNREGS), where the wife lacked an individual bank account. The study used administrative data and two waves of survey data collected one and three years post-intervention, measuring labor supply, empowerment, financial agency, and social norms (both personal and perceived).

Intervention Details Participants were randomly assigned to one of five groups: control, accounts only, accounts plus training, accounts plus direct deposit, or accounts plus both direct deposit and training (D2T). The D2T group, which maximized women’s control over wages, received training on using bank kiosks and had MGNREGS wages deposited directly into their individual accounts.

Results Women in the D2T group experienced a significant increase in labor supply (0.11 SD units), including both public and private sector work. The effects were especially pronounced for “constrained” women—those who had not worked before and whose husbands held more conservative norms—suggesting that gender norms were a significant barrier to employment. D2T also improved women’s financial autonomy and account use. Notably, three years post-intervention, women in D2T reported more liberal personal norms (+0.10 SD) and perceived reduced community stigma (+0.08 SD) toward working women. Husbands’ perceived norms also shifted, especially regarding the stigma attached to having a working wife.

Conclusions Increasing women’s control over their earnings can substantially influence labor supply and catalyze shifts in gender norms, even without explicitly targeting norms. These effects are strongest among women most constrained by traditional expectations. The study underscores that economic empowerment initiatives can be effective levers for norm change and highlights the importance of tailoring interventions to reach norm-constrained populations.