Convincing the Mummy-ji: Improving Mother-in-Law Approval of Family Planning in India
AEA Papers and Proceedings
vol. 112,
May 2022
(pp. 568-72)
Abstract
Mothers-in-law, especially those in South Asia, can exert significant influence over women, often even more so than women's husbands or other household members. Using data from rural India, we first show that mothers-in-law are more likely than husbands to (i) disapprove of women's family planning use and (ii) want women to have more children, particularly sons, than women themselves want. Next, using a field experiment, we show that providing women with vouchers for subsidized family planning services not only enabled them to initiate discussions about family planning with their mothers-in-law but also increased their mothers-in-law's approval of family planning.Citation
Anukriti, S., Catalina Herrera-Almanza, Mahesh Karra, and Rocío Valdebenito. 2022. "Convincing the Mummy-ji: Improving Mother-in-Law Approval of Family Planning in India." AEA Papers and Proceedings, 112: 568-72. DOI: 10.1257/pandp.20221122Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- J12 Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure; Domestic Abuse
- J13 Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
- J16 Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
- O15 Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
- Z13 Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification