Empowering Women through Development Aid: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Afghanistan

  • Andrew Beath, Christia Fotini, and Ruben Enikolopov

Abstract

In societies with widespread gender discrimination, development programs with gender quotas are considered a way to improve women’s economic, political, and social status. Using a randomized field experiment across 500 Afghan villages, we examine the effects of a development program that mandates female participation. We find that even in a highly conservative context like Afghanistan, such initiatives improve outcomes specific to female participation in some economic, social, and political activities, including increased mobility and income generation. They, however, produce no change in more entrenched female roles linked to family decision-making or in attitudes toward the general role of women in society.

Citation

Beath, Andrew, Fotini Christia, and Ruben Enikolopov. “Empowering Women Through Development Aid: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Afghanistan.” American Political Science Review 107, no. 3 (2013): 540-557

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