The Role of Mothers-in-Law in Determining Women's Work: Evidence from India

In India, a coresiding mother-in-law may restrict a woman's labor force participation as the custodian of gender-specific social norms but may also help by taking on housework responsibilities. We use the exogenous variation in the coresiding mother-in-law's death to investigate which effect dominates. We use a difference-in-differences strategy along with individual fixed effects to find a 10% decrease in women's labor force participation following their mother-in-law's death. We provide suggestive evidence to show that while mothers-in-law restrict the autonomy of their daughters-in-law, they also free up time for their daughters-in-law by sharing their housework burdens, thus allowing them to work.