(Misperceived) Power and Women Working Outside the Home in Lebanon

The survey experiment will be completed using iField data collection tool that integrates CAPI (Computer Aided Personal Interviewing). Enumerators will interview men and women based on the design sample selection criteria and a quota system that ensures a representative sample. Respondents will not receive any incentives for participation.

2024-12-02

2025-03-22

We have three primary outcomes of interest:

1) The opinion of married men about wives’ decision-making power, participation in paid work, and the interaction of both.

2) The perception of married women about their power, the interaction between working outside the home and power, and men’s preference for married women working outside the home.

3) The opinion of married women about the degree of power of a hypothetical married woman described in a vignette.

Attitudes of wives toward job market participation using a list of nine interests among which three are related to the main research question.

The research design unfolds in two stages.
- First, we uncover the opinions of 500 Lebanese married men (aged 25-50 and living in Beirut and Mount Lebanon governorates) on women's employment and power in household decision-making using list experiments and direct questions.
- In the second stage, a sample of 1000 Lebanese married women (aged 20-45 and living in Beirut and Mount Lebanon governorates) is interviewed to conduct an information treatment. Half of the women are randomly selected to receive accurate information about men's opinions based on the results of the first step or other available statistics. The aim is (i) to examine women's opinions on working outside the home, their perceived power, and their interaction, and (ii) to investigate potential sources of women's power. The outcomes are measured with three list experiments, a vignette, and direct questions.

Both stages are implemented using face-to-face interviews. A pilot is conducted for both stages.

The list experiments have 3 so-called "baseline" items, while treatment-group respondents are asked about a list of 4 items. The order of the items in each list is randomised. The sensitive item is replaced by a direct Yes/No question for the control group.

Each vignette consists of a short description of a hypothetical family situation. Respondents are asked their opinion on the employment choices made by the woman in the vignette and on her power within the family. The factor variation covers the role of pre-marriage and in-marriage financial transfers, the woman's working status, and the husband's financial situation.

Finally, we elicit women's attitudes toward job market participation by asking them to rank topics of interest from a list of nine options, including some job-related options.

A post-experimental individual survey (in both the first and second stages) collects information on sociodemographic characteristics (age, education, occupational status of both partners, family composition, financial situation, and pre-marriage transfers) and opinions.

Not available

Married men sample:
The respondents are randomly assigned to the treatment and the control groups for the list experiments.  Of the 500 sampled men, 320 get the lists with the sensitive statement (treatment group), and 180 get the lists without the sensitive statement but a direct YES/NO question (control group). The order of the statements in each list will be randomly determined for each respondent.

Married women sample:
The respondents will be randomly assigned to the information treatment and the control group (500 women each).
Of the 500 women in the information treatment group, 320 get the lists with the sensitive statement (treatment group), and 180 get the lists without the sensitive statement and a direct YES/NO question (control group). The order of the statements in each list will be randomly determined for each respondent. The same distribution is applied to the 500 women in the information control group.
Respondents in both the information-treatment group and the control group receive a vignette. Each respondent will randomly get one of the five vignette versions, with 100 respondents from each group (treatment and control) getting the same version.

Randomization occurs at the individual level.

No

Not applicable.

500 respondents for the men’s face-to-face interviews and 1000 respondents for the women’s face-to-face interviews.

In the sample of women, 500 are in the information-treated group and 500 are in the control group.

Due to the absence of pre-existing data on our main outcomes, we cannot provide accurate power calculations.