Gender Norms and Women's Work in Indonesia

Last registered on August 03, 2022

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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

Gender Norms and Women's Work in Indonesia

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0009493

Initial registration date

June 03, 2022

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published

June 06, 2022, 5:14 AM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Last updated

August 03, 2022, 9:14 PM EDT

Last updated is the most recent time when changes to the trial's registration were published.

Locations

Country

Indonesia

Region

Urban areas

Primary Investigator

Name

Lisa Cameron

Affiliation

University of Melbourne

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Diana Contreras Suarez

PI Affiliation

University of Melbourne

Contact Investigator

PI Name

Diahhadi Setyonaluri

PI Affiliation

University of Indonesia

Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status

In development

Start date

2022-05-23

End date

2022-09-30

Keywords

Behavior, Gender, Labor

Additional Keywords

social norms

JEL code(s)

O15, J16

Secondary IDs

Prior work

This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.

Abstract

Indonesian women’s labor market participation has remained relatively constant with around 50% of women working. Previous research has shown that women’s economic participation is hindered by marriage and childcare responsibilities. The reluctance of women to work when they are married and have young children is likely due to social norms that emphasize the role of women as mothers and carers. While the role of social norms is widely acknowledged, there is very limited research on social norms around women working in Indonesia. This research therefore aims to evaluate online information interventions designed to influence men’s and women’s attitudes towards women’s labor force participation.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Cameron, Lisa, Diana Contreras Suarez and Diahhadi Setyonaluri. 2022. "Gender Norms and Women's Work in Indonesia." AEA RCT Registry. August 03. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.9493-2.0

Sponsors & Partners

Interventions

Intervention(s)

The intervention consists of the provision of information on social norms pertaining to women working and husbands sharing childcare responsibilities.

Intervention Start Date

2022-06-01

Intervention End Date

2022-06-30

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

Attitudes and behavior towards women’s labor force participation

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

To evaluate the effect of the information provision on attitudes and subsequent behavior towards women’s labor force participation, we will present participants with a probability of getting a shopping voucher or an online course voucher (or refer their wives to in the case of men). The take-up of the online course voucher is the main outcome of interest. A comparison of this variable across the control and treatment groups provides the estimate of the interventions’ impacts. For women, opting for the online course voucher is taken as an indication of interest in themselves participating in the labor market. In the context of men, choosing an online course voucher is an indicator of an increase in labor market aspirations for their wives.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

We will randomly assign our participants into four groups – a control group and three treatment groups where the treatment groups receive information about their peers that is intended to influence their perception of social norms.

Experimental Design Details

Treatment group 1 receives information on attitudes of other similar women (or other women similar to wife in case of men) towards working women.
Treatment group 2 are provided with the information above and information on attitudes of other similar men (or other men similar to husband in case of women) towards childcare sharing.
Treatment group 3 receives both forms of information above and information on attitudes of mother’s generation towards working women and child well-being.

Randomization Method

Randomization will be done through Qualtrics’ built-in survey features

Randomization Unit

Individual

Was the treatment clustered?

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

N/A

Sample size: planned number of observations

We plan to target up to 4,460 women and men (50:50) in urban Indonesia aged 18-40 years old who have children under 18 years of age

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

1115 observations per treatment arm (50% male, 50% female)

Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)

We conduct power calculations for the proportion of respondents who choose to be paid for their participation in the form of the online course voucher, as opposed to an online-shopping voucher. We use Stata’s power command. Our power calculations set power to 0.8 and the significance level to 0.05. We use 0.235 as the control group mean. This is the proportion of men who choose to get access to the job matching app for their wives in Bursztyn et al. (2020). Bursztyn et al. (2020) found that their treatment (similar to ours) increased the proportion of men who chose to get access to the app by 8 percentage points. Our power calculations for difference in two proportions suggests that with the proposed sample size of 1000 per arm we will be powered to detect an effect of 5.5 percentage points (23%) or larger.

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB