In developing countries, when a woman gets a job, she feels great—but it doesn't make her husband any happier.
SSRN · March 18, 2026 · 6425041
The Takeaway
Researchers found a stark 'wellbeing asymmetry' where men's employment benefits both partners, but women's employment benefits only themselves. However, the study also found that simply exposing a household to one six-week job opportunity for the wife permanently lowered the family's social stigma against women working in the future.
From the abstract
This paper investigates household preferences over who should work and whether these preferences are malleable. We document that men and women prefer that husbands work over wives. To understand why, we randomly assign a six-week job to either the husband or wife and document asymmetry: women’s work improves their own wellbeing but not their husbands’, while men’s work improves both partners’ wellbeing. One year later, we surprise households with a work opportunity. Both women and men in househo