Lisa Ho

Bringing work home: Flexible work arrangements as ‘gateway jobs’ for women

Millions of women stay out of the workforce despite having a desire for paid work, often because available opportunities are incompatible with traditional norms of household roles. Based on an experiment in West Bengal, this article shows that flexible work arrangements significantly raise women’s take-up of jobs. Although home-based work reduces worker productivity, once women have some experience with flexible work, they are more likely to accept future outside-the-home jobs.