_For labor or for divorce?_ address concerns about nonparallel trends. This specification yields positive coefficients that are higher in magnitude and statistically significant than the baseline specification. Further, we consider the impact of adding controls that pertain to two additional dimensions of social and legal changes (Klasen, 2019). The first being the effect of fertility and family structures (i.e., the transition from extended to nuclear families) changes on women’s employment outcome.

**Table 5 - Labor market outcomes of Chikak reform in Morocco**

||Chikak' ef<br>|fect window 1<br>|: 1992 to 2007<br>|Chikak eff<br>|ect window 2<br>|: 1992 to 2014<br>|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||(1)|(2)<br>Currentlywor|(3)<br>king|(4)<br>|(5)<br>Currentlywo|(6)<br>rking|
|Post x treated|0.0121|0.0118|0.0379*|0.0236**|0.0233**|-0.0245**|
||(1.36)|(1.35)|(2.33)|(2.71)|(2.70)|(-3.18)|
|Household Size||-0.00284<br>(-0.37)|<br>-0.00398<br>(-0.53)||0.0242***<br>(3.55)|0.00724<br>(1.00)|
|WBLaw Index|||-0.00560<br>(-1.85)|||0.00658***<br>(17.51)|
|Observations|8184|8184|8184|17012|17012|17012|
|Mean of outcome variable|0.214|0.214|0.214|0.259|0.259|0.259|
|WB p-value|0.002|0.002|0.738|0.57|0.742|0.002|
|N cohorts|44|44|44|54|54|54|
|Time trends|No|No|Yes|No|No|Yes|
|Controls<br>Source: Authors Calculations -|Yes<br>Demographic|Yes<br>and Health Sur|Yes<br>vey (DHS): Moroc|Yes<br>co (1992, 2003|Yes<br>) and HCP Ho|Yes<br>usehold survey|

Source: Authors Calculations - Demographic and Health Survey (DHS): Morocco (1992, 2003) and HCP Household survey data for 2007 and 2014). Notes: The dependent variable is a binary indicator for whether the interviewed woman is currently working. Columns 1 to 3 report results for a restricted period representing 15 years around the reform year between 1992 and 2007. Columns 4 to 6 report results for the full covered period between 1992 and 2014. The estimation samples are restricted to married women whose youngest child's age is around 5 years window around the custody cutoff and whom did not have children after the reform. Wild bootstrap (WB) p-value using one thousand replications. *p<0.10, **p<0.05, ***p<0.01.

# _5.2. A set of legislation that targets several areas of gender-based discriminations reduces cultural norms’ stickiness inching towards desired outcomes_

As for the second control, it captures the set of legislative advancements aimed at reducing the legal gender discrimination in these countries. For this, data from the World Bank’s Women, Business, and the Law Index (WBL) (1971 – 2021) scores based on the average of a country’s scores each year for 8 topics pertaining to mobility, workplace, pay, marriage, parenthood, entrepreneurship, assets, and pension are used. Admittedly, while the passing of laws does not guarantee desired outcomes, namely that they will be enforced, a set of legislative reforms that target several areas of gender discrimination may help create a more favorable environment as they are actionable in the short run compared to social norms and traditions, which take longer to change (Kahan, 2000; Alesina et al., 2013; Hyland et al., 2020). Moreover, there are documented cases of unintended results of a single gender 22