**C. Robustness Checks.** In Table A.14, we test the robustness of our findings to alternate modes of inference for four of our main outcomes. Our results are robust to a) clustering the standard errors by village, b) to wild-clustered bootstrapped errors at the village level, and c) to multiple hypotheses testing correction.

# **6 Conclusions**

Restrictive norms, resource constraints, and social isolation can limit women’s access to and utilization of various public services and programs, especially in developing countries. These constraints are more pronounced in contexts like rural India, where women lack freedom of movement and are socioeconomically dependent on family members, and in domains such as fertility and FP. In this study, we evaluate an innovative approach to improve married women’s access to FP that not only overcomes financial barriers but also social barriers to FP use, such as opposition from mothers-in-law and lack of peer support.

Although our study is based in one Indian district, its findings are relevant not only to other parts of India and South Asia, but also to a number of settings where women face significant socioeconomic and mobility barriers and where extended households are prevalent. Moreover, the relevance of our findings and interventions extends to areas beyond FP-RH (e.g., female education and labor force participation) where women’s inability to access public spaces and restrictions imposed by family members are key barriers to their access (Bernhardt et al., 2018; Bursztyn and Jensen, 2017) and where peer support can make a substantive difference (Field et al., 2016; Kandpal and Baylis, 2019).

We draw a number of lessons from this study that are relevant for policy making and future research. First, our results highlight a need to move beyond dyadic models of household bargaining and decision-making that are based on nuclear family structures. In most household surveys and collective models of the household, a woman’s decision-making ability within the household is bench-marked against that of her husband. As a result, programs and policies that are informed by these data and studies rely on strategies that seek to exclusively engage husbands as a means to improve women’s bargaining power and outcomes.<sup>56</sup> In many lowand middle-income settings, however, extended families are common and comprise a broader range of kinship structures, such as joint, multi-generational, and polygamous relationships within the household (Kramer, 2020). Variations in kinship strength and relative bargaining power across extended household members make it necessary to understand the influence of, and potentially even target, household members other than the woman’s husband on her wellbeing. More broadly, policy impacts on women’s well-being can vary by household structure in particular when extended families are prevalent (Heath et al., 2020).

> 56Examples of such strategies include couples’ counseling, “husbands’ clubs” or the creation of partnerfriendly spaces within the health sector (father-friendly clinics, couples-oriented child visits), among others (Bank, 2019; Davis et al., 2016; Hawkins et al., 2008; Sicouri et al., 2018; Tiedje and Darling-Fisher, 2003).

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