**Table 6. Individual-level regressions of norm items within the HH roles index predicting women’s work outcomes**

||**Full**|**Sample**|**Fema**|**les Only**|**Mal**|**es Only**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||(1)<br>Paid work|(2)<br>Paid work|(3)<br>Paid work|(4)<br>Paid work|(5)<br>Paid work|(6)<br>Paid work|
|PNB – Female caregiver|-0.13*||-0.17**||-0.07||
||(0.06)||(0.06)||(0.10)||
|SNE – Female caregiver|-0.07||-0.09||-0.05||
||(0.10)||(0.12)||(0.12)||
|PNB –Male breadwinner||-0.18**||-0.15||-0.23**|
|||(0.08)||(0.09)||(0.09)|
|SNE – Male breadwinner||-0.07||-0.18*||0.08|
|||(0.10)||(0.10)||(0.12)|
|Constant|-0.06|-0.03|-0.04|-0.00|-0.11|-0.09|
||(0.26)|(0.25)|(0.27)|(0.25)|(0.26)|(0.26)|
|Obs.|2,000|2,000|1,150|1,150|850|850|
|Adjusted R2|0.02|0.03|0.03|0.04|0.01|0.01|
|Controls|YES|YES|YES|YES|YES|YES|
|Regional FE|YES|YES|YES|YES|YES|YES|

_Notes_ : (1) Negative correlation means that more conservative beliefs and social expectations are associated with lower probability of women working for pay outside the house. (2) For all items, the higher the value, the more conservative the beliefs and expectations are. Outcome variable “Paid work” is binary with 1 if the female reported a “yes” to “I work outside the house for pay.” And if a male reported “yes” to “My wife works outside the house for pay.” (3) Standard errors clustered at the ward level. (4) Robust standard errors in parentheses. *** p<0.01, ** p<0.05, * p<0.10.

The role of social norms when considering “rational” factors determining women’s work outcomes Findings thus far suggest that social norms may not be very restrictive in Nepal, as evidenced by limited social disapproval expected towards women who participate in the labor force. Specifically, social normative expectations are not strong predictors of women’s LFP in Nepal, though personal beliefs (i.e., preferences), especially around household roles, do appear to matter. However, we also know that practical, “rational” factors - such as educational attainment, household income, the presence of other working women within the household, the presence of adolescent girls (10-19) in the household, and awareness regarding job search methods, among others- play an important role in decisions related to women’s employment.<sup>30</sup> We run an OLS regression that incorporates these factors, in addition to personal beliefs and social normative expectations and find that when rational factors are considered, only personal beliefs about household roles matter **(Table 7)** , whereas normative expectations overall and personal beliefs about women in the public space are not predictors of women’s work outcomes.<sup>31</sup> Not surprisingly, financial need shows up as a strong predictor of whether women take up paid jobs outside the home: An increase in family income (without factoring in the income of working females within the household) reduces the likelihood that women will work for pay. The presence of other working age women within the same household who are in the labor force is also associated with a reduced probability of the female respondent working for pay outside the home,

> 30 It is important to note that this is not meant to be an exhaustive list of rational factors that can influence female LFP.

> 31 These factors reflect only those variables that were asked to all respondents in the survey. Robustness check using the postestimation variance inflation factor test reveals that multicollinearity is not a concern; VIF values for all variables are less than 10 with a mean VIF of 2.54.

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