Does Gender Tagging Public Works Increase Women's Participation? Experimental Evidence from Haiti, Kenya, and Rwanda

Public works programs often fail to induce participation by women in dual-headed households, with implications for closing gender gaps in autonomy. We randomize “gender tagging,” labeling as “for women” in cash-for-work programs targeting poor households in Haiti, Kenya, and Rwanda. Gender tagging increases women's participation by 11 to 27 percentage points (29-192 percent) in contexts where women have low labor market attachment. We apply recent econometric methods to test heterogeneity across households to show that gender tagging generates catch-up: The women least likely to participate under the status quo program experience the largest increase in participation from gender tagging.