Glass Walls: Experimental Evidence on Constraints faced by Women in Accessing Valuable Skilling Opportunities
Published - Aug 24, 2023Experimental evidence from Pakistan shows distance poses a large and discontinuous access constraint: women with village-based training centers are four times more likely to access valued skilling opportunities. Over half the travel penalty is incurred upon crossing the village boundary. Exogenous stipend variation reveals this boundary effect is costly to offset and not explained by travel costs. Security considerations are an important factor: providing secure group transport raises take-up, while women with greater safety concerns and those traversing underpopulated areas, a proxy for insecurity, have lower take-up. The training has similar positive benefits for women with inside- and outside-village centers.