When childcare subsidies and employment services are not enough: How social norms shape women's choices in Egypt

Having a job outside the home is a common driver of women’s economic empowerment and increased gender equity. But a randomized evaluation found that when women in low- and middle-income communities in Greater Cairo, Egypt, were offered free childcare to free up their time for paid work and access to available jobs, they did not use either service at meaningful rates. 

The biggest barriers to employment were not financial or logistical. They were invisible but powerful: deeply held social norms and family expectations that quietly shaped every decision.

In this post, we examine what a study carried out by J-PAL MENA in Cairo reveals about creating policies that truly support women, not just in theory but in real life.

The study: Subsidies and support, but low take-up

Researchers Stefano Caria, Bruno Crépon, Caroline Krafft, and AbdelRahman Nagy evaluated an existing government program being implemented by the Ministry of Social Solidarity, which was widely viewed as effective within the local policy environment. By rigorously testing a program that many assume “works” by default, the study challenges the status quo and surfaces when and why these assumptions may not hold, so policymakers can refine programs rather than rely on conventional wisdom. 

The project, conducted by J-PAL MENA and led by the research team, provided subsidies (25%, 75%, and later 100%) to married women with nursery-aged children in Greater Cairo to cover the cost of childcare, and/or employment services via helping women create profiles on a job matching platform.

What researchers expected: 

Building on prior evidence from Egypt and other settings, the team hypothesized that reducing costs of childcare and helping make the job search easier could help overcome key challenges that women frequently reported, namely, affordability of childcare and difficulty finding acceptable jobs—while testing whether, at the margin, these supports would be sufficient in a context where social norms are also influential. The research design explicitly measured norms and within-household preferences alongside program take-up to understand when and why these programs might still fail. 

What researchers found: Take-up and employment remained low.

• Only about 11 percent of women who were offered childcare vouchers used them over the study’s duration, even though all participants had nursery-age children and lived within two kilometers of a nursery.
• Combining vouchers and employment services did not significantly improve take-up rates.
• Roughly half of the women who offered employment services created a profile on an online job-search and matching platform—not enough to justify the program’s implementation costs.   

“I’d rather leave my child with my sister”

One of the key findings was that 78 percent of women were comfortable leaving their child with a relative, but fewer husbands were comfortable with nursery care. This was not just about cost or proximity. It was about trust and norms.

• Some mothers worried their children were “too young” for nursery.
• Others doubted the quality or safety of nurseries, even if they met formal hygiene and staffing standards.
• In 12 percent of households, there was disagreement about sending the child to nursery; among these, in 94 percent of cases, the wife supported nursery enrollment. In 5 percent of these cases, it was the husband who supported it. 

The key takeaway is that providing access to childcare is necessary, but not always sufficient when usage requires crossing social acceptability thresholds within households. Programs designed to anticipate and measure these thresholds, rather than assuming cost and access alone can shift them, are more likely to translate into sustained take-up and employment. 

Available jobs didn’t always align with women’s preferences 

The employment services were meant to help women get jobs. Many were interested: 48 percent created profiles with the employment search service, but the number of those who actually applied for jobs (22 percent), as well as employment outcomes, were lower than expected. Why? Researchers suggested a few reasons:

• Mismatch with job characteristics: Many jobs were in sales or service roles that women were not interested in. Public sector jobs were the most preferred, but only private sector positions were available. 16 percent of women reported that the job mismatch was the main reason behind their low take-up.
• Timing conflicts: Women overwhelmingly preferred part-time work (80 percent), but less than 1 percent of jobs offered it.
• Social acceptability: Only 53 percent of women, and just 40 percent of men, found it acceptable for women to work in male-dominated environments.
• Lack of support from husbands: 18 percent of women cited their husbands’ refusal as a reason they did not use employment services.

Norms are not inevitable—but they are powerful

Our data reinforces a hard truth: women’s employment in Egypt isn’t just constrained by the market; it is also shaped by social and gender norms. Even though 91 percent of women in the researchers' survey said it is acceptable for women to work outside the home, only 53 percent of men agreed. And even though 65 percent of women supported sending children to nurseries so they could work, just 38 percent of men did.

These gaps matter in a system where decisions about childcare and work are often negotiated within households. They help explain why the childcare subsidies did not lead to more employment—despite alleviating a key financial barrier for many families, it still was not seen as a viable or acceptable choice. Complementary approaches that shift acceptability and align jobs with preferences are needed to shift from access to real use of those services.

Women in couples where both partners support women working outside the home were nearly 60 percent more likely to apply for a job through the employment matching program. In contrast, among couples where at least one partner (usually the husband) disapproves of women working outside the home, the employment services led to more disagreements about women’s work. Moreover, women in these households felt even less optimistic about their husbands’ attitudes toward female employment. Overall, the findings highlight that gender norms remain a major barrier for at least half of the women in the study. 

Rethinking program design

This study demonstrates a reality that many researchers and implementers know well: Lowering costs or providing services does not automatically lead to higher uptake. By measuring social norms and intrahousehold attitudes alongside the randomized evaluation of the program itself, the study helps us understand why this is the case in Greater Cairo. 

More broadly, this rigorous evaluation of a government program that is widely assumed to be effective underscores the value of piloting and testing programs before scaling—even those with good intentions and thoughtfully designed approaches—so programs can adapt to real-world constraints. 

This evaluation’s contribution here is not to dismiss this program or programs like it, but to pinpoint how to adjust them so they deliver on their promise. 

What might work better?

1. Pair subsidies with social norm interventions. Campaigns through media, religious leaders, or community events might help reshape perceptions of nurseries and women’s work, especially among men.
2. Improve the quality and reputation of nurseries. Formal hygiene standards are a good start, but trust-building, visible improvements (safe yards, longer hours), and parent engagement could help.
3. Create more part-time, women-friendly jobs. If most women want flexible work but the market does not offer it, governments or partners might try incentivizing private companies to create more of these types of jobs.
4. Address women’s empowerment with multi-pronged solutions. Poverty traps are rarely solved by single interventions. Women’s empowerment is no different—access and acceptability of childcare, suitable job matching, household norms, and policy all matter together.

Final thought: The services were there, but the system was not ready

This study reminds us that people’s behavior does not change just because choices expand. It changes when environments, relationships, and expectations shift, too. It also shows the value of rigorously testing programs that are assumed to be effective, so governments can keep what works, adapt what doesn’t, and ultimately design policies that align with how families actually make decisions.

Subsidies are important. But in the long run, so is changing what it means, in a family, a neighborhood, a nation, to be a working mother.

Read more about the evaluation (results to be published soon).