Faculty Research Fellows Lunch with Aruna Ranganathan

Aruna Ranganathan: "Organizations as Equalizers? Employer-Provided Childcare, the Labor Supply of Working Mothers, and the Limits of Family-Based Networks" (joint work with David Pedulla)

In this article, we ask whether work-family policies can improve the labor supply of disadvantaged women. Using data from an Indian garment factory, we find that there is a strong, positive effect of employer-provided childcare on women’s daily attendance at work. Additionally, we find that the positive effects of employer-provided childcare are concentrated among women whose family-based networks may be less likely to provide informal childcare support, indicating that organizational policies can level the playing field and promote equality for these women. Together, these findings hold theoretical insights for understanding the role of organizational policies in reducing social inequality, while providing novel evidence about an intervention that can bolster economic security and reduce poverty in the Global South by improving women’s employment outcomes.

Aruna Ranganathan is Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior in the GSB.