Access
Social connections are fundamental to human wellbeing. This paper examines the social networks of young married women in rural Odisha, India. This is a group for whom highly-gendered norms around marriage, mobility and work are likely to shape opportunities to form and maintain meaningful ties with other women. We track the social networks of 2,170 mothers over four years, and find a high degree of isolation. Wealthier women and women from more-advantaged castes and tribes have smaller social networks than their less-advantaged peers. These gradients are primarily driven by the fact that more-advantaged women are less likely to know other women within the same socioeconomic group than are less-advantaged women. There exists strong homophily by socioeconomic status (SES) that is symmetric across socioeconomic groups. Mediation analysis shows that SES differences in social isolation are strongly associated with ownership of toilets and labor force participation. Further research should investigate the formation and role of female networks.
Authors
![Orazio Attanasio](/sites/default/files/styles/square_desktop/public/2022-06/Orazio_Attanasio.jpg?itok=Anbs4JXx)
Research Fellow
Orazio is an International Research Fellow at the IFS, a Professor at Yale and a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research.
![Costas Meghir](/sites/default/files/styles/square_desktop/public/2022-07/Costas%20Meghir.jpg?itok=_N-Qaly5)
Research Fellow Yale University
Costas is a Research Fellow of the IFS and a Professor of Economics at Yale University and a Visiting Professor at University College London.
![Person graphic](/sites/default/files/styles/square_desktop/public/2022-06/IFS-person-graphic.png?itok=hWCtTSrz)
University of Pennsylvania
![Britta Augsburg](/sites/default/files/styles/square_desktop/public/2022-06/Britta_Augsburg.jpg?itok=xID4yUz7)
Associate Director
Britta is an IFS Associate Director, Associate Staff at the Department of Economics at the UC and Researcher at NIHR Obesity Policy Research Unit.
![Alison Andrew](/sites/default/files/styles/square_desktop/public/2022-07/Alison_Andrew.jpg?itok=XgTnacrT)
Research Fellow
Alison is a Senior Research Economist of our Institute with research interests in the economics of gender, marriage and education.
![Person graphic](/sites/default/files/styles/square_desktop/public/2022-06/IFS-person-graphic.png?itok=hWCtTSrz)
Angus Phimister
![Person graphic](/sites/default/files/styles/square_desktop/public/2022-06/IFS-person-graphic.png?itok=hWCtTSrz)
Monimalika Day
Journal article details
- Publisher
- NBER
- Issue
- November 2020
Suggested citation
Andrew, A et al. (2020). 'Mothers’ social networks and socioeconomic gradients of isolation' (2020)
More from IFS
Understand this issue
![School girls in Rajasthan](/sites/default/files/styles/square_desktop/public/2022-11/Schoolgirls-in-Rajasthan_0.jpg?itok=aboMI9Wt)
Gender norms, violence and adolescent girls’ trajectories: Evidence from India
24 October 2022
![Smoke from pipe](/sites/default/files/styles/square_desktop/public/2022-08/Smoke-from-pipe.jpg?itok=H5WUOkWr)
What is the case for carbon taxes in developing countries?
Carbon pricing can be a powerful tool for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. What are the risks and opportunities from such policies in developing countries?
4 November 2021
![Female surgeon](/sites/default/files/styles/square_desktop/public/2024-04/female-surgeon-2.jpg?itok=DxoZaqMs)
If you can’t see it, you can’t be it: role models influence female junior doctors’ choice of medical specialty
24 April 2024
Policy analysis
![Ghana cedi bank notes](/sites/default/files/styles/square_desktop/public/2023-11/Ghana-cedi-notes.jpg?itok=QoCRtxWQ)
Distributional analysis of Ghana’s tax system
18 December 2023
![Foreign Office sign](/sites/default/files/styles/square_desktop/public/2024-01/FCDO.jpg?itok=tF9rqG36)
Three ways to improve the design of the UK’s overseas aid spending target
18 January 2024
![TaxDev team in Kampala, Feb 2023](/sites/default/files/styles/square_desktop/public/2023-09/TaxDev%20team.jpg?itok=ZXdlVpwv)
FCDO renews TaxDev funding for the next seven years
19 September 2023
Academic research
![Working Paper Cover](/sites/default/files/styles/portrait/public/2024-05/WP202423-Targeting-men-women-or-both-to-reduce-child-marriage_Page_01.jpg?itok=llhHsGnn)
Targeting men, women or both to reduce child marriage
28 May 2024
![Working Paper Cover](/sites/default/files/styles/portrait/public/2024-05/WP202422-Keeping-the-peace-while-getting-your-way-information-persuasion-and-intimate-partner-violence_Page_01.jpg?itok=JR-kAVHv)
Keeping the peace whilst getting your way: Information, persuasion and intimate partner violence
17 May 2024
![Working Paper Cover](/sites/default/files/styles/portrait/public/2024-06/WP202425-The-intergenerational-elasticity-of-earnings-exploring-the-mechanisms_Page_01.jpg?itok=BhqlYpqX)
The intergenerational elasticity of earnings: Exploring the mechanisms
3 June 2024