STEMming the Dowry Tradition : Empowering Girls in India

The persistent underrepresentation of girls in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields has long been a concern for policymakers and researchers. While factors such as lack of interest or ability have been cited as barriers to girls' enrolment in STEM fields in developed countries, in developing countries, social and cultural norms often play a dominant role. In this paper, we explore the economic mechanisms underlying the influence of dowry as a social norm on girls' enrolment in STEM fields in India. Specifically, we investigate the impact of cash dowry on the allocation of financial resources within households and its implications for girls' education choices. Using data from the second round of the India Human Development Survey (IHDS-II), we find that the social expectation to provide a cash dowry reduces the resources available for investing in girls' education, particularly in STEM fields that are relatively more expensive than non-STEM fields. Our results are robust to controlling for a range of individual, household, and community-level factors, suggesting that the impact of cash dowry on girls' educational outcomes is significant and pervasive. Our findings have important implications for policymakers seeking to promote gender equity in education, particularly in developing countries where social norms continue to exert a strong influence on education choices