The (In)Direct Effect of a Training Program on Women's Employment - Experimental Evidence from the Health Sector in Egypt

Can female employment be pioneered through training schemes? We partner with a non-governmental organization that trains women to become primary care nurses in Southern Egypt, a context with very low female labor force participation. We investigate the extent to which trainees join the labor market and become employed (direct effect), and whether this affects the attitudes towards female employment and labor market outcomes of their social networks (indirect effect). Based on a clustered randomized control trial, we trace the impacts of these `pioneer' trainees on their social contacts, with some of these contacts being connected to treated participants and others to the control group individuals