Conscious Coupling : Impact of a Skills Intervention to Address Intrahousehold Constraints for Women Entrepreneurs in Ethiopia

Husbands are often key stakeholders and influential in women’s enterprise performance. Intrahousehold constraints and relational dynamics may contribute to a gender gap in entrepreneurship. This mixed-methods paper uses a randomized controlled trial and qualitative research to examine whether the returns to a skills intervention to women business owners are higher with a couples training. The couples training curriculum involves modelling effective communication techniques between married women entrepreneurs and their husbands to help build empathy, scrutinize intrahousehold resource allocation, and encourage greater spousal support. The findings suggest that the skills intervention increases business practices and women’s economic autonomy with treated women being 30 percent more likely to report sole decision-making power in their business. Smaller firms (defined by lower than median baseline profitability) benefit the most from the couples-based approach, earning 50 percent higher revenues and profits when trained with husbands. The channel to higher profitability appears to be improved negotiation skills affording women more time for their businesses, without increased marital conflict. Larger firms increase access to credit but there is no evidence of an impact on profits. The paper contributes to the evidence base on engaging men to help unleash the economic potential of women.