Restrictive social norms and strategic constraints imposed by family members can limit women’s access to and benefits from social networks, especially in patrilocal societies. We characterize young married women’s social networks in rural India and analyze how inter-generational power dynamics within the household affect their network formation. Using primary data from Uttar Pradesh, we show that co-residence with the mother-in-law is negatively correlated with her daughter-in-law’s mobility and ability to form social connections outside the household, especially those related to health, fertility, and family planning. Our findings suggest that the mother-in-law’s restrictive behavior is potentially driven by the misalignment of fertility preferences between the mother-in-law and the daughter-in-law. The lack of peers outside the household lowers the daughter-in-law’s likelihood of visiting a family planning clinic and of using modern contraception. We find suggestive evidence that this is because outside peers (1) positively influence daughter-in-law’s beliefs about the social acceptability of family planning and (2) enable the daughter-in-law to overcome mobility constraints by accompanying her to health clinics.

中文翻译：

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木乃伊的诅咒：婆婆对印度妇女的影响 †

家庭成员强加的限制性社会规范和战略约束会限制妇女进入社交网络并从中受益，尤其是在父地社会。我们描述了印度农村年轻已婚妇女的社交网络，并分析了家庭内的代际权力动态如何影响她们的网络形成。使用来自北方邦的原始数据，我们表明，与婆婆同住与儿媳的流动性和在家庭之外形成社会联系的能力呈负相关，尤其是与健康相关的社会联系，生育和计划生育。我们的研究结果表明，婆婆的限制行为可能是由婆婆和媳妇之间的生育偏好不一致所驱动的。家庭以外同伴的缺乏降低了儿媳去计划生育诊所和使用现代避孕措施的可能性。我们发现有启发性的证据表明，这是因为外部同龄人 (1) 积极影响儿媳关于计划生育的社会可接受性的信念，以及 (2) 使儿媳能够通过陪伴她去克服行动限制健康诊所。