There is growing acknowledgement that economic growth is not sufficient to close wide gender gaps persisting in many countries including India; rather, socio-cultural features, and in particular prevailing social norms about gender, may be equally important in narrowing gaps (see, for example, Jayachandran, 2015; Kabeer and Natali, 2013; Rao Gupta et al., 2019; Bingenheimer, 2019). Indeed, many would agree that gender equality, particularly in education and employment, is far more likely to contribute to economic growth, in comparison to economic growth contributing to gender equality (in terms of health, well-being and rights) (Kabeer and Natali, 2013)....