Significance In biparental species, sexual conflict arises as each parent attempts to minimize its personal effort. Most work has focused on how this conflict is resolved through symmetrical decisions between parents. We investigated whether females can influence male decisions by altering the offspring’s phenotype via the eggs. We manipulated the prenatal presence of the male, performed a cross-fostering experiment, and monitored the subsequent effects on offspring and parent performance. Offspring laid in presence of a male were smaller at hatching. In addition, males lost more weight when with larvae laid in presence of a male. Our results show that females can manipulate male behavior, suggesting that prenatal maternal effects can play an important role in the resolution of sexual conflict between parents.