Date of Award

2014

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Hicks, Barbara

Keywords

Gender, Women, India, Panchayati Raj, Representation

Area of Concentration

International and Area Studies

Abstract

Women’s exclusion from politics, and consequently government, has continued to undermine equal representation and cause women’s interests to be underrepresented in legislatures worldwide. In an effort to improve women’s representation, India enacted the 74th Constitutional Amendment in 1993, reserving one-third of local government (Panchayati Raj) council seats for women. In order to create lasting change the gender quotas must increase not only women’s numerical representation, but also, in the long-term, their substantive and symbolic representation. This study explores whether substantive representation has been achieved in the Panchayati Raj, and if not, what prevented it. Four key spheres of Panchayati Raj influence are examined for effects of women’s substantive representation: education, health, social attitudes, and rural development. Women’s reservation appears to have affected education and social attitudes more than health or rural government, and full substantive representation has yet to be reached. Some of the barriers to substantive representation are household responsibilities, incumbency, inegalitarian culture, economic underdevelopment, electoral systems, lack of commitment of political parties to nominate women, and prescribed gender roles. Gender quotas have also been proposed for India’s state and national parliaments through the Women’s Reservation Bill. If the upper-level quotas are implemented, it is essential to know how successful the local quotas have been, the barriers that have limited success, and whether those successes and limits would translate to a higher level of government. Although some of the experiences at the local level can foreshadow how upper-level quotas would work, substantial differences in potential female candidates and state and national parliamentary institutions suggest that upper-level quotas will raise further challenges and opportunities for women’s substantive representation.

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