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Quotas as Opportunities and Obstacles: Revisiting Gender Quotas in India

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 October 2019

Brian Turnbull Open the ORCID record for Brian Turnbull [Opens in a new window]
Brian Turnbull*
Affiliation:
University of South Florida – Sarasota-Manatee
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Abstract

This article addresses the empirical uncertainty regarding whether gender quotas establish a foundation of political representation and experience that encourages female candidates to compete against men. It updates and expands existing empirical research by contributing an analysis of the most recent electoral data across four municipal corporations in India over two election cycles. Critical questions on the theoretical expectation that gender quotas should encourage and enable women politicians to compete in open-gender contests over time are considered. The Indian quota system has not encouraged women to broadly compete outside the quota at the local level but has made some wards more likely to elect women. Parties also continue to resist nominating women outside the quota but are more likely to do so in wards previously represented by a woman. Finally, the unique overlap of gender and community quotas can discourage incumbency by essentially blocking incumbents from running again in their ward due to shifting community requirements.

Keywords

Gender and politicsgender quotasgender reservationscaste reservationsIndiarepresentation and electoral systems
Type
Research Article
Information
Politics & Gender , Volume 17 , Issue 2 , June 2021 , pp. 324 - 348
Copyright
Copyright © The Women, Gender, and Politics Research Section of the American Political Science Association 2019

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Footnotes

Brian Turnbull currently teaches comparative politics at the University of South Florida. His research focuses on the politics of under-represented groups in South Asia, contributing to our understanding of the interaction between gender and electoral institutions. He received his PhD in political science from the University of Kansas in 2018, and an MA in security studies from Georgetown University in 2011.

References

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