British Colonialism and Women’s Empowerment in India

This paper examines the long-term effects of British colonialism on women’s empowerment in India. Exploiting district-level variation in colonial rule and using a specific feature of the annexation policy as an instrument for selective annexation, we find that in the early twenty-first century, women in districts directly ruled by the British exhibit higher empowerment across multiple dimensions than those elsewhere. We provide suggestive evidence that British legal reforms advancing women’s rights and social reform movements influenced by Western ideas may explain the observed relationship. Our findings underscore the lasting role of historical and institutional contexts in shaping gender inequality.