IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/osf/osfxxx/4uscb.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Limits of Electoral Gender Quotas in Rural Local Bodies

Author

Listed:
  • KAREKURVE-RAMACHANDRA, VARUN

    (Stanford University)

  • sood, Gaurav

Abstract

What are the consequences of gender quotas on women's descriptive and substantive representation? Using a novel dataset of over 20,000 rural local governance bodies spanning 20 years, we find that randomly implemented gender quotas for women do not substantially increase the chances of women winning elections to the same seat once the seat is unreserved. Troublingly, even fifteen years of exposure to local women leaders has limited effects. We probe the reasons for this finding using an original phone survey. When we try to reach elected representatives in reserved seats using their official numbers, male relatives frequently intercept the call, suggesting ``gatekeeping.'' Data suggest that in poor, rural areas, quotas may fail to transform who is de facto in power. In all, unlike more hopeful findings from urban areas, our findings suggest that quotas mechanically improve the representation of women but do not create conditions for women to be in power after the quotas are withdrawn.

Suggested Citation

  • KAREKURVE-RAMACHANDRA, VARUN & sood, Gaurav, 2024. "The Limits of Electoral Gender Quotas in Rural Local Bodies," OSF Preprints 4uscb, Center for Open Science.
    • Handle: RePEc:osf:osfxxx:4uscb
    DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/4uscb
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://osf.io/download/67469d8970cf2ed2b4ac1ea5/
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.31219/osf.io/4uscb?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dylan Glover & Amanda Pallais & William Pariente, 2017. "Discrimination as a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Evidence from French Grocery Stores," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 132(3), pages 1219-1260.
    2. Raghabendra Chattopadhyay & Esther Duflo, 2004. "Women as Policy Makers: Evidence from a Randomized Policy Experiment in India," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 72(5), pages 1409-1443, September.
    3. Gangadharan, Lata & Jain, Tarun & Maitra, Pushkar & Vecci, Joseph, 2016. "Social identity and governance: The behavioral response to female leaders," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 302-325.
    4. Coate, Stephen & Loury, Glenn C, 1993. "Will Affirmative-Action Policies Eliminate Negative Stereotypes?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 83(5), pages 1220-1240, December.
    5. Murray, Rainbow, 2014. "Quotas for Men: Reframing Gender Quotas as a Means of Improving Representation for All," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 108(3), pages 520-532, August.
    6. Gottlieb, Jessica & Grossman, Guy & Robinson, Amanda Lea, 2018. "Do Men and Women Have Different Policy Preferences in Africa? Determinants and Implications of Gender Gaps in Policy Prioritization," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 48(3), pages 611-636, July.
    7. Bhavnani, Rikhil R., 2009. "Do Electoral Quotas Work after They Are Withdrawn? Evidence from a Natural Experiment in India," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 103(1), pages 23-35, February.
    8. Weeks, Ana Catalano & Meguid, Bonnie M. & Kittilson, Miki Caul & Coffé, Hilde, 2023. "When Do Männerparteien Elect Women? Radical Right Populist Parties and Strategic Descriptive Representation," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 117(2), pages 421-438, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. repec:osf:osfxxx:4uscb_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Mori, Yuko & Manjula, R. & Rajasekhar, D. & Goto, Jun & Kurosaki, Takashi, 2025. "Who becomes a politician in a gender quota system? Evidence from India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 188(C).
    3. Islam, Asad & Pakrashi, Debayan & Sahoo, Soubhagya & Wang, Liang Choon & Zenou, Yves, 2021. "Gender inequality and caste: Field experimental evidence from India," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 190(C), pages 111-124.
    4. repec:osf:socarx:4zqve_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Bhalotra, Sonia & Clots-Figueras, Irma & Iyer, Lakshmi, 2013. "Path-Breakers: How Does Women’s Political Participation Respond to Electoral Success?," Economics Discussion Papers 9008, University of Essex, Department of Economics.
    6. Maitra, Pushkar & Rosenblum, Daniel, 2022. "Upstream effects of female political reservations," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    7. De Paola, Maria & Scoppa, Vincenzo & Lombardo, Rosetta, 2010. "Can gender quotas break down negative stereotypes? Evidence from changes in electoral rules," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(5-6), pages 344-353, June.
    8. repec:esx:essedp:740 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Garcia-Hernandez, Ana & Grossman, Guy & Michelitch, Kristin Grace, 2022. "Networks and the Size of the Gender Gap in Politician Performance Across Job Duties," OSF Preprints j7zg2, Center for Open Science.
    10. Bhalotra, Sonia R. & Clots-Figueras, Irma & Iyer, Lakshmi, 2013. "Path-Breakers: How Does Women's Political Participation Respond to Electoral Success?," IZA Discussion Papers 7771, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. Sonia Bhalotra & Irma Clots-Figueras & Lakshmi Iyer, "undated". "Pathbreakers? Women’s Electoral Success and Future Political Participation," Boston University - Department of Economics - The Institute for Economic Development Working Papers Series dp-277, Boston University - Department of Economics.
    12. Pushkar Maitra & Ananta Neelim, 2024. "Discrimination in Developing Countries," Monash Economics Working Papers 2024-03, Monash University, Department of Economics.
    13. Ramachandra, Varun Karekurve, 2024. "Gender quotas and upward political mobility in India," SocArXiv 4zqve, Center for Open Science.
    14. O’Brien, Diana Z. & Rickne, Johanna, 2016. "Gender Quotas and Women's Political Leadership," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 110(1), pages 112-126, February.
    15. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/3f39ik5s3j8qapmbpohu7nct0i is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Arnab K. Basu & Nancy H. Chau & Anustup Kundu & Kunal Sen, 2024. "Dishonesty concessions in teams: Theory and experimental insights from local politicians in India," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2024-87, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    17. Aksoy, Billur & Chadd, Ian & Koh, Boon Han, 2023. "Sexual identity, gender, and anticipated discrimination in prosocial behavior," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    18. Billur Aksoy & Ian Chadd & Boon Han Koh, 2022. "(Anticipated) Discrimination against Sexual Minorities in Prosocial Domains," University of East Anglia School of Economics Working Paper Series 2021-08, School of Economics, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK..
    19. Stephen D. O'Connell, 2020. "Can Quotas Increase the Supply of Candidates for Higher-Level Positions? Evidence from Local Government in India," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 102(1), pages 65-78, March.
    20. Dianat, Ahrash & Echenique, Federico & Yariv, Leeat, 2022. "Statistical discrimination and affirmative action in the lab," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 41-58.
    21. Kai Barron & Ruth Ditlmann & Stefan Gehrig & Sebastian Schweighofer-Kodritsch, 2025. "Explicit and Implicit Belief-Based Gender Discrimination: A Hiring Experiment," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 71(2), pages 1600-1622, February.
    22. Baldwin, Kate & Bhavnani, Rikhil R., 2013. "Ancillary Experiments: Opportunities and Challenges," WIDER Working Paper Series 024, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    23. Beath, Andrew & Christia, Fotini & Enikolopov, Ruben, 2013. "Do elected councils improve governance ? experimental evidence on local institutions in Afghanistan," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6510, The World Bank.
    24. Lnu,Anukriti & Erten,Bilge & Mukherjee,Priya, 2022. "Women’s Political Representation and Intimate Partner Violence," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10113, The World Bank.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:osf:osfxxx:4uscb. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: OSF (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://osf.io/preprints/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.