Pathbreakers? Women’s Electoral Success and Future Political Participation

Sonia Bhalotra, Irma Clots-Figueras and Lakshmi Iyer

No dp-277, Boston University - Department of Economics - The Institute for Economic Development Working Papers Series from Boston University - Department of Economics

Abstract: We investigate whether the event of a woman being competitively elected as a state legislator encourages the subsequent political participation of women, using a regression discontinuity design on constituency level data from India. We find that female incumbents are more likely than male incumbents to recontest and that there is a decline in the entry of new women candidates. This decline is most pronounced in states with entrenched gender bias and in male-headed parties, suggesting an intensification of barriers against women in these areas. Similar results for(mostly male) Muslim candidates indicate the presence of institutionalized demand-side barriers rather than gender-specific preferences and constraints.

Keywords: Political participation; women; candidates; gender bias; backlash; minority representation; regression discontinuity; India (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J16 J71 P16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 54
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cdm and nep-pol
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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