Abstract

This comparative case study compares the facilitating factors that promote quota-elected women’s political empowerment in local-level politics, in the Gram Panchayat in India and the Union Parishad in Bangladesh. It reveals that gender quotas do not spontaneously promote women’s political empowerment. Rather, women’s political empowerment depends on a number of institutional and political factors – gender quotas with provisions, party affiliation and political experience; socio-economic and cultural factors – education and training, labor force participation, and religion; and individual-oriented factors – civic duty and political ambitions, honesty, sincerity, and good behavior, and forming coalitions with other members. The findings show that these facilitating factors do not have an equal impact on quota-elected women in India and Bangladesh. The study thus offers a new direction for research on the enablers of quota-elected women’s political empowerment examining the determinants of women’s representation in politics.

摘要

这项比较案例研究比较了在印度的Gram Panchayat和Union Parishad中促进地方政治中配额选举妇女政治赋权的促进因素在孟加拉国。它揭示了性别配额并不能自发地促进妇女的政治赋权。相反，妇女的政治赋权取决于一系列制度和政治因素——规定的性别配额、党派关系和政治经验；社会经济和文化因素——教育和培训、劳动力参与和宗教；以及个人导向的因素——公民义务和政治抱负、诚实、真诚和良好的行为，以及与其他成员结成联盟。调查结果表明，这些促进因素对印度和孟加拉国的配额选举女性的影响并不相同。因此，这项研究为研究配额选举妇女政治赋权的推动因素提供了一个新的方向，研究妇女在政治中代表性的决定因素。