Gender Leadership

Introduction
Norms and practices of gender relations determine the capacities of women and men
to exercise independent agency. Lack of access to critical resources such as income,
information, education, skills; and the denial of opportunities and choices due to
gendered roles and responsibilities particularly disempower women. Without any
sense of power whatsoever, their participation in decision-making is minimal, at
home, within the community and in political sphere. Due to persistent discrimination
against women and inequality between women and men, gender-mainstreaming
strategies are by and large complemented with targeted interventions on women’s
empowerment. Mainstreaming requires explicit acknowledge of equality goals
entailing redistribution of power, resources and opportunities in favour of women.
Mandate on gender equality have been articulated in many forums. These include the
international conferences of the 1990s, particularly the International Conference on
Population and Development, in Cairo, and the Fourth World Conference on Women,
in Beijing. Beijing platform for Action (1995) clearly mentions that without the active
participation of women and incorporation of the perspectives of women in all levels
of decision-making, the goals of equality and development cannot be achieved.
Unless women constitute a critical mass of at least one third of those in the decisionmaking,
their presence would make little difference to the outcomes of governance.
(Panda: 2004) Gender mainstreaming in governance aims at developing strategies for
making the governance structures gender equitable and gender sensitive in terms of
numerical presence, access and control over resources, roles in decision-making and
assertion of authority & power.
Governments across the world are committed to address gender inequities in their
various programmes and operations. In India, the 73rd and 74th Constitutional
Amendments of 1992 enabled 33 percent representation of women in Panchayats and
Municipalities and ensured their entry in the domain of politics. The impetus for
empowerment came from the State to ‘enable women to make strategic life choices,
organize and participate in and influence the process of decision-making as per their
needs and priorities.’ (Deshmukh-Ranadive: 2005) While the Article 243G & 243W
of the Constitution empowered the State Legislatures to endow
Panchayats/municipalities with such powers and authority as may be necessary to
enable them to function as institutions of self-government, the provision of
reservation for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and women (Article 243D &
243T) gave an opportunity to them to hold formal positions of power and, in turn,
participate in the decision making process.
Beginning with the first round of elections to Panchayats after the states passed
conformity legislations in 1994, nearly one million elected women are occupying
constitutionally mandated public offices. In most states, third round of Panchayat
elections are beginning later this year and soon three million elected women would
have acquired a public persona in local bodies. The significance of this can only be
gauged by the absence of such constitutional provisions in respect of elected positions
in state assemblies and national parliament. (Tandon: 2004)
The affirmative action for participation in governance, however, did not get
automatically translated into qualitative gains for Women Elected Representatives
(WERs). Women’s nature of political participation in PRIs & ULBs across two terms
reveals a distinct difference. In the first term, the community was suddenly exposed
to conflicting sets of expectations. Large numbers of women got elected to the
political seat for the first time ever with no precedence or role models. “Governance”
was new to them. As elected representatives, women lacked knowledge, skills and
capacities to govern. The family members, especially the male members, took over
and provided guidance on governance related matters. As a result, women stepped
back and behaved as mere token representatives (dummy candidates) not finding the
space or opportunity to make their voices and opinions heard (PRIA: 1999).
In the second term, the community by and large had accepted the fact of women in
leadership roles. NGOs and the government were more prepared with training
programmes for women elected representatives on the functioning of the PRIs from
day one. Women were redefining the very essence of leadership in terms of openness
about the available resources, decision-making and implementation of schemes in
their own constituencies/wards. In many instances they used their elected authority to
address several critical issues such as children’s’ education, drinking water facilities,
family planning facilities, hygiene and health, quality of health care and village
development such as pucca road and electricity in their Panchayat areas. They also
brought alcohol abuse and domestic violence on to the agenda of political campaigns
(Nambiar and Bandyopadhyay 2004). At the same time there have been evidences of
backlash against them. Elected women representatives have often faced serious
problems in performing their duties. There are stories of the violations of their rights,
exploitation, violence and harassment. Women from low caste groups, despite
reservations, seldom wielded any real political power due to the strongly entrenched
notions of caste and gender hierarchy. (Anandhi S: 2002) Studies have also shown
that women elected representatives with no economic entitlements were often under
the control of those who owned and controlled resources (usually males).
Consequently, dependency curbed their independent decision-making powers.
(Niranjana: 2002). The third term of women’s participation in PRIs & ULBs has just
begun.
It is clear that decentralization has not actually guaranteed equality of voice, access or
influences in the decision-making within local governance. Gendered identities &
practices have often acted as forces for exclusion of women from leadership positions;
by limiting their capacities to articulate and act upon their claims and concerns. The
gap between the formal recognition of right to participate and its actualisation remains
large.
Concerns about agency of women elected representatives, particularly in the wake of
the third term of their leadership in PRIs & municipalities, have led PRIA the (Society
for Participatory Research in Asia) in New Delhi to frame one of the research on
Women’s leadership: Towards Gender Mainstreaming in Governance. There were
number of questions that PRIA wanted to explore through this research. Are women
elected representatives able to take office? How do they see themselves as leaders?
What processes strengthen or inhibit their capacity to articulate their concerns as
elected representatives? How are they perceived by ‘significant others’ viz; male
colleagues, govt officials, family members, and members of community based
organizations?
The research was organized around three key themes: (a) participation in the
functioning of panchayats and urban local bodies; (b) the institutions, which either
strengthen or inhibit their participation in governance; and (c) the perceptions about
WER’s performance. The research studied women elected representatives in the
States of Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Rajasthan, and Uttaranchal.
States/districts/blocks/gram panchayats and municipalities /women elected
representatives/ significant others i.e. their male colleagues, govt officials, family
members, and members of community based organizations were purposively selected
from PRIA and its partners’ intervention areas where intensive work is being carried
out on issues relating to reforming institutions of local self-governance. i Open-ended
interviews with WERs and ‘significant others’ were used primarily to deepen
understanding of the issues affecting women’s leadership in governance.
This paper reports on the findings of the study. It focuses on ‘representation’ of
women in panchayats and municipalities to see whether their representation has been
successful in actual exercise of power by them. The paper is divided into four
sections. The first section Introduction explains the context of the issue of women’s
leadership in local self-governance. The second section looks specifically at the
relevant Conceptualisations. The third section analyses the empirical data on
women’s political representation. The fourth section dwells on key Emerging Issues
relating to the agency of women elected representatives. The paper concludes with
reflections on Paradoxes & Challenges towards effective functioning of women
leaders in institutions of local self-governance.
Section II Conceptualisations
Gender Relations
Gender refers to socially constructed roles and socially learned behaviours and
expectations associated with females and males. All cultures interpret and elaborate
innate biological differences into a set of social expectations about what behaviour
and activities are appropriate and what rights, resources and power they possess.
Gender relations are social relations that are constituted through rules, norms and
practices of society.
Household is a primary institutional site for the construction of gender relations.
Cultural values and practices within household assign women the task of household
responsibility and put constraints on their public mobility; access to critical resources
such as income, information, education, skills and opportunities. But power
differentials between women and men are not restricted to households only. It cuts
across other institutional sites because of the taken for granted nature of practices and
ideologies of patriarchy, which justify these practices. This paper focuses on impact
of gender relations within different institutional sites on the actual exercise of power
by WERs.
Participation
Participation represents an expression of human agency. In an electoral system,
people engage in political activities to influence decision-making processes and
policies to bring in the desired socio-political change. Political participation includes
voting, standing for elections or supporting candidates. Since the last decade of 1990s,
the meaning, nature and scope of public participation have shifted considerably. Now
the focus is on agenda of good governance i.e. increased influence of poor and
marginalised people such as women over wider decision-making processes; and
simultaneously increased responsiveness of governments to their voices. Participation
is both a right and a means for ensuring effective governance. People with active
participation can actually deepen democracy and influence the agenda of good
governance.
Representation
The role of representation is closely associated with participation. In an electoral
system people cast votes to elect their representative. Representation, therefore,
implies getting elected to the political institutions. Broadly speaking, there are two
ways in which the elected representatives participate in the elected bodies. Firstly,
elected representatives work for the development of their constituency. They
participate in the meetings and discussions to plan various activities for the overall
development of their constituency. Secondly, they interact with their constituents to
gauge their interests and needs and work towards meeting them. This view of
participation is closely linked with the issues of responsiveness and accountability of
elected representatives to their voters. (Patnaik: 2004)
Women and their issues are by and large considered apolitical. Such bias causes and
affects women’s political under-representation. The concern over under representation
of women in public life has led to the affirmative policies. The demand for reservation
of women rests in the assumption that women as marginalised section share a
common perception of injustice, deprivation and oppression vis-à-vis power
structures. Affirmative action aims to build a mass leadership who will actively
participate in strategic decision-making processes. (Sharma: 1998)
Leadership
Implicit in political participation and representation is the idea of leadership. It is a
process where a person is in a position to influence others and provides cohesive and
coherent direction to accomplish a mission and tasks. Pre-conditions to effective
leadership are easy access to structures of opportunities and resources and ability to
exercise agency. Leaders articulate the needs and priorities related to rights,
entitlements and basic services provision of their constituency; participate in social
planning and policy development and act upon them.
Deliberate approaches like 73rd & 74th Constitutional Amendments and
decentralization, by creating enabling conditions for women to take on leadership
roles, strive to build a critical mass to minimise the effects of gender inequalities. The
critical mass is a concept that refers to the quantity needed to start an irreversible
chain reaction. In the context of PRI it means that 30 per cent are needed in order to
be able to effect change. Structural (institutional) factors/individual
backgrounds/cognitive experiences and circumstances also influence women’s
leadership. While women with inherent personality traits naturally assume leadership
roles, inexperienced can learn leadership skills. Strategies such as capacity building
training of WERs to govern; mobilizing them to network with
associations/collectives; mobilizing collectives to enhance their participation; and
gender sensitisation can promote effective leadership of women.
Section III Women’s Political Representation
III.1 Profile
The study of profile is important because it acquaints and unveils the power base, the
nature of implementation of public policy and the actual nature of their
representation. It also indicates whether or not women will be capable of exercising
their agency.
III.1 Socio-Economic Profile
The age and marital status of women ERs across the five states revealed that the
majority was married and above 35 years of age. The age factor is important as it
implies that experienced older women with less household responsibilities are able to
devote more time to governance related public activities.
Occupational status
Majority of ERs was home managers; yet as the study findings indicate (Table 1) a
substantial section of them were working either in their own fields or as agricultural
labourers. In Andhra Pradesh more than one-fifth and in Chattisgarh more than onetenth
of WERs were self-employed.
Table 1 Occupational Status of Women Elected Representatives*
Occupational
status
Andhra
Pradesh
Chattisgarh Haryana Rajasthan Uttaranchal
Home managers
30.0
32.5 100 5 38.7
Agriculture
25
15 85 41.9
Agriculture
labour
22.5
30.0
10 16.1
Wage labour
2.5
Service
5.0 3.2
Self Employed
22.5
15.0
Total 100 100 100 100 100
Note *Figures in percentage.
The household work such as the maintenance of household, working in the field or
engaging in income generating activities that benefit the household influences the
extent of their political engagements. Women ERs felt that their work burden was
incompatible with public role performance. Daily pressures of occupation as well as
household often prevented them to undertake additional governance related
responsibilities.
Educational status
The society in villages well as in small town is by and large male dominated.
Education for women does not appear to be a matter of great concern. The study
findings in Table II clearly indicate that there are a few higher educated women
elected representatives. In Andhra Pradesh nearly half of them were illiterate. One-
fourth of WERs in Chhattisgarh were illiterate and one-fifth of them could only sign
their names WERs and had completed their elementary education. A significant
percentage of WERs in Rajasthan (more than 60 percent) could only read & write. In
Uttaranchal a little more than one-fifth of WERs were illiterate and nearly one-sixth
of them could only read & write and had completed their elementary education.
During our fieldwork in the above states we found that elected representatives did not
really understand any official documents. They signed when their husband/children
asked them to sign or read out the document to them. Poor educational qualifications
by and large lead to poor quality of performance.
Table II. Educational status of Women Elected Representatives*
Educational
status Andhra
Pradesh
Chattisgarh Haryana Rajasthan Uttaranchal
Illiterate 50 25 10 10 22.6
Read& write 20 7.5 66.6 16.1
Primary 5 20 22.5 10 16.1
Middle school 20 17.5 15 10 12.9
High school 10 10 40 3.3 12.9
Upper high
school
7.5 5 12.9
Graduate+ 7.5 7.5 6.5
Total 100 100 100 100 100
Note *Figures in percentage.
Political Profile
Term and Tenure
Though most of the elected representatives were serving for the first time, we found
that in Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh 15 percent, Uttaranchal 6.5 percent and in
Rajasthan 3.3 of them were serving the second term. Tenure in office for the majority
was more than one year.
Reserved/Unreserved seats
Majority of the WERs have contested from the reserved seats. In Chhattisgarh,
Rajasthan and Uttaranchal all respondents were elected on reserved seats. In Haryana
more than one fourth and in Andhra Pradesh less than one tenth of them contested
from general seats.
Training
A substantial section of WERs in the study in Haryana and Rajasthan did not receive
any training related to the roles and responsibilities of ERs. In Chhattisgarh one
fourth of the WERs were by and large trained by govt agencies while in Uttaranchal
nearly half of the WERs received training from NGOs. PRIA and its Partners trained
them. In Andhra Pradesh 65 percent of the WERs attended trainings organized by
PRIA as well as by the political parties and the government of Andhra Pradesh.
Decision for Contesting Election
Findings show (Table III) that husband and other family members such as father in
law; brother in law by and large decided the candidature of women elected
representatives. WERs stated that they contested elections primarily to fulfil family’s
wish. Political parties, previous elected representatives and NGOs also determined the
candidature of WERs. In Andhra Pradesh, for instance, political parties and NGOs
determined the candidature of around one-third of WERs. An interesting trend in
Andhra Pradesh could be seen. Previous elected representatives, the Vice-Sarpanch,
nominated about one-fifth of WERs to take their place officially but themselves
continued to exercise power. Community members influenced the candidature of
about one-third of WERs in Chhattisgarh, one-tenth WERs in Rajasthan and a little
more than one-tenth of WERs in Uttaranchal. It is interesting to note that the decision
taken by women’s groups on the candidature of WERs was very low (less than onetenth
in Andhra Pradesh and Uttaranchal and a little more than one-tenth in
Chhattisgarh).
Table III. Decisions on the Candidature
Household
Members
Andhra
Pradesh
Chattisgarh Haryana Rajasthan Uttaranchal
Husband/other
family
members
25.7 20.97 80.35 83.3 54.83
Political
parties
29.03 4.84 6.45
Women’s
groups
8.8 12.90 6.45
Community
members
33.87 10 12.90
Self 12.09 24.19 19.64 6.6 19.35
Previously
elected
representatives
19.3 3.23
Others
(NGOs)
4.8
Total 100 100 100 100 100
Note *Figures in percentage. * Indicates multiple responses of WERs.
III.2 Participation