The Political Implications of Matrilineal Kinship

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

One of the most systematic regularities in the study of political behavior is the gender gap between men and women: both among citizens participating in politics and among the leaders who represent them. Economic development has been shown to reduce (though not eliminate) this gender gap, but the problem is a substantial one in most developing societies. Interventions to increase female representation, access to material resources, and access to information have had only limited degrees of success in these contexts, and some have even resulted in perverse consequences for women. Persistent discriminatory gender norms are often to blame for the difficulty in raising the status of women in public life. This raises the important question of how to effect norm change around gender. As Robinson and Gottlieb (2018) argue, practices that distribute resources to women over time and across sufficiently large groups can lead to the generation of more gender equal norms, with benefits for social and political outcomes. The studies in this panel examine such a cultural practice – matrilineality, which is present in about 13% of societies across the world, and that traces lineage through women rather than men, with implications for how wealth is inherited. Cumulatively, they show how and why this practice has beneficial social and political implications for women, in spite of living in traditionally patriarchal societies.

Brulé and Gaikwad compare two otherwise similar groups in India that have long practiced different forms of wealth inheritance. Members of the matrilineal group consistently demonstrate a smaller gender gap in political participation and policy preferences relative to those in the patrilineal group. Wang, Benstead, Dulani, Muriaas, and Rakner highlight another political consequence of matrilineality: the greater likelihood of female traditional leadership, and how both cultural practices and the presence of female leaders interact to condition gender norms. Lowes explores another mechanism through which matrilineality affects social outcomes: reduced spousal cooperation as a result of women in matrilineal societies having greater outside options and thus greater bargaining power. Not only does she demonstrate evidence of decreased spousal cooperation among matrilineal groups relative to otherwise similar patrilineal groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo, she also demonstrates that it is generated by greater costs to domestic violence and a better outside option, which has the effect of producing greater investments in children. Finally, Tripp combines insights from these previous papers to connect the dots between matrilineality, its role in reducing domestic violence, and the consequent increase in political participation. She does this through a case study of a rarely studied matrilineal group in the contested territory of Western Sahara, the Saharawi.

Together, these papers evaluate the political effects of a similar cultural institution across a variety of developing countries. The scholars on the panel include a PhD student, assistant professors, associate professor, and full professors, and are working at institutions located around the world (Abu Dhabi, Italy, Malawi, Norway, and the US).

Sub Unit

• DIVISION 31: Women and Politics Research

Individual Presentations

• Culture, Capital and the Political Economy Gender Gap - Rachel E. Brule, New York University Abu Dhabi; Nikhar Gaikwad, Columbia University

• Traditional Authority, Gender and Political Engagement in Malawi - Vibeke Wang, Chr. Michelsen Institute; Lindsay J. Benstead, Portland State University; Boniface Madalitso Dulani; Ragnhild Louise Muriaas, University of Bergen; Lise Rakner, University of Bergen

• Matrilineal Kinship and Spousal Cooperation: Evidence from the Matrilineal Belt - Sara Lowes, Bocconi University

• Political Impacts of Matrilineality on Saharawi Society in the Western Sahara - Aili Mari Tripp, University of Wisconsin, Madison

Chair

• Jessica Gottlieb Texas A&M University

Discussants

• Amanda Lea Robinson Ohio State University

• Jessica Gottlieb Texas A&M University