De Facto Suffrage: A Field Experiment to Improve Women's Turnout in Pakistan

• In Event: Gender Inequality in South Asia & its Effects on Autonomy, Employment & Turnout

Abstract

Although women enjoy the de jure right to vote around the world, de facto inequalities in participation between men and women persist in many democratic polities. Pakistan has one of the largest gender gaps in turnout among electoral democracies around the world. In this paper, we first use a baseline survey, conducted in 2500 households in Lahore, Pakistan to document the multiple constraints to political participation faced by women: low motivation and disengagement from politics, fewer political resources (information), and restrictive social norms. Next we use a field experiment to test whether a door-to-door mobilization campaign designed to address these constraints can improve levels of women's participation. By randomly targeting the mobilization at either women (T1), men (T2) or both women and men (T3), we test whether, in a context where women enjoy low decision-making power within the household, it is necessary to engage male decision-makers to e xpect changes in women's behavior. We find that mobilization only improves women's turnout when targeted at both women and men (T3) and that targeting women (T1) or men alone (T2) has no or weak e ffects on women's turnout. We interpret this as suggestive evidence of the existence of binding constraints to women's participation on part of both individual women, and the men in
their households.

Authors

• Ali Cheema, Lahore University of Management Sciences

• Sarah Khan, Yale University

• Asad Liaqat, Harvard University

• Shandana Khan Mohmand, Institute of Development Studies