Women and Institutions

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

In what ways does women’s activism in politics, state and military shape institutions and society? When women enter male-dominated state and political institutions they challenge the perceived place of women in society and in the process face resistance. The papers in this panel trace how women who are activated into these institutions through circumstances as diverse as, an exogenous climate shock, to gender quotas or a unique military history grapple with the opportunities and roadblocks they encounter. The papers in this panel examine the consequences of women’s activism on society and institutions in three different countries: Bangladesh, India and Benin. Brule examines how climate change triggers women’s political agency and the resistance their political activism and demand for redistribution raises in Bangladesh. Goyal sheds light on how men and women differ in their pathways to electoral office and the challenges women face when they take unconventional paths to enter politics in the context of India. Wantchekon examines the societal consequences of women’s participation in the unique all-female military regiment in The Kingdom of Dahomey in Benin. Purohit examines how a largely male-dominant bureaucracy responds to women’s presence in politics through gender quotas in India. All of the papers draw on original data, including surveys of citizens or elites, and they employ methods for causal inference, including survey experiments, conjoint analysis, and natural experiments.

Sub Unit

• Division 6: Political Economy

Individual Presentations

• Women as Changemakers: Climate Shocks & Gendered Political Agency - Rachel E. Brule, Boston University

• How Women Access Electoral Office in India - Tanushree Goyal, Harvard University

• Intergenerational Impacts of the Dahomey Amazons - Leonard Wantchekon, Princeton

• How Do Bureaucrats View Minority Politicians? Survey Data from Telangana, India - Bhumi Purohit, University of California, Berkeley

Chair

• Frances McCall Rosenbluth Yale University

Discussants

• Rikhil R Bhavnani University of Wisconsin, Madison

• Soledad Artiz Prillaman Stanford University