How Do Bureaucrats View Minority Politicians? Survey Data from Telangana, India

• In Event: Women and Institutions

Abstract

In recent decades, quotas have expanded the political field for women from various backgrounds, particularly in lower-level elections. Yet, the lack of quotas in the bureaucratic realm mean elected women face a largely male-dominated culture to translate political promises into implementable policies. This paper examines how bureaucrats react to the entry and persistence of women in a previously male-dominated polity. It does through an extensive survey of over 500 block development officers--bureaucrats in charge of overseeing the work of multiple village-level politicians--in the state of Telangana, India. The survey findings show differential implicit and explicit attitudes of block-level bureaucrats towards women of varying castes and suggests how such attitudes may impact the ability of women to be effective politicians.

Author

• Bhumi Purohit, University of California, Berkeley