Ethnic Political Mobilization and Female Turnout: Theory and Evidence from India

• In Event: Elections, Representation, and Accountability in India

Abstract

When do women and men participate in democracy at equal rates? Specifically, under what conditions does female turnout catch up with male turnout? I reinvestigate this question in the context of developing countries, which often record high female turnout despite low levels of economic development, female labor force participation and gender equality. I argue that both the structure of political competition and household support determine levels of women’s political participation: when parties have incentives to focus on mobilizing turnout among core voters as opposed to poaching swing voters from the competition, they in turn incentivize households to support female turnout. Where households support women’s turnout, they can bridge the resource gap to enable female participation even in the face of low individual-level resource endowments and high social costs to women’s participation.

Author

• Franziska Roscher, Georgia Institute of Technology