EFFICIENCY OF FEMALE LEADERSHIP

1. Context

A recent study by researchers in the United States reports that States which have female governors had fewer Covid-19 related deaths, perhaps partly because female governors acted more decisively by issuing earlier stay-at-home orders.

2. Key points

• Studies such as these do not establish the superiority of all female leaders over their male counterparts.
• All female leaders are not necessarily efficient and many men have proved to be the most effective and charismatic leaders.
• The important takeaway from the recent experience and such studies is the necessity of getting rid of inherent biases and perceptions about female effectiveness in leadership roles.

3. Gram Panchayats in India

• Female leaders also bring something quite different to the table.
• In particular, they perform significantly better than men in implementing policies that promote the interests of women.
• The study was made possible by the 1993 amendment of the Indian Constitution, which mandated that all states had to reserve one-third of all positions of Pradhan for women.
• Since villages chosen for the mandated reservations were randomly selected subsequent differences in investment decisions made by gram panchayats could be attributed to the differences in the gender of the pradhans.
• The study concluded that pradhans invested more in rural infrastructure that served better the needs of their gender.
• For instance, women pradhans were more likely to invest in providing easy access to drinking water since the collection of drinking water is primarily, if not solely, the responsibility of women.
• In addition to the instrumental importance of promoting more space for women in public policy, this is also an important goal from the perspective of gender equality.
• The right to vote is arguably the most important dimension of participation in public life.

4. About the Franchise

• Independent India can rightly be proud of its achievement in so far as women’s suffrage is concerned.
• Women were allowed to vote from 1950 onwards and so could participate on an equal footing with men from the first general election of 1951-52.
• This is in striking contrast to the experience in Western Europe and the United States.
• In the U.S., it took several decades of struggle before women were allowed to vote in 1920.
• Most countries in Europe also achieved universal suffrage during the inter-war period.

• This, it is suggested, mitigated the anti-female bias and earned women the right to vote in European countries.
• We have had and have charismatic female leaders like Indira Gandhi, Jayalalitha, Mayawati, Sushma Swaraj and Mamata Banerjee among several others.

5. Current situation

• The female representation in the current National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the Centre is probably not very far from the typical gender composition in Indian central and State governments.
• Female members make up only about 10 per cent of the total ministerial strength.
• The underrepresentation of female Ministers in India is also reflected in the fact that Ms Banerjee is currently the only female Chief Minister.
• The underrepresentation of women in Indian legislatures is even more striking.

6. Women’s Reservation Bill

• Since women running for elections face numerous challenges, it is essential to create a level-playing field through appropriate legal measures.
• The establishment of quotas for women is an obvious answer.
• The mandated reservation for women in gram panchayats was established in all major states in the mid-1990s.
• Attempts have also been made to extend quotas for women in the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies through a Women’s Reservation Bill.
• Unfortunately, the fate of this Bill represents a blot on the functioning of the Indian Parliament.
• The Bill was first presented to the Lok Sabha by the H.D. Deve Gowda government in 1996.
• Male members from several parties opposed the Bill on various pretexts.
• Subsequently, both the NDA and United Progressive Alliance governments have reintroduced the Bill in successive Parliaments, but without any success.
• Although the Rajya Sabha did pass the bill in 2010, the Lok Sabha and the State legislatures are yet to give their approval despite the 24 years that have passed since it was first presented in the Lok Sabha.

7. The way forward 

• The major party constituents of the NDA and UPA alliances can sidestep the logjam in Parliament by reserving says a third-party nomination for women.
• This will surely result in increasing numbers of women in legislatures and subsequently in cabinets.
• The importance of this cannot be overestimated.
• There is substantial evidence showing that increased female representation in policymaking goes a long way in improving perceptions about female effectiveness in leadership roles.
• This decreases the bias among voters against women candidates and results in a subsequent increase in the percentage of female politicians contesting and winning elections.
• So such quotas have both a short-term and long-term impact.
• Indeed, voter perceptions about the efficacy of female leadership may change so drastically in the long run that quotas may no longer be necessary.

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