Women Who Only Serve Chai: Gender Reservations and Autonomy in India

Abstract

This dissertation investigates the experiences of women city councilors in Jaipur, in the northwestern Indian state of Rajasthan. These women, brought into office through a gender quota instituted over two decades ago, have overcome significant barriers in an enduringly patriarchal environment. Even in office, women continue to face stigma and normative restrictions imposed by a society not entirely willing to accept them in such a public and independent position. This standard enables men, technically blocked by the gender quota from holding office themselves, to continue to exert control and influence over women office-holders, even sidelining them in many cases. The narratives of these women demonstrate the persisting power of patriarchal norms, and the inability of corrective democratic institutions to completely exclude their influence. However, their stories also force reconsideration of democratic ideals and requirements, most of which have been conceptualized from a firm Western mooring in individualism, with little regard for the alternatives posed by developing democracies rooted in more communal societies. These findings are based on 41 semi-structured elite interviews with elected members of the Jaipur Municipal Corporation, and eight additional semi-structured interviews with journalists, women’s rights activists, and student political leaders in Jaipur.