The Big Unknown

Originally published in the Spring 2008 issue of the Kennedy School Bulletin.

The dearth of women entering the political arena is a problem that cuts across both poor and rich countries. Rohini Pande, professor of public policy, whose current research looks at bias against women leaders in 500 villages in West Bengal, India, examines the extent to which exposure to women in political roles may actually reduce bias.

Q. How has political affirmative action contributed to improving the situation for women in India?

A. What’s improving the situation is that affirmative action has already been implemented in India and South Bangladesh at the local level. At this level — we were looking at village councils — one-third of positions must be reserved for women. My research shows that affirmative action plays an important role in these societies because it affects people’s willingness to have women as leaders and influences beliefs about what women can do as leaders.

Q. How are women leaders in India’s village-level democracies evaluated when there is no prior exposure to them in such positions?

A. What we found is that although women may be doing things differently than men, they didn’t seem to be doing worse in terms of performance. However, they are systematically evaluated as doing worse than men by the general population.

Q. What sort of progress have U.S. women made in entering the political arena?

A. Female participation in the labor force has increased dramatically in the United States, but women’s representation in politics has been much slower. Women are not only entering politics at lower rates than men, but also at lower rates than other disadvantaged groups, which at least raises the possibility that political leadership is not seen as an appropriate role for women.

Q. What role does gender play in the current U.S. presidential campaign?

A. Exposure to greater female leadership might open the doors for more women to follow because people will learn that women are fallible in exactly the same ways as men or, perhaps, in different ways. Currently people don’t know whether the gender of the candidate should be an important issue. Right now it is a big unknown.