Leading by Example

If the Women’s Reservation Bill becomes law, then 181 out of 543 national legislators and 1370 out the 4109 state legislators will be women, significantly altering the (paltry) number of elected women in the world. However, the bill faces strong political opposition. A common concern is that gender quotas will mainly benefit rich upper caste women and crowd out the representation afforded to other groups, especially Muslims and poor Hindus. A related concern is that powerful men might field their wives or daughters as their political proxies and expect them to do their bidding.