Weighing in on the efficacy of female leadership in government

Why in News?

• The article put emphasis upon the necessity to get rid of inherent biases and perceptions about the effectiveness of women in leadership roles and the need for increased female representation in policy making.
• The government data presented in the Lok Sabha recently found women representation in Parliament and most States legislatures below 15% and 19 State Assemblies have less than 10% women lawmakers.

 

What are the attributes of women leadership?

• Women’s political empowerment is premised on three fundamental and non-negotiable principles:
  • The equality between women and men (gender equality).
  • Women’s right to full development of their potential.
  • Women’s right to self-representation and self-determination.

 

Global picture of Female leadership during crisis

• The three countries namely Germany, Taiwan and New Zealand have women heads in their governments and that seem to have managed the Covid-19 pandemic much better than their neighbours.
• Also, the States in the USA having female governors witnessed fewer COVID-19 related deaths, as female governors acted more decisively by issuing earlier stay-at-home orders than their male counterparts.
• This means women leaders are more effective than their male counterparts in times of crises and there is the need of getting rid of inherent biases and perceptions about female effectiveness in leadership roles.

 

Scenario of Female leadership in India

• When it comes to the most important political right – right to vote, the women in India, unlike mature democracies of west, were allowed to vote from 1950 onwards on an equal footing with men. The US took several decades of struggle before women were allowed to vote in 1920.
• Indira Gandhi, Jayalalitha, Mayawati, Sushma Swaraj and Mamata Banerjee etc., are few charismatic female leaders India has produced. However, overall scenario in India is depressing.
• For example:
  • Female members make up only about 10% of the total ministerial strength in the Central government.
  • The situation in West Bengal (led by a female CM) is no different.
  • The 2019 election sent the largest number of women to the Lok Sabha, which is just over 14% of the total strength of the Lok Sabha.
• This gave India the dismal rank of 143 out of 192 countries as per data reported by the Inter-Parliamentary Union. Tiny Rwanda comes out on top with a staggering 60% of seats in its lower house occupied by women.

 

How Gram Panchayats in India depicts the significance of female leadership?

• Nobel Laureate Esther Duflo studied the impact of reservations for women in local governments and analyzed the effectiveness of female leadership.
• “The Panchayats”, added by 73rd Amendment of the Indian Constitution mandated that all States had to reserve one-third of all positions of pradhan (head) for women.
  • Today, over a million women across India are elected members of around 2.6 lakh gram panchayats in the country.
• The study demonstrates that the female leaders perform significantly better than men in implementing policies that promote the interests of women.
• For instance, women pradhans were more likely to invest in providing easy access to drinking water since the collection of drinking water is primarily women’s responsibility.

 

What more can be done to promote female leadership?

• Establishing quotas for women: It is essential to create a level-playing field through appropriate legal measures while recognizing that women running for elections face numerous challenges.
  • The Women’s Reservation Bill, which seeks to reserve 33% seats in Lok Sabha and all state legislative assemblies for women, was first presented to the Lok Sabha in 1996, saw opposition from male members from several parties on various pretexts.
  • The Rajya Sabha passed the Women's Reservation Bill [The Constitution (108th Amendment) Bill, 2008] in 2010, the Lok Sabha and the State legislatures are yet to give their approval.
• Nominating more women candidates: Until the bill is approved, the major political parties need to reserve a third of party nominations for women. It will result in increasing numbers of women in legislatures and subsequently in cabinets.
• Internal democracy with in the political parties: Granting women quota in the party’s internal organization will serve as a strategic compliment to the Women’s Reservation Bill and will chart out more conducive path for women entering politics.

 

Conclusion

• The increased female representation in policy making by granting quota improves perceptions about female effectiveness in leadership roles and decreases the bias among voters against women candidates.
• This will result in subsequent increase in the percentage of female politicians contesting and winning elections.
• Thus, addressing various issues related to women participation in politics should be an important goal from gender equality perspective.

 

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Q1) Who has the highest percentage of women in Parliament?

Women constituted around 61 percent of the Rwandan parliament (lower or single house). This makes them the country with the highest share of women in parliament worldwide followed by Cuba at around 53%.

 

Q2) Which states have 50% reservation for women in local bodies?

As of now, Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Tripura, Uttarakhand, and West Bengal have increased their reservation benchmarks for women in their PRIs to 50%.

 

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Source: Weighing in on the efficacy of female leadership in government