Political Reservation and Female Labor Force Participation in Rural India

Abstract

The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.

Capital, Caste, and Patriarchy: Theory of Marriage Formation in India

“…In most cases, parents want a groom who is more qualified than their daughters, and the women's job is considered secondary, flexible, or disposable. This finding relates closely to women's labor force participation which is decreasing in India since the 1980s (Desai and Joshi 2019;Naidu and Rao 2018;Chatterjee, Desai, and Vanneman 2018). These findings emphasize the continued salience of Brahminical Patriarchy, which has adapted successfully to the contradictory tendencies of capitalism.…”

Dropping Out, Being Pushed Out or Can't Get in? Decoding Declining Labour Force Participation of Indian Women

“…Additionally, Lei et al (2019) highlight the importance of augmenting transportation infrastructure. Deininger et al (2020) examine the effects of female reservation in village local government in the context of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) and find that women's labour force participation, number of days worked per year and total earnings is higher in "ever" versus "never" reserved villages. While achieving the appropriate macro-policy framework might be more challenging as it needs a broader political consensus, there is considerable space in the existing policy arena that can be exploited to promote women's desire to be engaged in paid economic work.…”

Empowering women through multifaceted interventions: long-term evidence from a double matching design

“…These are critical components of empowerment as pointed out by the literature (Milazzo andGoldstein, 2019 andDuflo, 2012). Increasing women's political and social participation has been associated with a provision of public goods that better reflect women's preferences (Chattopadhyay and Duflo, 2004), raises girls' educational aspirations (Beaman et al, 2012), and increases in labor force participation (Deininger et al, 2020) and entrepreneurship (Ghani et al, 2014). Women's political participation also leads to more empower-ment (Bargain et al, 2018), and involvement in community affairs (Beath et al, 2013).…”