The Role of Women in Political Leadership

Abstract

The present study is about the role of women in political leadership in the present context of India and puts the issue in the context of constitutional, electoral and social framework which governs and who governs. The study, which is based on the general elections of 2024, the composition of the state assemblies and the legislative process of the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam (the Women's Reservation Act of 2023), reveals a paradox that lies in the working of Indian democracy. Although India has had some of the most significant women leaders in the modern world, it has been 30 years since they started implementing the provision of 30% of local government seats for women, but the representation of women in its national and state legislatures remains very low. In the 18th Lok Sabha elected in 2024, the women representation (13.6 per cent) was lower than 2019. The paper argues that the symbolic prominence-structural presence divide can be explained by the interaction of intra-party mechanisms determining who runs in elections, the costs of contesting the elections, and institutional changes and social norms. It explores the contributions of women leaders to governance and policies, the potential and limitation of reservation as a tool for change and what the upcoming delimitation and implementation of the reservation law means for the next ten years. The analysis concludes that the need for quotas is insufficient and change must occur within political parties, investment in women's political careers must be made, and norms that continue to consider leadership to be a male domain must be changed.