Gender and public choice in rural India: can female leaders really influence local governance?

Abstract

With established quotas that formalise the presence of women in local governance in rural India, it remains unclear how women are shaping public decision-making in practice. This paper, based on a survey carried out in four female-led and two male-led local governance institutions in Himachal Pradesh, empirically analyses decision-making based on competing Public Choice models. Results indicate that Public Choice theories fail to accurately predict decision-making because they do not account for embedded norms of gendered labour division. Female leaders can be constrained in their policy-making by the gender congruence of certain political tasks. This paper suggests that in the case of female-congruent political domains, such as health and education, a Citizen–Candidate model might best predict female-led decision-making processes while in the case of male congruence, such as irrigation and land development, a Downsian model might prevail.