Increasing Women's Representation in France and India

Abstract

The immediate post–Second World War period saw women gain equal political rights in a number of countries, including France and India. Political participation researchers began to consider women's involvement in politics. However, because they focused on state institutions and political parties as the most important sites of political participation, and because the presence of women within these sites was insignificant, the conclusions drawn were either that women were uninterested in and/or uninformed about politics or that their interest and knowledge derived from the male head of household. Moreover, when women's political participation was considered, the preferred location of study was the Western liberal democratic nation–state (Dogan, 1955; Duverger, 1955).