Foundational Quotas: Are Gender Reservations in India Bringing in the Politicians of the Future?
Considerable research has examined what effects the establishment of gender reservations at the local level in India have had on the political participation of women across the country. Findings vary, but there is a general agreement that reservations have, in the three decades since their institutionalization, successfully brought millions of women into politics who likely would not have participated otherwise. However, whether these women are making politics a career or are predominantly one-off candidates is still uncertain. To determine if the gender reservation system is serving as a needed pipeline to develop female political talent to serve at the highest levels, this paper conducts a unique data collection effort across national, state and local elections in the state of Uttar Pradesh over the last two election cycles. This database tracks the career pathways of successful women in state and national politics to determine how many started by winning a local election in a gender-reserved district. Ultimately, this paper finds that only a very small percentage of women brought in by the reservation successfully made the transition to a political career, whether in local, state or national office, as most do not return after one term. This finding supports concerns that the gender reservation in India is not developing a strong cohort of women politicians to challenge gender inequalities in the upper levels of government. Women Who Only Serve Chai: Gender Reservations and Autonomy in India
This book investigates the experiences of women city councilors (parshads) in Jaipur, in the northwestern Indian state of Rajasthan, with a focus on the incidence of proxy representatives brought in through the gender quota. These women are pushed into office by family members who then relegate her to a token role while they run the office in her stead. The gender quota instituted at the local level in India over two decades ago has helped millions of women overcome significant political and social barriers in compete for and win elected office. However, even in office women continue to face stigma and normative restrictions imposed by a society not entirely willing to accept them in such a public and autonomous position. This standard enables men, technically blocked by the gender quota from holding office themselves, to continue to exert control and influence over women office-holders, even sidelining them in many cases. The narratives of these women demonstrate the persistent power of patriarchal norms, and the inability of corrective democratic institutions to completely exclude their influence. However, the existence of proxies is contrasted by the stories of autonomous women, many of whom also entered through the gender reservation, who have established themselves politically and engage in their official responsibilities on an equal, if not better, footing than their male peers. Overall, their stories also force reconsideration of the ability of gender quotas to comprehensively establish representative equality in highly patriarchal societies in the short term. These findings are based on semi-structured elite interviews funded by a Fulbright Student grant conducted from 2016-2017 with 41 elected members of the Jaipur Municipal Corporation, the primary governing institution of Jaipur city, and eight additional semi-structured interviews with journalists, women’s rights activists, and student political leaders in Jaipur.
PUBLICATIONS Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles Turnbull, B. (2019). Quotas as Opportunities and Obstacles: Revisiting Gender Quotas in India. Gender and Politics. Link
Turnbull, B. (2019). Interviews with women in India. Qualitative Research 19(6), 753-761. Link
Badran, S. and Turnbull, B. (2019). Contemporary Temporary Marriage: A Blog-analysis of First-hand Experiences. Journal of International Women's Studies, 20(2), 241-256. Link
Manuscripts in Submission Turnbull, B. (2019). Women Who Only Serve Chai: Gender Reservations and Autonomy in India. Cambridge University Press.
Book Reviews Turnbull, B. (2016). Book review: Wronged by Empire: Post-Imperial Ideology and Foreign Policy in India and China. Cooperation and Conflict, 51(3), 401–402. Link
Turnbull, B. (2016). Book review: Soviet Leaders and Intelligence: Assessing the American Adversary during the Cold War. H-Net Reviews in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Link
Other Publications Turnbull, B. (2014). Trafficking in Kazakhstan. Fort Leavenworth Foreign Military Studies Office University Research Collaboration. Link
FELLOWSHIPS AND AWARDS
Faculty Development Seminar India, Council of American Overseas Research Centers – faculty development and improvement of international curricula and study abroad programs, 2019
Alumni Thematic International Seminar on Human Trafficking, US Department of State – faculty collaboration on disrupting illicit trafficking networks, building resilient institutions and communities, and assisting victims and vulnerable populations, 2017
Joseph P. Harris Fellowship, University of Kansas – dissertation writing funding, 2017
Fulbright-Nehru Student, US-India Education Fund – funded 8 months of dissertation fieldwork in Jaipur, India conducting qualitative interviews with city councilors, 2016
Critical Language Scholarship (Hindi), US Department of State – Hindi-language study, 2015