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Abstract
Indian women made significant contributions to social progress even while outside the formal power and profit structure. Gender constructs that impede women’s access to the public spheres of society diminish the possibility for equitable and empowering life conditions. In this article, we demonstrate that gender ideology strongly affects the number of women in national legislatures. Women are poorly represented in national legislatures throughout the world. The Inter-Parliamentary Union (1997) reports that as of November 1997 only 12.1% of the representatives in the 179 existing national parliaments were women disadvantage. Sen (1987) includes political and civic rights among those capabilities necessary to reach a high level of well-being. In this paper we explore women’s experiences of democratic political participation; our goal is to consider how women’s political participation, through the support of a quota system, operates as a tool for women’s empowerment.