A Genealogy of Dependency: Tracing a keyword of the US Welfare State

Fraser, Nancy and Linda Gordon. 1994. “A Genealogy of Dependency: Tracing a keyword of the US Welfare State.” Signs 19(21):309-336

Fraser introduces the concept of dependency as it is being discussed in the US political scenario. She notes that welfare is now discussed in terms of dependency and is often seen in a negative connotation.

Research questions:

Why are debates about poverty and inequality in the United States now being framed in terms of welfare dependency?

How  did the receipt of public assistance become associated with  dependency,  and  why  are  the  connotations  of  that  word  in  this context  so negative?

What are the gender and racial subtexts of this discourse, and what tacit assumptions underlie it?

Analysis

In order to answer these questions, Fraser seeks to analyze the term “dependency” and its usages in US politics. The underlying assumption of this analysis is that those who define reality are in turn seeking to influence it. Bourdieu (1977) characterized keywords as those which carry “unspoken assumptions and connotations” (Fraser 1994: 310) and thus influence public discourse. Doxa or the taken for granted assumptions are never questioned either. The genealogy of the term “dependency” is explored in the article. Fraser builds on Foucault’s (1984) approach to examine broad shifts in linguistic usage. She places her analysis in the context of institutional and socio-structural shifts and engages in normative political reflection. She does a historical analysis of linguistic and socio structural changes, conducts conceptual analysis of discursive construction of social problems and brings in the feminist perspective into the discussion.

Theoretical Concepts

Dependency is argued as an ideological term. Fraser argues that welfare dependency evokes the picture of an individual, usually a black woman or teenager, who is in poverty with child care responsibilities. With this image, she argues, dependency is seen as an individual problem rather than a social issue. Fraser distinguishes four different registers to analyze dependency – economic dependency referring to dependence on person on institution for subsistence, socio-legal status dependency where one is dependent on another for a legal status, political dependency on external ruling power and finally, moral/psychological dependency denoting emotional need. Further Fraser does a historical analysis of dependency across pre-industrial, industrial and post industrial time periods.

Pre-industrial dependency: In this period, independence referred mostly to ownership of property while dependency referred to income from labor. Thus, dependency was considered a normal trait rather than a deviant individual behavior. However, the independent enjoyed higher status in society. Women, who were themselves laborers were as dependent as their male counterparts and dependency was much less gender specific.

Industrial dependency: In this period, gendered and racist dependencies began to emerge. In the light of the Radical Protestantism, political subjection and oppression came to be considered as unjust. Labor movements became strong and the white male worker started demanding civil and electoral rights. This movement drew its strength from the Protestant work ethic, of discipline and labor. Thus, along with property ownership and self employment, wage labor came to be considered as economic independence. However, this shift in meaning gave rise to some new kind of dependencies. First the pauper, whose poverty was considered to be enhanced due to his character defect. The pauper remained outside the economic system. Second the native and the slave, who was important to the economy but was considered dependent because of an inherent trait. The popular belief was that they were conquered because they were dependent individuals. By calling the natives and the slaves as the other, their oppression was not scrutinized within the rhetoric of universal human rights. The housewife represented the third kind of dependency. The labor movement fought for higher wages stating that a man can be independent only when his wages covered his family needs. Thus, the man’s wages came to be seen as increasingly important. Although, women still continued to work, they were increasingly losing control over their wages.

American welfare dependency (1890-1945): In the United States, dependency came to be increasingly seen as an individual trait. The American virtue of independence was a double edged sword which on the one hand, helped labor movements and women’s movements to emerge and on the other, considered women’s social and legal dependency as an inferior state. Dependency began to have a ‘good’ and a ‘bad’ connotation. Wives and children were part of the good dependency while charity and relief came to be seen as bad. The New Deal built a two track system. The First-track programs were about pensions and retirement benefits which were not seen as welfare. These programs excluded people based on race and gender. The second-track programs were the highly stigmatized set of welfare programs, such as Aid to Dependent Children (ADC) and Aid to Families with Dependent Children.  However, the intention was not to lead the white woman to employment and would rather have the male wages as the defining parameter of independence. Therefore, the poor single mother who depended on ADC came to be considered as the stigmatized welfare dependent, in the American vocabulary.

Post industrial society: In this period, all overt forms of discrimination reduced and were made illegal. It became accepted that a single male wage earner was not enough and that women had to work. Thus, everyone was expected to work and support themselves. This led to increasing stigmatization of dependency. Moreover, with the belief that equal opportunity was now available, it was considered that all forms of structural dependency was extinct and that dependency was a case of individual trait.

Another feature of this period was the pathological connotations given to dependency. One, welfare dependency came to be linked with drug addiction. Second, psychological meanings of dependency came to be given feminine connotations. Dependency was seen to be some sort of immaturity among women. However, even here, they had to be just independent enough. The white woman was considered to be too dependent while the black woman was considered to be too independent. Dependency came to be labeled as psychological disorders and was severely feminized and racialized. Instead of the independent black woman who represented the powerful matriarch, the teenage, unwed mother became the icon of the welfare mother. This also implied that her child care work was no longer considered as work.

Politics of dependency: Even when families struggled hard for their financial survival, many continued to look down upon those who don’t work. Such is the strength of the dominant discourse of dependency as an individual trait. This is most evident in the case of unwed teenage mothers, who are also expected to work and support themselves. The challenges to the dominant discourse come from the Left which speaks of enforced dependency who interpret the state as structures of domination. Other radical theorists saw dependency as part of the neocolonial economic order among nations. The attempt was to redefine dependency as a structural issue rather than an individual concern.

In conclusion, Fraser emphasizes how the discourse of dependency as an individual trait came to devalue women’s domestic and parenting labor. Thus a sexual division of labor came to be organized in the society. “In this way, the opposition between the independent personality and the dependent personality maps onto a whole series of hierarchical positions and dichotomies that are central in modern culture: masculine/feminine, public/private, work/care, success/love, individual/community, economy/family, and competitive/self-sacrificing” (Fraser 1991: 332)

References:

Bourdieu, Pierre. 1977.  Outline of a Theory of Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Foucault, Michel.1984. “Nietzsche,   Genealogy, History.” In  The  Foucault Reader, ed. Paul Rabinow, 76-100. New York: Pantheon.

Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color

Crenshaw, Kimberle. 1991. “Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color.” Stanford Law Review 43(6):1241-1299

In this article Crenshaw explores “various ways in which gender and race intersect in shaping the structural, political and representational aspects of violence against women of color.” The article has three parts: structural intersectionality, political intersectionality and representational intersectionality.  She focuses on battering and rape to discuss how race and gender intersects in the lives of women of color.

Theoretical Concepts

 Structural intersectionality in battering: Crenshaw argues that interventions that seek to support and protect women from battering cannot restrict themselves to the aspect of violence alone since most of the battered women of color are unemployed and poor with child care responsibilities. She gives the example of the marriage fraud provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act which was amended to protect women from fraudulent and violent marriages. The amendment provided that the wife would be given permanent resident status only if she was “properly” married for two years, before applying for resident status. As a result of this amendment women stopped raising issues about violence in their marriage for fear of being deported. A waiver, in case of domestic violence was later added in the Act. However, this also required women to provide affidavits and reports from police, psychologists and other agencies. Immigrant women, who were sometimes not even aware of their legal status, and did not have much resources of their own, found it very difficult to provide such reports. Language was yet another barrier. Thus, a state mechanism, created specifically to protect immigrant women went on to increase their subordination.

Structural intersectionality and rape:  Rape crisis services centers are funded such that, legal services are given maximum priority. In the case of minority women, the requirement is more often about housing and other immediate survival needs of the women. Also, many women of color may choose not to resort to the formal justice system. Thus, funding allocations which focus on legal services alone are blind to the particular situations of women of color.

Political intersectionality demonstrates how women of color are located within two groups, which may sometimes even be in conflict with one another. Intersectional politics of gender and race results in feminist strategies which reinforces the subordination of people of color and anti-racism interventions reproduces the subordination of women. This happens because feminism fails to address racism and anti-racism fails to debate patriarchy.

Domestic violence and anti-racist politics: Crenshaw takes the example of how the Los Angeles Police Department would not release the crime statistics regarding domestic violence because they feared the racial segregation of arrests would be interpreted wrongly. Similarly, antiracism activists themselves were concerned that domestic violence would be considered as a minority issue, which would further reinforce the stereotype of the black community. Thus, voices of women of color have been silenced by both antiracism and feminist strategies. Male dominance over women of color is sometimes shown as a consequence of the discrimination against men of color in the wider society.

Race and domestic violence lobby: Feminist strategies sometimes undermine experiences of minority women. While discussing domestic violence as an issue, feminist strategies tend to begin by stating that domestic violence is “not just a minority issue”. While it is true, that domestic violence is an issue even in white households, such a universal appeal regarding domestic violence, underplays the need for understanding specific experiences of women of color. Crenshaw questions why domestic violence was considered as an insignificant issue when it was understood as a minority problem and whether such a notion, would ever mean adequate resource allocation for women of color. Crenshaw gives examples of a television program that discussed domestic violence, but showed obvious differences in how the story of the only black woman was depicted in comparison to that of the other white women in the program.

Race and domestic violence support systems: Crenshaw emphasizes through narrations, how some domestic violence support systems initiated by feminist groups are blind towards the particular needs of minority women, who may have issues of language and may have immediate need for survival. Even when services providers include minority women into committees, women of color did not feel that their needs were addressed and more often than not, chose to work in their own communities.

Racism and sexism in conceptualization of rape: Historically rape conviction has been closely aligned to the ‘moral character’ of the rape victim. Although, not as explicitly stated in law, Crenshaw points out that some female bodies are considered more important than others. She specifically points out to the attention given to the inter-racial rape of an upper class white woman at Central Park in New York in comparison to the rape of black woman during the same week.

Race and the anti-rape lobby: The reference to the rape victim’s moral character during an investigation has been widely used against the black woman. Sexualized images of black women tend to portray stereotypes about the sexual behavior of women of color that have the potential to show the stories of black women as less believable and credible.

Antiracism and rape: Antiracism activists criticize rape laws, that they focus mainly on rapes of white women by black men, only to reinforce the stereotype against black men. Therefore race-based accusations against black men are seen as racial injustice and discrimination against black men. Therefore, even when the victim is a black woman, her voice is seldom heard and she gets silenced even within the African American community.

Rape and intersectionality in Social Science: Crenshaw takes the example of Gary Lafree’s book Rape and Criminal Justice: The Social Construction of Sexual Assault where he shows that law “constructs rape in ways that continue to manifest both racial and gender domination” (Crenshaw 1991: 1294). Crenshaw argues that the study, with a dichotomized framework of race and gender fails to locate the issue as one of black women’s discrimination. Rather, the study identifies black women’s discrimination only in terms of conviction and jail time rendered to the rapist, whether black or white. Lafree concludes that rape laws are oppressive to women known to have led non-traditional lifestyles. Crenshaw argues that this generalized conclusion across races overlooks the possibility that some groups are stereotyped as those exhibiting non-traditional behavior. Therefore, black women are discriminated against not by what they do, but by who they are. Crenshaw critiques that these anti-rape and anti-racist frameworks have a single issue focus which does not represent the black woman’s experience.

Representational Intersectionality: In this section, Crenshaw elaborates how media and popular culture portrays women of color and how it creates further challenges in their struggle against violence. She takes the case of 2 Live Crew controversy where members of a band were arrested for using lyrics that the court considered as obscene. The lyrics had sexually explicit content about black women, depicting them as available for sexual violence. The arrest became controversial because among a wide variety of sexual obscene imagery, this particular band was singled out, only to reinstate the sexual image of the black man. However, that does not undermine the sexual oppression of black women that was obvious in the song, although in the name of humor.

In conclusion, Crenshaw reinforces her main message in the article, that “the narratives of gender are based on the experience of white, middle-class women, and the narratives of race are based on the experience of Black men” (Crenshaw 1991: 1298). She says, intersectionality provides the opportunity to reconceptualize race as a coalition of men and women of color. Intersectionality perspective would also help people raise their voices against internal exclusion and marginalization.

Deliberative Democracy and the Politics of Redistribution: The case of Indian Panchayats

Rai, Shirin. 2007. “Deliberative Democracy and the Politics of Redistribution: The case of Indian Panchayats.” Hypatia 22(4): 65 -80

In this article, the author examines “the process of participation by assessing whether deliberative politics, together with enhanced presence of women’s presence can help transform institutions to bring about efficient, less corrupt and gender sensitive outcomes.”        This study demonstrates that institutional reforms can strengthen deliberative politics, through which unequal power relations may be challenged.

Theoretical conceptualization:

Deliberative democracy focuses on three main aspects – process, outcome and context. The deliberative process includes collective decision making, based on arguments put forward by members who are committed to impartiality and rationality, and such that no group is more privileged to dictate what those decisions should be. The outcomes of deliberative processes are: the education of those involved in deliberations, fairness in procedures and “community generating power due to public deliberations.” However deliberations can occur only in a context which is conducive to open debate. Focusing on the context of deliberative politics raises issues of religious, moral and civil liberties, examine capacity enhancement of civic associations that can challenge well-resourced interest lobbyists and media. However, the politics of presence may determine which interests are included and excluded. Therefore, it is the reasonableness of the deliberative procedures that determine political equality.

However critics point to the structures of inequality and the concerns of public deliberation which may not be a safe place for everyone involved. Therefore, “deliberative processes need that every individual has enough resources to participate effectively in that process.” The author argues that “the quota-based participation of women in panchayats, while not reflecting all these indicators of effective freedom, does show a shift in social hierarchies and the power relations underpinning them.”

Challenges of Participatory Politics

Women Panchayat members experienced several challenges. Women are subjected to high expectations in comparison to male members. The issue of payment was critical among women, especially because they had expenses to be met as the Panchayat member and because it helped raise status in their families. Despite expectations about their performance, women are expected to be compliant. Government officials have gendered assumptions regarding their awareness and illiteracy and sometimes do not cooperate with them. Caste and class privileges influence their performance as Panchayat members. However, some lower caste families consider their family member in the Panchayat as a political resource.

Women members have used various strategies to negotiate through the Panchayat deliberative process. They have dealt with the proxy male membership in the Panchayat. Some women take support from other women and their family members. Some of them take their children along, because they believe that the male members are more civil in front of children. Political parties,  on the other hand have been traditionally gendered spaces providing lesser autonomy and marginalizing them.

Conclusion:

Rai argues that the very process of arguing for recognition leads to redistribution of discursive power and would even lead to empowered individuals influencing policy outcomes.

Gender Quotas, the Politics of Presence, and the Feminist Project

Kudva, Neema. Kajri Misra. 2008. “Gender Quotas, the Politics of Presence, and the Feminist Project: What Does the Indian Experience Tell Us?” Signs, 34(1): 49-73

In this paper, Kudva and Misra examine the gender quota experiment in India focusing on areas that they suggest have been under-theorized and overlooked by feminist theorists.  “First, the role of multiple institutional loci of change in transforming gender relations where state and civil society actors play mutually constitutive roles; second, the importance of applying the politics of scale to analyze the gender quota experiment and the possibilities it presents.”

Data:

This essay is based on field work conducted by both authors in India at different points of time and by examining literature on women’s experience in Panchayati Raj.

Theorizing the gender quota experiment in India:

Drawing from feminist theorists, the authors describe Fraser’s argument that obstacles to parity of participation in the context of globalization are three fold – recognition, redistribution and representation. Often, theorists arguing for gender equality in politics have looked at identity politics alone. In this paper, the authors seek to examine how gender quotas look beyond recognition-redistribution in a globalized world that affects the sub-national and local processes.

Secondly there are questions whether women represent women’s issues if they get elected. One position states that ethnic identities and community affiliations have greater potential for sustained action. Feminists suggest that more number of women in power, opens up space for gender consciousness. Scholars have documented gendered and casteist practices in political institutions in India. The language used in writing and speaking, segregated seating, meeting timings and locations unsuitable for women and people from lower castes,  excluding women from meetings and positions, are all ways in which discrimination is practiced. The authors state that current quota literature focuses on individuals who are able to navigate through the system. Most scholars expect positive change over time, while being cognizant of the barriers that women face. However, the authors find that literature has overlooked institution focused feminist political theorizing by focusing only on individuals. In most cases, their agency is heavily influenced by their class and caste positions. Even when NGOs seek to change institutional processes, they are often within the realms of the NGO rather than a large scale policy change.

The authors find that analysis of institutional design, often seen in decentralization literature is absent from gender quota literature.  The scarcity of resources, the state’s hesitation in sharing power and lack of authority are issues of redistribution which can affect women’s political participation. The current focus on capacities of elected women representatives without looking at issues of redistribution and recognition may be problematic. The authors call for a collective strategy for economic and gender justice by bringing in PR reforms.

Then the authors focus on two main issues – the institutional loci of change and the politics of scale. Often feminist theorizing has concentrated on social movements and civil society organizing. However gender quotas in India has been introduced by the state. Pressure from women’s movement was absent in this case. Gender quotas were mandated centrally by gender quotas. However, it was the state of Karnataka that first experimented gender quotas. Thus the loci of change oscillated between the central and the subnational state governments. NGOs, generally kept away from the PR, however later they were included in training representatives. The authors then provide the example of Mahila Samakhya as an organization which was an example of NGO- state collaboration. Being a state program, MS has to maintain a balance where it can engage in alliance building, protests, dialogue while not succumbing to state co-option.

The authors then theorize about the politics of scale. While gender quotas were first suggested by the central government, it was first implemented by Karnataka, a state government. The central government then mandated it across. However, quotas have not been implemented at the central level. Formulating collective strategies, while respecting similarities and differences at the local level, requires a scaled politics, which may be a difficult proposition.

Thus the essay highlights four main points:

1. The possibilities that local state functions of planning and service delivery present for a political agenda that seeks to correct both maldistribution and misrecognition;.
2. The importance of paying attention to organizational design and practices, which are both location specific and deeply gendered, in order to remove constraints on women’s participation;
3. The importance of understanding that the locus of change and innovation in policy experiments shifts and oscillates between the national, the subnational, and the local state, requiring feminist activists to respond equally nimbly;
4. The crucial role that scaled politics has played in the ways in which these opportunities are understood and seized by researchers, reformers, and activists

 

Women in Panchayati Raj: Grass Roots Democracy in Malgudi

Vyasulu, Poornima and Vinod Vyasulu. 1999. “Women in Panchayati Raj: Grass Roots Democracy in Malgudi.” Economic and Political Weekly 34(52): 3677-3686

In this paper, the authors examine the implementation of women’s reservation in the Panchayat in Karnataka and women’s experience in the Panchayat. This paper also seeks to bring out some of the challenges for women’s political participation.

At the base of the local government system is the gram sabha consisting of the citizens in the villages or group of villages that forms the Gram Panchayat.  At the district level is the zilla Panchayat. In Karnataka there is an intermediate level known as the Taluk Panchayat. Although Gandhi was always in favor of self government, the decentralized system has been fairly new to the Indian system. This is because, Ambedkar, supported by Nehru, believed that the existing caste based social stratification in villages, would ensure that the local governments will be dominated by the upper castes rendering the Dalits powerless. This was addressed with caste based reservation in Panchayats. The paper provides examples of good governance initiatives in various states. While there have been programs such as the Janmabhoomi program in AP, which were led from the top, there have been programs such as Education Guarantee Scheme in Madhya Pradesh, which were implemented through the Panchayats.

Karnataka had already experimented women’s reservation even before the 73^rd amendment and had reserved 25% seats for women at the time of the amendment. However caste remains a major cause of concern in Karnataka. The Backward castes are increasingly becoming the powerful forces and they seem to endorse Brahminical ways of discrimination against Dalits. Often, these women representatives have clear caste identity rather than a gender identity.

The authors provides the experience of women representatives in a district in Karnataka which he calls as Malgudi, for anonymity. The authors suggest that many women continue to be proxies for their husbands. The authors provide case studies of women representatives who have continued to have long political careers with the help of reservations and those who have no voice, even when they are elected representatives. Based on these case studies, the authors arrive at the following conclusions:

1. Poverty is an overarching theme that stands as a huge barrier in women’s political participation. Women representatives from lower castes especially are greatly disadvantaged.
2. Although the system seeks to free people from bondage through reservations, realities of rural life continue to oppress Dalits.
3. Traditional spaces continue to exclude women
4. Although inclusion of women in Panchayats is a necessity by itself, the authors suggest that this does not address issues of inequality and poverty. Gender is often not the most important identity that women align to.
5. Stability of the Panchayati system is a requirement
6. Bureaucracy power hold has to reduce in order to empower the Panchayats.
7. NGOs have major role in PRI in organizing women, Dalits and to conduct training programs in their capacity building. However NGOs are vary in getting involved directly with PRIs.
8. The impact of reservation on individual women itself is questionable. Many women do not want to contest again and in order to survive, they are expected to adopt masculine ways of operation.
9. There is a great deal of opposition to women’s reservation from the bureaucracy and from established politicians

Caste and Patriarchy in Panchayats

Pal, Mahi. 2004. “Caste and Patriarchy in Panchayats.” Economic and Political Weekly 39(32): 3581-3583

This paper is based on the deliberations in a workshop where 188 Dalit representatives from 19 districts in Haryana participated. This state level workshop was held to understand the problems faced by Dalit women in performing their duties as elected women representatives.

The following issues emerged:

1. Illiteracy and lack of awareness about powers and functions and development schemes.
2. Encroachment of common land: The women representatives said that people from dominant castes were often encroaching into their common land and they did not receive much support from authorities in dealing with this issue.
3. Poverty and resourcelessness : Women representatives were themselves poor and often had to fund their travel from their own meager incomes.
4. Social inequality and casteism: The higher caste members of the Panchayats sometimes refused to work with the Dalit women, conducted separate meetings and expected these women to sign papers without reading them.

The author suggest that special adult education programs, capacity building programs and economic improvement are critical to ensure that women can participate equally in the Panchayat

Women and Politics: Beyond Quotas

Kishwar, Madhu. 1996. “Women and Politics: Beyond Quotas.” Economic and Political Weekly, 31(43):2867-2874

In this paper, the author provides a historical picture of women’s political participation from the time of Independence. The author demonstrates that in India, public opinion was always favorable to women’s political participation. She gives the example of how Sarojini Naidu led a group of women to demand women’s right to participate in the legislatures. The British government refused it (considering that many western countries did not have women participating), and skirted the issue to the individual provincial legislatures. The individual legislatures, however, accepted the demand. Kishwar further points out how Gandhi played a role in feminizing politics. With non-violence, with the Dandi march and with the weaving wheel, Gandhi redefined politics different from the masculine, violent form often known. Although hundreds and thousands of women participated in the independence movement, and women leaders were made head of the Congress party at various levels, women began to be marginalized after Independence. Madhu Kishwar explains that this too is due to Gandhi. Gandhi encouraged women to participate in selfless service rather than participate in mainstream politics. Thus, women became part of voluntary services although many women had organizational and political experience as part of the independence movement. Although Nehru is considered to be a supporter of women’s rights, women were not given as much participation even in his government. In the first Lok Sabha women constituted no more than 4.4%. Kishwar criticizes Nehru for breaking the self government mechanisms built by Gandhi and for building the colonial model with bureaucrats, alienating women, further more. Madhu Kishwar points out that most parties have similar statistics. Although women like Indira Gandhi and Mayawati led prominent movements and parties, they did not give opportunity for women to participate in politics. The paper provides statistics on how many women various political parties, including regional parties fielded.

Kishwar states that the NGOs working in women’s issues are often funded by international agencies and seldom have an electoral base. Currently the 73^rd amendment reserves seats for women in the local government institutions. Kishwar finds this system to be problematic. A permanent allocation of 33% seats for women would mean that men would expect women to be confined only to that number of seats. Moreover, these seats are rotated. Therefore women have lesser incentive of nurturing those constituencies. Similarly, since a seat is reserved for women, they contest only against women. This reinforces the “women are women’s greatest enemies” and this makes it even more difficult to build solidarity among elected women representatives.

Kishwar provides the case study of Sangathana, a group consisting of farmers from various castes.  They decided to form all women Panchayats in Maharashtra. Although they were able to create all women Panchayats, they could not sustain their electoral gains. They had suggestions regarding a revamp of the reservation system. They suggested that 3 Panchayats should be clubbed into one and have multi seat constituencies. This clubbed constituency would have 3 seats where one seat would be reserved for women. The other two seats would be held by anyone who has the maximum number of votes, whether male or female. The reserved seat would be kept for the woman who has the maximum vote. Thus, there would be a woman in every constituency rather than rotate the constituency where women have reservations. Moreover, women will also have the incentive to nurture that constituency. Men also would not feel forced out of their constituency. Women would also have the opportunity of contesting against men. It is likely that these three candidates could be from different parties. These changes along with other electoral reforms may be needed to ensure women’s political participation.

Engendering Grassroots Democracy: Research, Training, and Networking for Women in Local Self-Governance in India

Sekhon, Joti. “Engendering Grassroots Democracy: Research, Training, and Networking for Women in Local Self-Governance in India.” Feminist Formations18(2): 101-122.

In this article, the author analyzes the role of social movement organizations engaged in participatory action research, training, advocacy and networking with and for women at grassroots level. She argues that feminist action research, training programs, and networking are effective strategies in enabling political and social change and enhancing democracy.

Theoretical framework:

Women’s community based organizing redefined politics in two ways – one, by bringing in private matters into the realm of politics and two, by challenging the dominant liberal definition of democratic politics, based on individual rights. By doing so, they redefine democracy as a broader participatory process where citizens participate directly in decisions impacting their lives. Thus, the key objective of feminist politics has been to convert grassroots organizing to influence institutional processes. Moreover women had to be enabled to act within these institutions.

Data:

In India, NGOs have utilized participatory action research and generated knowledge from the community to design programs directed back to the citizens. In this paper, the author focuses on the work done by an organization named Aalochana, located in Pune, India. This study focuses on Aalochana’s work in participatory action research, development of training programs, and facilitation of networks to enhance community participation.

Participatory Research:

In 1992, the organization coordinated with feminist journalists to study 12 all-women Panchayats. They found that women Panchayat members gave priority to issues affecting women, although, they did not necessarily differentiate community issues from women’s issues. However, they were not successful in questioning issues such as dowry, alcoholism and distribution of household chores. Differential benefits based on caste were also seen among women. However, at the personal level, women felt that they gained recognition at the household and community level. They also experienced an increase in knowledge, mobility and confidence.

Training Programs:

Aalochana created a training kit with slide shows, booklets and posters based on participatory discussions and meetings with women in the community. These materials contained information about the levels of governance, the need to include women’s issues in governance and also introduced case studies of women’s struggles and activism.

Networking:

Aalochana invested in creating a network of community based organizations so as to sustain these activities. 25 individuals, mostly women were recruited from 10 organizations to train them on these issues. The training programs were developed through multi levels of networking. Based on their interaction with this group once in every three months, the trainees would go back to their own organizations to mobilize and organize grassroots women.

Impact:

Although a direct impact is not attributable to Aalochana’s work, the authors find that women experienced greater confidence and had a supportive network to lean on. The authors find that disadvantaged groups need such networks to create an enabling environment for their activities. Aalochana’s networking initiative demonstrates how representative politics can be aligned with participatory democracy.

In conclusion, the author suggests that feminist politics recognizes that quotas by themselves do not achieve gender equality in politics. Creating an egalitarian culture for women’s equal participation requires an enabling environment provided by these networks. Women’s movements were also critical to ensure that women were effective once they were elected. Thus,
“feminist participatory politics has the potential to challenge entrenched traditional power structures, and renegotiate power at the institutional, collective, interpersonal and personal levels.”

A Limited Women’s Empowerment: Politics, the State, and Development in Northwest India

Madhok, Sumi.2003.“A Limited Women’s Empowerment: Politics, the State, and Development in Northwest India.” Women’s Studies Quarterly31(3/4): 154-173.

In this paper, Sumi Madhok analyzes the nature and limits of collaborative politics between feminists and state led development agencies by focusing on the experiences of the Women’s Development Programme(WDP) sponsored by the state government of Rajasthan in India. Madhok writes about institutionalized feminism where the state’s development program uses the conceptual language of feminist development theorists, but does not employ the explanatory frameworks to identify and create solutions regarding women’s subordination.

Case Study:

The WDP, when it started, was a program which borrowed from feminist conceptual frameworks, international women’s development frames and the state’s own development goals. The program itself was different from other programs, where it refrained from considering women as mere beneficiaries of the state and conceived of development embedded in women’s self-empowerment. However, the author feels that the program has made a radical shift from its initial notions of empowerment whereby the program is now used to strengthen the delivery mechanisms of the state’s development activities.

This article focuses on three aspects – objectives of WDP, the experiences of the agents of change sathins, who are the women community workers and the conflicts between the state and the sathins. The WDP program was launched in 1984 in six districts in Rajasthan. The objective of the program stated, “should consist of a shift in attitude from one of compassion and welfare to that of treatment of women as equal partners with men in the family, in the social situation and economic activity, in education and culture.” The WDP took forward the empowerment agenda by supporting the creation of women’s groups at the village level and by fostering partnerships with NGOs, activists and academicians, especially to train community workers. Information Development and Resource Agency (IDARA) was the institutional set up that coordinated the technical support and training for WDP. The sathins formed the local layer of workers in this institution. The program had the standard Women In Development framework along with the more radical perspective, brought in by other organizations. Moreover, initially a large part of the funding was from UNICEF, thereby making this a low priority item for the state and consequentially, lesser interference.

The author brings out the differences between the WID and the GAD approaches even when they do not belong to water tight compartments. Both approaches believe in engaging with women’s groups. However the WID approach is about investing in skills and employment by which women’s bargaining power in the market is enhanced. On the other hand, the GAD approach was not confined to skills alone, but was invested in feminist approaches of women’s empowerment.

The sathins were trained using exercise modeled on the concept of empowerment devised by Paulo Freire, which was built on the collective knowledge shared by the group based on their own reflections of their life experiences. Morever the sathins were familiarized with the state institutions. The training also examined notions of marital rape, property rights, control over one’s body and income attitudes towards caste and religious differences and so on. Returning to their villages the sathins began challenging norms in their villages along with groups of women. However, they had to face a number of challenges in the village. Villagers continued to see them with suspicion, as if they were agents of the state and even questioned their morality, due to their unconventional actions.

The author says that currently the program has been cleaned of its radical nature and sathins have the responsibility of monitoring the development targets of the state. This happened because of three things. UNICEF removed its funding. With the dependency on state funding, there was increased pressure to “show” outcomes and development targets. Secondly, there was a incident where sathins organized group demonstrations in protest of the Roop Kanwar’s sati. There was another incident, where the sathins participated in a conference, where they identified themselves as representing a women’s group rather than as state representative. Five sathins were dismissed because of this event. The last two events, especially the dismissal brought to forefront the independent positioning of the sathins with respect to the state and their status within the WDP. It was clear that the state wanted control over the program and marking the end of the radical nature of the program. WDP now increasingly turned to the WID approach of credit and income generating activities. The sathins continued to protest against the state responses and even filed a case against the arbitrary dismissal of the sathins. They won the case in the Supreme Court , after a long legal struggle of almost ten years.

Women in Power? Gender, Caste and the Politics of Local Urban Governance

John, Mary. E. 2007. “Women in Power? Gender, Caste and the Politics of Local Urban Governance.” Economic and Political Weekly 42(39): 3986-3993

In this paper, the author seeks to explore two issues regarding women’s political participation. First, the author explores the criticism that elected women are often proxies for their male relatives. Second, the author examines the notion that a critical mass of women in power will  be beneficial for women. This paper examines women’s political participation in the urban counterpart of Panchayats known as the Municipal Corporations. The 74^th amendment reserves 1/3^rd of the seats for women in urban local bodies.

Data:

The study is based on the Municipal Corporation of Delhi and Bangalore City Corporation and was conducted in 2002-03. The study is based on the experiences and findings of a preliminary study on municipal governance in Delhi and Bangalore. 75 councilors from Delhi and 59 councilors from Bangalore were interviewed for the study, which included 41 women from Delhi and 32 from Bangalore. The councilors were randomly selected from different wards ensuring that all reserved categories were included in the sample.

Findings:

In order to answer the question regarding proxies, the researchers explore how men and women enter politics. The authors find that no man or woman claimed to have entered politics on their own. 18 women (~25%) and 34 men (~56%) owed their entry to a political leader or mentor. The author suggests that for men as well as women, a proxy was the mode of entry into politics. Few men acknowledged the role of family in their political life. Only 4 out of 61 mentioned family. Over 1/3^rd women mentioned their husband as their main source of support while another 25% women mentioned another family member. However around 25% men had other family members in politics and this could have been an added advantage for them.

The authors find that some women do fit the proxy label, but rarely. Another mode of enquiry was to understand why some women did not contest for elections when the seat became dereserved. Many women said that they were withdrawing from the position so that their husbands could contest. Another perspective was that when a woman gets elected, the ward actually gets the services of both the husband and wife. Rather than the proxy argument, it seemed political responsibilities were shared between the husband and the wife, in some cases. There were varying opinions among women councilors. Some preferred working on her own, some criticized the proxy women and some acknowledged reservations as the means by which they could make headway in politics. Thus, the authors find that the proxy label presented a varied spectrum of possibilities – some remained proxies, some shared political responsibilities with their family members and some councilors emerged as strong leaders over the period of five years.

Secondly the authors seek to answer the question, “In  what  ways  do “women” emerge as  a subject within  the  field  of  local  urban politics?” Theoretically scholars have argued for women’s reservation stating reasons of gender justice (women’s  political  presence should  be proportional to  their presence in  society);  arguments  focusing on women’s  interests  (a  sizeable presence of  women  is  necessary for  their  interests  to  be adequately  represented); and  a  resource argument  (women  have specific  qualities that ought to  be part of political  life. Some other scholars have stated the need for looking beyond quotas to address the intersections of gender, class, religion and caste.

The author sought the councilors’ opinions on caste based reservation and reservation for women.  While councilors in Delhi showed an antipathy towards caste based reservations, councilors in Bangalore maintained a political correctness about their responses about caste reservation. Regarding women’s reservations, most councilors were in favor and provided the following reasons. Councilors in Bangalore felt that women needed to be given a chance in politics. Councilors in Delhi put forward the resource argument that women had specific qualities such as sincerity and honesty. Noone put forward any arguments related to women’s interests. The author criticizes the resource argument because it provides legitimacy to similar arguments made about women’s capacity or lack of it to participate in politics.

Very few women brought up gender based discrimination as problems in their daily working. 50% women said that they had disruptions in their home responsibilities. The argument regarding critical mass did not find many takers. Women were often aligned to their political parties or families rather than to ‘women’ as a group. There was no scope for a collective force of women. “The  idea  that  women  share, much  less  cultivate,  a  common identity  as  women  in  the process of becoming local  political leaders  is  thrown  into  serious  doubt.” Thus, neither gender nor caste was playing a collective role in their political roles. Finally the author concludes stating the need for more research and focus on urban local governance structures.