Unheard Voices : The Challenge of Inducing Women's Civic Speech

Parthasarathy, Ramya ; Rao, Vijayendra ; Palaniswamy, Nethra

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: CIVIC SPEECH;    VOICE;    GENDER;    DELIBERATION;    VILLAGE DEMOCRACY;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-8120
RP-ID  :  WPS8120

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Deliberative institutions have gainedpopularity in the developing world as a means by which tomake governance more inclusive and responsive to localneeds. However, a growing body of evidence suggests thatpersistent gender inequality may limit women's abilityto participate actively and influence outcomes in theseforums. In response, policy makers have tried to inducewomen's participation by leveraging the group-basedformat of self-help groups, which can build women'ssocial capital and develop their sense of political efficacyand identity. This paper evaluates the impact of one suchintervention, known as the Pudhu Vaazhvu Project, onwomen's civic participation in rural Tamil Nadu. Usingtext-as-data methods on a matched sample of transcripts fromvillage assembly meetings, the analysis finds that the PudhuVaazhvu Project significantly increases women'sparticipation in the gram sabha along several dimensions --meeting attendance, propensity to speak, and the length offloor time they enjoy. Although women in the Pudhu VaazhvuProject villages enjoy greater voice, the study finds noevidence that they are more likely than women in controlvillages to drive the broader conversational agenda orelicit a relevant response from government officials.