Active women: The promise and limits of descriptive representation in the Global South

In politics today, there are more women than ever before. Women politicians increase women’s political participation and enhance substantive representation. This book explores the reasons for these advantageous outcomes of women in politics. This book talk presents a novel theory of women’s representation in politics, arguing that by recruiting women as party activists, women politicians improve democracy and development. The theory shines light on the electoral logic undergirding why women join political parties and why women in local politics recruit women to become party activists. I investigate the subsequent effects of women’s entry into party machines for political participation, electoral campaigns, party formation, and governance. The book manuscript provides causal evidence utilizing surveys and natural experiments in India and Brazil. The hypothesis is based on in-depth fieldwork and qualitative evidence collected in the Indian context. It’s crucial to research how women organize politically, but it is empirically difficult to do so at the party grassroots level.