Women constitute half the world’s population, yet they are underrepresented in most national legislatures. Numerous factors contribute to the state of women in politics. These factors can vary according to different national settings. For many, the cultural context is a key factor that helps or hinders women from entering politics. Apart from a country’s socio-cultural background, its political institutions play a vital role. Political parties, as formal institutions, hold significant power in a country’s political dynamics and function as gatekeepers.
Political parties, therefore, play a significant role in the adoption and implementation of gender quotas. Gender quotas are a positive interference in the existing structure of the representative system, designed to disrupt the gender inequalities. This study uses India as a critical case to understand the role of political parties in gatekeeping women from entering politics. Recently, the Indian parliament adopted a gender quota for national elections, which is set to be implemented in the upcoming general election. Despite years of support for a national-level gender quota by several political parties, the descriptive representation of women in the parliament is abysmally low. This pattern highlights the discrepancy between political parties’ formal support for gender equality in politics and their actual willingness to nominate women for candidacy.
Drawing on a feminist institutionalist approach, this study seeks to understand the gap between promises regarding gender quotas and the actual candidate choices made by political parties in India. The methodology involves a comparative analysis of selected national parties, conducted through a qualitative examination of their election manifestos and leadership statements, to explore their stance on supporting gender quotas. This is followed by a comparison of these promises against actual candidate selection data from recent years. The core aim of the study is to understand this contradiction and identify which political parties have most consistently failed to fulfil their promises. This research contributes to the literature by demonstrating the paradox of political parties’ gendered reality in the world’s largest democracy.
