Defining Women’s Representation: Debates around Gender Quotas in India and France

Abstract

In 1999, after a heated debate on gender parity in political representation, the French constitution was amended to include the principle of “equal representation” of both sexes. This paved the way for the introduction of gender quotas. In the same period, a bill providing reservations for women at the national level provoked a political crisis in India. The objective of this article is to compare both debates, looking in particular at the way women’s representation was framed. In France, the main argument against quotas was that republican representation should be unitary and transcend social differences, but at the end of the 1990s, women in mainstream politics were seen as one element of the dual nature of human kind, different from other categories such as class or race. In India, the specific representation of certain groups (Dalits, lower castes, tribal groups) had been the traditional framework for political representation since independence in 1947. But when the bill proposed to extend reservations to women, opponents of the project claimed that women did not constitute a category in themselves, and that sex should be intersected with caste and religion for the attribution of quotas. Looking at parliamentary debates, articles, and tribunes supporting or opposing quotas in both countries, we show that the arguments mobilized reveal different conceptions of the political representation of gender difference, which are partly transversal and partly specific to each country.

Gender quotas: an interdisciplinary scoping review

“…Discursive analyses have particularly contributed to understanding the logics behind the enactment of quotas in differents countries (see (Achin 2001) for France, (Axelsdóttir and Einarsdóttir 2017) for Iceland, (Dutoya and Sintomer 2019) for a comparison of India and France, (Piscopo 2016) for Mexico, or (Krook, Lovenduski, and Squires 2009) for an overview of Western countries) and across domains (only (Meier 2013) has written on this topics taking the case of Belgium).…”

“…Debates over gender quotas -that may have led to their adoption or not -reveal different conceptions of political representation across countries (see (Dutoya and Sintomer 2019) for a comparison of India and France) and within countries depending on one's political philosophy (Krook 2008). A common denominator in quota advocates' discourse consists in redefining a group's underrepresentation as a collective rather than an individual issue (Freidenvall 2005), as the subjective notion of merit as a condition for access to elected office is put into question by feminist critiques (see (Jaramillo Ruiz 2019)).…”

Do social capital and networks facilitate community participation?

“…A range of studies has unearthed the role of caste system that marginalizes lower caste groups from political engagement (Deshpande, 2014; Kumar, 2017). Furthermore, gender (women empowerment) through political participation is a matter of concern in both advanced and developing societies (Dutoya and Sintomer, 2019). Despite the representation of women through mandated quota system, their active involvement in a dominant patriarchal society is yet another concern (Kalaramadam, 2018; Singh, 2018).…”

Rethinking Representation: Representative Claims in Global Perspective

“…By investigating gender quota debates in India and France Dutoya and Sintomer (2019) generate novel insights into the nature of representation. Analyzing discourses and frames on women's representation in Western and non-Western contexts, they highlight both the transversal and country-specific conceptions of political representation of (gender) difference.…”

“…Analyzing discourses and frames on women's representation in Western and non-Western contexts, they highlight both the transversal and country-specific conceptions of political representation of (gender) difference. In France, the proponents of gender quotas succeeded in reframing republican universalism in the 'parity' discourse by successfully reconciling essentialist, transcendental, and constructivist arguments on women's representation (Dutoya & Sintomer, 2019). In India, extending the concept of group representation to women proved divisive and met with strong resistance.…”