Unheard Voices : The Challenge of Inducing Women's Civic Speech
Deliberative institutions have gained popularity in the developing world as a means by which to make governance more inclusive and responsive to local needs. However, a growing body of evidence suggests that persistent gender inequality may limit w...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2017
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/216591498569537722/Unheard-voices-the-challenge-of-inducing-womens-civic-speech http://hdl.handle.net/10986/27623 |
| Summary: | Deliberative institutions have gained
popularity in the developing world as a means by which to
make governance more inclusive and responsive to local
needs. However, a growing body of evidence suggests that
persistent gender inequality may limit women's ability
to participate actively and influence outcomes in these
forums. In response, policy makers have tried to induce
women's participation by leveraging the group-based
format of self-help groups, which can build women's
social capital and develop their sense of political efficacy
and identity. This paper evaluates the impact of one such
intervention, known as the Pudhu Vaazhvu Project, on
women's civic participation in rural Tamil Nadu. Using
text-as-data methods on a matched sample of transcripts from
village assembly meetings, the analysis finds that the Pudhu
Vaazhvu Project significantly increases women's
participation in the gram sabha along several dimensions --
meeting attendance, propensity to speak, and the length of
floor time they enjoy. Although women in the Pudhu Vaazhvu
Project villages enjoy greater voice, the study finds no
evidence that they are more likely than women in control
villages to drive the broader conversational agenda or
elicit a relevant response from government officials. |
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