The Institute of Development Studies and Partner Organisations
Browse

Swapping the Stick for a Broom: Men Supporting Women in Local Politics in India

Download (1.29 MB)
report
posted on 2024-09-05, 22:49 authored by Jerker Edström, Thea Shahrokh, Satish Kumar Singh, Shakti Jamdade
Women’s engagement, leadership and decision-making in the public sphere continues to be suppressed in much of rural India. It is controlled by cultural norms which place women as subordinate to men, and prescribe their roles as confined to the domestic sphere. . Understanding and supporting women’s pathways of empowerment within and between private and public life continues to be a feminist struggle for women’s rights and gender equality. This paper shares findings of case study research exploring how work with men can contribute to this process of change, and support women’s participation in public and political life. The work of the Samajhdar Jodidar (meaning ‘understanding partner’) project in rural Maharashtra, provides an interesting, and important example of the role men can play in contributing to progressive social change on women’s public participation. Research with 42 men and women involved in this initiative, either directly as activists or as key stakeholders, including women local government representatives, provides some important lessons for how this kind of approach can work. Importantly the commitment to democratic accountability on gender equality spans both private and public spheres. Men first work through consciousness raising to transform their own practices within their homes and intimate relationships. This provides a platform for social action in the wider community and enables trusting relationships to be built with women to work together to drive political change. Demanding accountability from existing legal mechanisms for affirmative action on women’s participation and transforming local level institutions from within have been important strategic areas.

History

Publisher

Promundo-US, Sonke Gender Justice and the Institute of Development Studies

Citation

Edström, J., Shahrokh, T., Kumar Singh, S., with Jamdade, S. (2015) ‘Swapping the Stick for a Broom: Men Supporting women in Local Politics in India’, EMERGE Case Study, Promundo-US, Sonke Gender Justice and the Institute of Development Studies

Series

EMERGE Case Study

IDS Item Types

Series paper (non-IDS)

Copyright holder

Institute of Development Studies, Promundo-US and Sonke Gender Justice

Country

India

Language

en

IDS team

Gender and Sexuality

Identifier ISBN

978 1 78118 267 3

Usage metrics

    EMERGE

    Categories

    No categories selected

    Keywords

    Licence

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC