In the early 1990s, a newly-launched newspaper published a front page picture of the emerging star Mayawati in a nightgown in Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader Kanshi Ram’s home in Delhi. While the salacious message implicit in that photograph still resonates with the dominant culture and political discourse, there has been a slow but tangible change over time, largely because of the forceful campaigns for gender parity, bodily autonomy and, more recently, an understanding of consent and freedom.

As women assert against rigid social mores and negotiate uncharted territories, even the acutely conservative arena of mainstream politics is gradually changing.

The decision last year of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to appoint a relative newcomer to politics – Nirmala Sitharaman – as Defence Minister and the second woman member of the Cabinet Committee of Security (CCS), marks a major acknowledgement, even if symbolic, of the absence of women in top decision-making processes and institutions.

Changing times

The effects of iconic women warriors, freedom fighters, decision-makers, a powerful Prime Minister and decades of universal adult suffrage, are slowly being felt.

Women leaders Businessline spoke to felt there had been a marked improvement in the general political ambience. The caveat, of course, is that a lot of work still needs to be done, especially to ensure appropriate representation in legislatures.

“In the last few decades women have been breaking barriers in all fields. That is true in politics as well. Here, there is also the question of power and everything that goes with it, so it is all the more difficult to break into. But generally I think things are improving,” says CPI(M) politiburo member Brinda Karat.

Statistically, the numbers are still not encouraging, with the sixteenth Lok Sabha comprising just about 11.4 per cent women.

It is an improvement, nevertheless, at 10.9 per cent over the last Lok Sabha. A rapid escalation seems far-fetched unless the ruling party, which has a majority in the Lower House for the first time in three long decades, decides to bring in the necessary legislative changes to ensure the election of 33 per cent women through reservation.

The necessary Bill, aimed at ensuring one-third of the seats in Parliament for women, has lapsed with the expiry of the last Lok Sabha. However, the months leading up to the next general elections are alive to the possibility of the women’s reservation Bill finally getting passed. Apart from the resolve among women parliamentarians, the politically astute Prime Minister would surely be aware of the political capital to be gained from such a move.

Diehard stereotypes

Sexist attitudes have been openly expressed even in established western democracies. In a decision akin to publishing Mayawati’s much talked-about picture, the former British Chancellor of Exchequer and now editor of the Evening Standard , George Osborne, proudly celebrated his newspaper cartoon, virtually caricaturing his former colleague and Prime Minister Theresa May as a sex object last month.

None is better placed to describe the experience of being at the receiving end of such attitudes than Jaya Jaitley, the former president of the Samata Party, and a champion of the arts, artisans and handicrafts in India. In her autobiography, Life Among the Scorpions: Memoirs of a Woman in Indian Politics , Jaitley has written an incredibly sad and bitter account of her life-long experience with socialists and progressive politics. She believes what the Prime Minister and the BJP are doing for the cause of women is more genuine than those leaning to the Left.

“There is a lot of posturing on account of the dispossessed, the poor as also for women. The progressives in our country have not been able to look beyond their elitist perception of what constitutes modern and aesthetic and what is conservative.

The most important struggle for us as women is to reject the standards and labels being thrust upon us, like only the par kati ’ (short-haired) women want reservation (a reference to the socialist Sharad Yadav’s remarks about 33 per cent reservation being a demand of supposedly upper-crust women). I also understand the importance of culture, religions and tradition in shaping creativity, which is typically Indian. But if I am a woman, I will always be typecast,” says Jaitley.

Party culture

Women leaders, across parties, agree their organisations are not attuned to accommodating their viewpoints or sensibilities, which leads to a policy blindness on women’s issues. Crimes against women, personal freedom and choice, declining child sex ratios, malnutrition and female foeticide don’t get the attention they deserve.

Renuka Chowdhary, Rajya Sabha MP, of the Congress, and former union minister, links women’s disadvantage in politics with their financial status. “Money, which is a huge consideration for politics, is never at the disposal of women. As long as women remain financially dependent on men, they cannot emerge as independent power centres.”

DMK leader Kanimozhi Karunanidhi says: “Regarding women in social issues, there is not much conflict in sharing space because it is not a question of power. But in politics, or in any professional line, it is still a struggle for women. It is this attitude that is behind the Women’s Reservation Bill not being passed. Unfortunately, it is not even brought into the list of businesses in party leaders’ meeting. The BJP is in a position of power to enact it.”

On organisational culture, Chowdhary says: “Women’s voices are still not listened to when it comes to suggestions and ideas that do not tread the traditional path. Allotment of sure win tickets are always shared by men.”

However, in the age of dramatic assertions of identity through attire, language, conduct and collective action, the political class cannot contain women for very long. The presence of women in positions of power will have to be backed by an institutional reform, such as reservation, for empowerment to become a reality.

With inputs from R Balaji in Chennai and M Somasekhar in Hyderabad

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