Spary, Carole. "Women Candidates and Party Nomination Trends in India – Evidence from the 2009 General Election". Commonwealth and Comparative Politics, Vol.52, No.1 (2014): 109-138.

Spary, Carole. "Women Candidates and Party Nomination Trends in India – Evidence from the 2009 General Election". Commonwealth and Comparative Politics, Vol.52, No.1 (2014): 109-138.

• Following the 2009 parliamentary election, the proportion of Indian women in the Lok Sabha passed 10% for the first time, with 58 female MPs. This was a marginal increase in representation from the 8% recorded in the previous two elections (109-110).
• This increase in the number of female MPs has not come as the result of additional women being nominated for office, which has remained basically the same, instead it represents an increase in the number of electoral victories by women in contested districts (110, 115-116).
• This proportion was higher for those districts reserved for scheduled castes, with female MPs representing 14% of all those elected from districts with caste reservations (115).
• Possible reasons for advocating a greater of women in positions of power include: female politicians will better represent 'women's interests' than male politicians, women do politics differently and will make it less competitive and corrupt, women should not be barred from equal representation by social factors relating to gender discrimination, more women will make an institution more legitimate, and that more powerful women will act as role models to young women (111).
• One the major factors limiting female participation in politics is the gender discrimination practiced by political parties which reduces the number of women nominated for political positions (111).
• In India this is especially true, since almost all independent politicians are so unsuccessful that they are forced to lose the deposit charged to run for office. This makes running as an independent both a political and financial loss, and means women are almost wholly dependent on parties for nomination (118).
• The proportion of women nominated for office by national political parties did not exceed 10%. Importantly, even parties with prominent female feminist leaders, like the Bahujan Samaj Party, did not have more than 10% of candidates be women. Regional parties tended to have even lower rates of female nominations (116).
• The lower house of the Indian parliament, the Lok Sabha, has 543 local electoral districts along with 2 seats nominated from the Anglo-Indian community. Of these first-past-the-post electoral districts, 84 are reserved for scheduled castes and 47 are reserved for scheduled tribes (114).
• From independence until the 1980s, India was dominated by the Indian National Congress, which gradually fractured and lost votes to regional parties. The contemporary major forces in Indian politics are the United Progressive Alliance, led by Congress, and the National Democratic Alliance, headed by the BJP. Coalition politics have now became a major part of Indian politics for both major parties (114).
• Historically Congress had a policy in the 1950s and 1960s of having at least 15% of nominated candidates be women, although this quota was never actually achieved. By the 1960s, Congress realize that women do not necessarily support female candidates more than male ones and abandoned the policy (120).
• In the 21st Century, the BJP has tried to increase the number of women in its ranks, with the party president, Rajnath Singh, announcing that 1/3 of all party positions would be held by women (121).
• The author hypothesizes that political parties think correctly or otherwise, that women are less politically competitive than men in elections. As a result they will either only run female candidates in districts where they are assured of victory or only in districts deemed impossible, in both cases to reduce the number of seats potentially jeopardized due to the lose of electoral competitiveness due to having a female candidate (119).
• Congress appears to have been more likely to nominate women in districts where they expected Congress victories. In those states where Congress has struggled in elections, there were significantly fewer women nominated (124).
• The BJP seems more likely to nominate women in districts where the party is expected to succeed and avoid nominating women in areas where support has traditionally been weak. There are also, however, some states which do not fit into this data pattern, as many women were nominated in Tamil Nadu and Assam despite little past support for the BJP in these states (125).
• "In 2009 the two main national parties took few risks on women candidates, nominating mostly strong female candidates and mostly in winnable seats [...] this general risk-averseness towards women candidates limits the total number of women nominated to contest elections" (133).
• The profiles of female candidates nominated by Congress and the BJP indicate that the average female nominee in India will have more political experience than the average male nominee. This substantial experience of female Indian politicians likely also explains why women are more likely than men to win in elections when nominated (131).