Female leadership raises aspirations and educational attainment for girls: a policy experiment in India
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Girl Power: The potential of affirmative action policies to reduce overall outcomes because of lower individual performance has been discussed widely and at length. But do quotas or preferential treatment of applicants alter the pool of candidates? Balafoutas and Sutter (p. 579 ; see the Perspective by Villeval ) used an existing laboratory-based task to assess the change in composition of winning candidates and the overall outcome as a function of three affirmative action policies. Policies designed to encourage more women to enter a competitive environment served to recruit enough high-performing individuals to ensure that the efficiency in performing the task was preserved. Beaman et al. (p. 582 , published online 12 January) examined the effects of a constitutionally mandated reservation of village-council and council-leader positions for women in West Bengal after two election cycles (1998 and 2003). The program appeared to narrow the gender gap in aspirations of parents for their children and of children for themselves; in addition, teenage girls spent more time in school and less on household chores. Beliefs and attitudes changed only after the second set of elections—that is, after a longer exposure to female role models—complementing the more rapid policy changes instituted by women council leaders after the first round of elections.
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When adverse structural conditions are reduced through economic or legislative changes, individual-level risk factors may matter less or may cease to matter entirely.
“And when these adverse structural conditions are mitigated through economic36 or legislative37, 38 changes, the individual-level risk factors might matter less or (in the extreme, e.g. in settings of perfect gender equality) might cease to matter entirely.”
From Co-occurring epidemics, syndemics, and population health (2017) · cites this paper as [37]
In addition, ELA clubs bring adolescent girls into contact with mentors, that might further provide useful role models to influence behavior.
“In addition, ELA clubs bring adolescent girls into contact with mentors, that might further provide useful role models to in‡uence behavior. The ability of various kinds of role model to improve womens' empowerment has been shown in other contexts [Jensen and Oster 2009, Beaman et al. 2012, La Ferrara et al. 2012].”
From Women's Empowerment in Action: Evidence from a Randomized Control Trial in Africa (2020) · cites this paper as Beaman et al. 2012
Increased representation of women on Indian village councils eliminated the gender gap in educational attainment.
“Exploiting a gender quota law that reserved leadership positions for women, and did so in randomly selected villages, researchers found that the increased representation of women on Indian village councils resulted in greater career and educational aspirations for local girls and eliminated the gender gap in educational attainment (Beaman, Duflo, Pande, & Topalova, 2012).”
From Managing to clear the air: Stereotype threat, women, and leadership (2016) · cites this paper as Beaman, Duflo, Pande, & Topalova, 2012
Female role models increase women's aspirations, as demonstrated in a randomized natural experiment in India.
“The influence of female role models in increasing women's aspirations has been demonstrated in a randomized natural experiment in India.”
From Managing to clear the air: Stereotype threat, women, and leadership (2016) · cites this paper as Beaman, Duflo, Pande, & Topalova, 2012
Increased representation of women on Indian village councils resulted in greater career and educational aspirations for local girls.
“Exploiting a gender quota law that reserved leadership positions for women, and did so in randomly selected villages, researchers found that the increased representation of women on Indian village councils resulted in greater career and educational aspirations for local girls and eliminated the gender gap in educational attainment (Beaman, Duflo, Pande, & Topalova, 2012).”
From Managing to clear the air: Stereotype threat, women, and leadership (2016) · cites this paper as Beaman, Duflo, Pande, & Topalova, 2012
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- Authors
- Beaman, L., Duflo, E., Pande, R., & Topalova, P.
- Affiliations
- Northwestern University (US)
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (US)
- Harvard University (US)
- International Monetary Fund (US)
- Corresponding author
- Beaman, Lori
- Duflo, Esther
- Pande, Rohini
- Topalova, Petia
- Venue
- Science
- Published
- 2012-02-03
- Volume
- 335
- Issue
- 6068
- Pages
- 582-586
- ISSN
- 0036-8075 (ISSN-L)
- 1095-9203
- PMC
- PMC3394179
- OpenAlex
- W1578569081
- Cited by
- 1,208
- References
- 30
- Citations by year
- 2026: 83 · 2025: 91 · 2024: 99 · 2023: 90 · 2022: 77 · 2021: 128 · 2020: 191 · 2019: 81 · 2018: 78 · 2017: 83 · 2016: 49 · 2015: 54 · 2014: 49 · 2013: 31 · 2012: 21
- FWCI
- 120.82
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Science (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- DSpace@MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- Funders
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R01HD039922)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Gender Politics and Representation
- Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics
- Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Gender Diversity and Inequality
- Keywords
- women in leadership, gender quotas, affirmative action, women in local politics, aspiration, gender gap, female role models, housework, West Bengal, policy experiments
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Aspirations, Psychological, Educational Status, Female, Humans, India, Leadership, Male, Men, Local Government, Politics, Surveys and Questionnaires, Role, Sex Characteristics, Women, Policy
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