Life-course and Cohort Impacts in Women’s Pathways to Politics: Post-active Motherhood as a Time of Political Possibility in India
研究指出印度女性在子女独立后至老年前的“后活跃母亲期”是政治参与的关键时机，但政治环境仍不友好，且新一代女性缺乏政治学徒机会，呼吁根据文化特定生命历程调整策略。
Women’s gendered responsibilities of caring for children and the home is persistently identified as a barrier to gender-equal representation in political office. Rather than solely seeking to help women overcome what are often insurmountable barriers, we argue that we also need to align our strategies with women’s culturally specific life-courses, and the socio-historical conditions of particular cohorts. Drawing upon the experiences of women political actors in Dehradun, North India, we identify post-active motherhood – the stage of life after children are independent but prior to old-age – as an under-recognised moment of political possibility. While women in middle-age have the motivation, time and experience to contest elections (supply-side dynamics), the political environment remains hostile to their political advancement (demand-side dynamics). Further, the socio-historical conditions of the next cohort of women political actors, now approaching post-active motherhood are indicative of limited opportunities for political apprenticeship compared to their seniors. We argue for a far-sighted approach to research and practice aimed at increasing women’s political leadership that analyses and works with culturally and historically specific life-courses for each incoming generation of women political actors.