Social Change Golden Jubilee Lecture

Gender, Presence and Representation

Speaker: Prof. Bina Agarwal, Professor of Development Economics and Environment, University of Manchester, UK

Chair: Prof. Muchkund Dubey, President, Council for Social Development

One of the earliest demands of women’s organisations in pre-Independence India was the right to be elected to legislative bodies. Yet almost a century later, a vast gender gap persists in terms of women’s presence at all levels of governance. Why is it important to include women in political and policy decision-making bodies, beyond the issue of equality? Do women representatives necessarily represent women’s interests? Indeed, how do we define women’s interests and how can they be represented best? The lecture will address these questions, both conceptually and empirically, drawing on her many decades of research and policy engagement.

(Collaboration: Council for Social Development; SAGE Publications; and Anthropological Survey of India)