Women have to ‘work twice as hard to get half as far’ as their male counterparts. A woman professional, for instance, has to prove that she is as competent, reliable and talented as her male colleague. This is leaving aside the disproportionate burden of housework, child and elder care many women tackle in their private lives. She must accomplish all of this while never seeming too authoritative, too threatening, too aloof, too familiar, angry, frustrated or impatient because her hold on success is precarious. She may get ahead as long as she complies with a pattern of femininity that is acceptable in a patriarchal society. After all, failure for her, unlike success, comes twice as easily for half the mistakes.
Imagine, then, the efforts a woman must take when she enters the world of politics. She must manage the impossible feat of trying to access power—a masculine pursuit—while subsuming her ambition within a performance of roles society deems acceptable for women like the mother (late chief minister J Jayalalithaa) or sister (West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee). Mistakes or even crimes tolerated in male leaders can not only be career-ending for women (ask Hillary Clinton about her emails), but can also make it harder for other women to pursue a career in politics.
An analysis by PRS Legislative Research shows there is no difference in winnability of women candidates compared to male candidates. The difference in performance when it comes to attendance in the Lok Sabha is just a few points less for women than men, while there is a greater gap in terms of participation in debates (on an average, women took part in 33 debates vs 42 by men)—though few places are conducive to women’s speech. Leaders like to say there is nothing women cannot accomplish. But every accomplishment of a woman is against the societal tide that seeks to hold her back. Even an articulate, wealthy, and popular politician like Mahua Moitra faces questions about her late-night calls. These are problems that reservation cannot and will not solve. Unless society changes, as Taylor Swift would put it, women will have to keep running as fast as they can while men get there quicker, by virtue of being men.