Opinion: Indian women’s reservation bill (Part 1)

Why the Indian legislature should pass the women’s reservation bill?

I was having a heated argument with an undergraduate friend of mine on whether India should pass a Bill to reserve 33% of legislature seats for women. Nice way to reconnect with someone after 8 years! While, he was against the idea, I supported the idea. We had a good debate leading to no conclusion whatsoever. I decided to post excerpts from our argument. As expected, my post let to a fire-storm of emails. I decided that my puny attempt at supporting the Bill last midnight was not good enough. Therefore, I decided to revise my post.

I will broadly touch five topics – network effect, social justice & compensation, the new equilibrium, futility of slow reform, and national need.

Network effect:

In my Network Structures class at Booth, I learned that studies have proven that success is proportional to the product of connectedness and competence. Often, connectedness outweighs competence. If your Dad was an Emir of an oil-sheikhdom, you wouldn't be wasting your life studying for an engineering entrance examination such as JEE in India with 1% chance of success while your peers elsewhere enjoy love, sex and sunshine. You would just go to a certain business school on the east coast of United States, and receive a very fine business education. Thereafter, you can choose to either just have fun, or make tons of money running a sovereign wealth fund. Go, and have a chat with your Dad!

Being a member of the top engineering school/top MBA club, I have enjoyed the fruits of connectedness. Most of the doors are manned by someone who has the same background as I have. I show him my ID, and he lets me in with a smile. He gives me seat at the table, and respects my opinion. In India, there are some firms who hire only graduates from the IIT – the top Indian engineering school, and IIM– the top Indian management school. Part of it is because usually very smart people go there. But that is only a part of it! I refuse to believe that the person, who is at 99.7^th percentile in management entrance test and therefore fails to secure a seat at IIM, is definitely less smart than the one who is at 99.8^th percentile. Can someone show me a valid study that proves that?

Most of it is because a network of influential people with the same background comes into existence, and it promotes its own. Naturally, they are more comfortable with their own type, mentor their own type, and give opportunities to their own type. Due to tremendous support rookies in the system receive, and the high morale sustained by such a positive environment, they dream big and achieve big. I am extremely skeptical of the fact that a person who was good at JEE, would end up becoming a top CEO as well, without a number of other forces not at all related to engineering excellence, and sheer smarts coming into play. Remember that being the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru was a bigger asset than being a woman was a liability to Indira Gandhi, being the daughter of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was a bigger asset than being a woman was a liability to Benazir Bhutto, and being the daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was a bigger asset than being a woman was a liability to Sheikh Hasina Wazed. Networks matter!

This club mentality takes a more sinister form when the members of the club start looking down upon others. They always rubbish what a non-club member did, and create road-blocks to others' success. In worst form, the club degenerates into an oligarchy. Every oligarch is comfortable with sharing all the pie with a small set of peers. The actively, and often successfully, deny a fair share to everyone else. They used to call one such organization the Senate of People of Rome in ancient times. They murdered Julius Caesar because he diluted their power. Power did get diluted despite the Senate – and the Roman Republic became Roman Empire and lived for another 1,000 years in various forms. Not much damage done – isn't it? The term senate is still in used to mask the real intent of some organizations in some modern countries.

There is another effect in play. Everyone in the world wants to reduce risk. They would want someone who has a stamp of credibility and competence. Moreover, if you can't measure something, you can't understand it. IITs and IIMs have established a good brand, and score high marks on certain competence scales. Therefore, people just go for them. Easy and simple!

This network effect plays out in every aspect of life. Women have suffered its consequences for thousands of years. The men have formed a cabal, and due to their physical strength, have denied an equal share to women. Many men still look down upon women, and would prefer to suppress their own daughters to conform to social norms. There is glass ceiling everywhere. Men just trust other men more. Even if it is not active denial of rights, the men's network just promotes its own – the men, by creating an environment where men have significant advantage over women.

I hope that now we agree that it is myopic to assume that training women and educating them will solve the problem. This is a man's world fully geared to protect its rights. Then how do we break the men's power? When was the last time, a King relinquished power without a struggle?

One solution I see is to force women upon men, no pun intended, in halls of power through reservation. After endless suppression thus far, I believe women need to be pushed out of their homes, away from their children, to take their place in the world-order. Surely they will falter initially and we will collectively pay the price. However, hopefully perhaps over next 50 years, women will become competent and equal partners in the social structure.

Thank you for reading. My next post will be on "social justice & compensation."