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Governance Reforms and Rural Women in India: What Types of Women Citizens are Produced by the Will to Empower?
- Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State and Society
- Oxford University Press
- Volume 16, Number 2, Summer 2009
- pp. 279-302
- Article
- Additional Information
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In 1993, the Government of India reserved one-third of the seats in rural councils (panchayats) for women, and along with NGOs, set up programs to empower rural women. We examine the usefulness of a Foucauldian governmentality framework in analyzing how women participants in panchayati raj institutions in Pune District, India, have been produced and the ways in which they respond. We conclude that the emphasis of a strong Foucauldian perspective on structure at the expense of agency obscures the complexity of women's responses. In contrast, a weak Foucauldian perspective is able to recognize that in some cases these incorporation processes create assertive, reformist, and resourceful citizens.