Do more women equal less corruption in politics?

Feminists the world over advocate greater participation of women in politics and administration as a cure for all social evils, writes Garima Obrah.

Feminists the world over advocate greater participation of women in politics and administration as a cure for all social evils.

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According to them, women are more responsible, sensitive and diligent than their male counterparts. More women getting involved in politics, they say, might bring more accountability and transparency.

This logic is easily consumed by society as corruption levels are high and most of the politicians are men. Feminists use this opportunity to hard-sell this skewed logic and indirectly portray man as the cause of all crimes in society. Their logic boils down to ‘No man, no crime’.

Has anyone considered this: there are fewer corrupt women in politics because there are fewer women in politics in the first place. It is not because women are more responsible/honourable.

This has been proved in recent times with more women getting into politics. It is seen that women often commit irregularities more brazenly than men, the reason being that society goes softer on them. This is also why women seldom apologise for their wrongdoings and defend their actions aggressively.

A recent example would be Vasundhara Raje, ex-chief Minister of Rajasthan, who indulged herself like a queen, with so few questions from the media. Her priorities seemed to be royal hobbies rather than people’s issues. When the state was burning in the caste war, she found it difficult to find the time to meet both the conflicting parties and arrange a truce. In spite of all this, she got away with it, just because of the bahu-beti status she enjoyed.

Consider how the media might have responded if a male Chief Minister had done the same.

Surprising how feminists happily overlook the fact that many of the world’s greatest leaders have been men. It is not the gender of the leader but it is her/his ability and diligence that matters.

So let’s stop pretending that more women will equal less corruption in our political system.

Garima Obrah is a first-year Journalism Honours student at the Trinity Institute of Professional Studies at Indraprastha University.