MIT study shows that the increased presence of local female political leaders in India has had a marked impact on adolescents and their families, raising the career aspirations and educational performance of young women.

2012-01-17T07:26:55+00:00

I don't find anything wrong with this. If the person is qualified, and they are voted in, they should be allowed to hold office [whether a village, a city, a state, or a country.] If they become a role model for others, that is fucking great. We need more role models.

c0mputar · 2012-01-17T15:16:02+00:00

This reeks of bad statistics, only because it seems like a logical study with a feel good conclusion... but that also means it's heavily susceptible to confirmation bias.

Too bad I don't have the patience to read the actual study on my phone. It's just as likely that the cause is the suggested result, and vice versa. Instead of gender quotas being the motivator, it was just an equality of opportunity, higher standards of living, and education. A town that would put forth gender quotas in politics may already be liberating itself already and it really had only succeeded in discriminating men.

In the end, this is the same academic who recently wrote that the wage gap still exists in the US... So the level of statistical analysis is probably pretty poor.

2012-01-17T05:40:53+00:00

I'm curious to see the effect that has on boys, and if they push for the "We should have all women in government then to aspire young women!" which would then turn the tables. If it aspires young women to have more, it would do the opposite to boys. Having a 50/50 is acceptable (as long as both people are at least very close to having the same qualifications,) but pushing for more would be ridiculous.

EDIT: Woops, I just noticed I put 50/50 ISN'T acceptable. I meant to put IS acceptable. That was my bad.

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