Archive · 13 Dec 2025
Book Review: Women's Political Agency in India
Ruhi Tewari's book 'What Women Want: Understanding the Female Voter in Modern India' talks about how women voters in India have changed over time.
Once thought to just follow men's voting choices, women are now seen as important voters.
The book explains that women value welfare schemes that help them in their daily lives and give them more power in their families.
It also talks about how different political leaders have focused on women voters and how women from different communities vote based on their unique challenges.
The book shows that women are not just passive recipients of benefits but active participants in the democratic process.
It also highlights that even though women voters have more influence, there are still very few women in politics, and more needs to be done to support their upward mobility.
Ruhi Tewari's book challenges the notion that women voters are merely 'freebie-loving' recipients of welfare schemes, arguing that they value benefits that address real structural gaps.
The book traces the evolution of women's political agency, highlighting milestones such as the sympathy wave after Indira Gandhi's assassination and the 2019 Lok Sabha election where women's turnout exceeded men's for the first time.
Women generally respond to policies that ease everyday burdens and strengthen family well-being, but their voting behavior can shift based on factors like religio-political insecurity for Muslim women and the intersection of caste and gender for Dalit women.
The book discusses the rise of women-centric politics led by figures like M.G. Ramachandran, Jayalalithaa, and Mamata Banerjee, and the centrality of women voters during the Modi era with schemes like Beti Bachao Beti Padhao and Ujjwala.
Tewari concludes that while women voters have gained visibility and influence, women's representation as legislators remains low, emphasizing the need for policies that support not just survival but aspiration and upward mobility.
- Who
- Ruhi Tewari, author of the book 'What Women Want: Understanding the Female Voter in Modern India'
- What
- A book review discussing the political agency and voting behavior of women in India
- When
- The book draws on two decades of on-ground election reporting
- Where
- India
- Why
- To understand what women actually seek, whom they reward, and why, challenging simplistic explanations of women voters
- Author
- Ruhi Tewari
- Book Title
- What Women Want: Understanding the Female Voter in Modern India
- Publisher
- Juggernaut
- Pages
- 272
- Price
- Rs 599
- Key Focus
- Women's political agency and voting behavior in India
- Historical Milestones
- Sympathy wave after Indira Gandhi's assassination, 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendments, MGNREGA, 2019 LS election
- Key Figures
- M.G. Ramachandran, Jayalalithaa, N.T. Rama Rao, Nitish Kumar, Mamata Banerjee, Naveen Patnaik, Arvind Kejriwal