ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses women representatives’ capability, agency and empowerment at various levels from field study. Empirical findings document that women representatives’ participation in the decision-making process, access to resources and involvement in the local development programmes enhanced self-esteem, fostered economic freedom, improved their position within the family and helped build socio-political networks in the community. Findings of this study show that participation in the local government activities boosted women representatives’ self-confidence and esteem necessary to meet fundamental and strategic gender needs. The chapter further explores the implication of direct election in reserved seats to improve the life chances of the women in the wider community. It is found that the gender quota and the provision of direct election in these seats contributed to greater importance of society in women’s education, employment, mobility and socio-political engagement. There has been a change in the perception of people about girl children and specifically about their education, employment and marriage Women were valued and respected by the community as a whole which can be considered as the expansion of women’s capacity to live a dignified life.
