Summer 2022 King Center research project, "Gendered Networks"

The King Center on Global Development's Summer Undergraduate Full-time Research Assistant Program offers opportunities for fieldwork and research experience to Stanford undergraduates interested in global poverty and development across disciplines.

When Stanford University travel policies allow, selected students spend up to 12 weeks in a low- or middle-income country conducting full-time research for a King Center faculty affiliate. Each research assistant receives a stipend of $7,500 that covers most associated costs including travel, lodging, and incidental expenses. Should travel not be permitted and the research conducted remotely, the base stipend will be $5,500. Financial aid of up to $1,500 is also awarded to students who qualify.

Students are welcome to apply to multiple opportunities but must apply to each faculty research project separately. This program is only open to matriculated Stanford undergraduates. 

***Update: All previous SOLO technical issues should now be resolved so please submit through this platform: The deadline has been extended to Tuesday, February 8, 2022 at 11:59pm.

If you are still having problems submitting your application, please report a bug through the SOLO platform with a screenshot that includes the URL and the full page. And please email CorinneThomas@stanford.edu to also let her know. 

Project Description:

How can women’s voices be better represented in existing political institutions? This project seeks to understand whether stronger linkages between female citizens and elected representatives augment the representation of women’s interests.

Despite economic growth and the mandate of political reservations in local office, women as citizens and their interests remain underrepresented in political spaces in India. Gender-biased norms around political engagement remain a core barrier to women’s political participation. One intervention that has been shown to increase women’s political participation in the face of these norms is the organization of women into local Self-Help Groups (SHGs) that meet regularly. Although their primary objective is to provide a space for women to transact savings and credit, previous research in partnership with an NGO implementer has shown that SHGs can also serve as an institution to stimulate collective action amongst women to make demands on local governments. Yet it remains to be seen whether the expansion of these women’s groups will have a meaningful and lasting effect on women’s political participation.

Drawing inspiration from the substantial literature that shows that female representation in political office can increase women’s political participation, this study will examine whether linking SHGs with local elected representatives can increase women’s political participation and substantive representation. To evaluate the efficacy of stronger citizen-politician linkages for the representation of women’s interests, the study will design and randomize an intervention that would create ties between local elected representatives and SHGs through a series of discussion meetings around women’s demands.

Over the summer, the research assistant will join the project in its inception phase and help to design and pilot the citizen-linkage intervention. They will additionally help to execute primary data collection to assess the state of women’s ties to political institutions.

The faculty mentor is Soledad Prillaman, Department of Political Science

Cardinal Quarter community partner: PRADAN, an Indian-based NGO

Dates: A minimum of ten consecutive weeks during summer quarter 2022.