Dartmouth Events

Poulami Roychowdhury, Associate Professor of Sociology and International & Public Affairs Brown University, Department of Sociology & the Watson Institute, will lecture how do policy makers envision women’s “empowerment” within authoritarian democracies? This talk thinks through this pressing question by focusing on India. Officially the world’s largest electoral democracy and a place where women have historically been highly mobilized, India has experienced rising authoritarianism since 2014. Tracing policy makers’ shift away from domestic violence law towards a new focus on sexual harassment, Roychowdhury argues that women’s “empowerment” is currently being redefined in India to uphold Hindu domination and increase the discretionary power of law enforcement personnel. Through the Indian case, this talk theorizes how and why democratic authoritarianism may be characterized by a movement away from discourses and practices of rights towards a focus on women’s security and protection.