After decades on the sidelines, women are now central to India’s political and development agenda. Representation from Below traces this transformation away from the halls of power toward women’s inclusion in local politics and the mobilization capacity they build within parties.

Drawing on fieldwork, survey data, and natural experiments, the book shows how women in local politics built grassroots chapters of women’s party wings and recruited other women into them, expanding parties’ organizational capacity to mobilize women voters during election campaigns. As women became electorally consequential, party elites adapted, reshaping policies and opening pathways to higher office. Challenging views that clientelist parties or patriarchal norms block women’s agency, the book demonstrates how gender constraints became sources of leverage over parties. The book expands our understanding of why women's descriptive representation matters: not only because it enhances the legitimacy of political institutions or enables women to advocate for their preferences, but also because it serves as a source of organizational capacity that reshapes who parties mobilize and who they ultimately serve.

When women in local politics incorporate other women into parties, the ripple effects extend far beyond the local level, transforming national politics and offering lessons that resonate historically and well beyond India’s borders.