Internal male migration is a significant demographic phenomenon affecting millions of lives in the Global South. How does this form of temporary male absence shape the lives of women that these migrants leave behind? Using fieldwork intensive qualitative and quantitative data, and a national level panel dataset from India, Kumar argues that male migration is fundamentally shifting the contours of local political engagement in these communities through the heightened presence of women in traditionally male dominated political arenas.
Rithika Kumar is a postdoctoral visiting fellow with the Kellogg Institute for International Studies whose research contributes to scholarship on gender and politics, comparative political behavior, the politics of migration and urbanization, and South Asian politics.
Her talk is sponsored by the Liu Institute's South Asia Group.
Originally published at asia.nd.edu.