Ms. Shreya K Sugathan, research scholar in the Department of Political Science, University of Hyderabad, attended the European Conference on Politics and Gender (ECPG), organised by the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR), hosted by Newcastle University, Newcastle, UK, from 15-17 June, 2026. This flagship biennial conference offers a global platform to explore why understanding gender is essential to understanding politics. She was awarded funding from the ECPR to undertake this trip.
Shreya K Sugathan
She presented two papers at two different panels. In a panel titled ‘Political Ambition and Gendered Responses in Unequal Contexts’, she presented ‘Political Penalty of Care: Exploring Political Ambition and Political Mobility through Care Labour’. In the paper, she argued that, contrary to popular assumption, women who have entered politics through the constitutional amendment are willing to take up higher responsibilities but lack experience, exposure and resources compared to their male counterparts due to the disproportionate burden of care labour. This paper contributes to the discussion of care work as a major supply-side hurdle affecting women’s struggle for political equality.
Shreya K Sugathan
In the panel titled ‘Who Enters Politics? Gendered Pathways and Barriers’, she presented ‘Who Gets to Run? Exploring Gendered Politics of Winnability in the Candidate Selection Process’. In the paper, she argues against perceiving winnability as a neutral measure. She argues that the idea of winnability is constituted through gendered components of “experience” and “familiarity”. Hence, even when the gatekeepers do not directly express gender bias in recruitment, the gendered ideas shaping an individual’s winnability affect the odds of their candidature. The paper contributes to feminist analyses of party gatekeeping by demonstrating how gendered logics of winnability sustain women’s under-representation even in contexts of high social development.
Both papers are based on her PhD research, which explores patterns of political ambition and mobility among women in Kerala politics. The conference brought together scholars from leading universities and research institutions worldwide working on themes of gender and politics. Ms Shreya expresses her sincere gratitude to the ECPR for providing funding to attend the conference.