In a study conducted over the course of several decades in India, certain villages were assigned, at random, to be run by women. All the candidates for office were women; women were the only choice. At first, citizens still voiced a preference for male leadership—yet as with Clinton’s time in office, their rating of women’s competency, once they were in power, increased. Still, it was only after these villages were forced to have not just one female leader, but two, that their citizens demonstrated an increased willingness to vote for women in “open” elections.41
