Why has the gender-based reservation system not succeeded in achieving gender equality in Indian politics? Both token theory and critical mass theory posit that equilibrating number of representatives from both genders will achieve gender equality. In India, this led to the reservation system for women in politics in 1993 and an increase in women representation, in some Indian states up to 50%. Yet, we argue, these women face role encapsulation in their double minority position. Inspired by interpretivist ethnographic methods, this study investigates everyday work of women politicians (village council presidents) in Tamil Nadu. We show that in their work context, women politicians are in token positions and this contributes to understanding the modest results met with the reservation system. Simultaneously, the study points to how women use their role encapsulation within the traditional family structure to serve their political ambitions despite patriarchy. We draw attention to individual resistance, more precisely, insubordination and everyday resistance, to stress how some of these women politician are challenging patriarchy. This contributes to enriching our understanding of the forms of assimilation in token theory: for a token who experiences a double deviance, role entrapment is not as limiting as previous studies have assumed. We also argue that everyday acts of resistance can be carried out precisely through the enactment of role encapsulation and that some women reach change through this subject position, rather than in opposition to it.

为什么基于性别的保留制度在印度政治中未能成功实现性别平等？代币理论和批判大众理论都认为，平衡来自两性的代表人数将实现两性平等。在印度，这导致了1993年对女性参政的保留制度，并使女性代表人数增加，在一些印度州，这一比例高达50％。然而，我们认为，这些妇女在双重少数民族地位中面临角色封装。受解释主义民族志方法的启发，本研究调查了泰米尔纳德邦女政客（村理事会会长）的日常工作。我们表明，在她们的工作环境中，女性政治人物处于象征性地位，这有助于理解保留制度所产生的温和结果。同时，该研究指出，尽管实行父权制，妇女如何利用其在传统家庭结构中的角色包容来实现自己的政治抱负。我们提请注意个人抵抗，更确切地说是不服从和日常抵抗，以强调其中一些女性政治家如何挑战父权制。这有助于丰富我们对代币理论中同化形式的理解：对于经历双重偏差的代币，角色陷入并不像以前的研究那样具有局限性。我们还争辩说，每天的抵抗行为可以通过角色封装的制定而精确地进行，而且一些妇女通过这一主题地位而不是反对它来达到改变。