Gender bias has existed for long among developing countries in terms of both asset ownership and access to public goods and services. Accordingly India has adopted policies with far-reaching implications to overcome country’s extreme gender bias and social stratification. This paper aims to contribute to the ongoing debate on the extent to which reservation to political positions for females can improve political outcomes. Nationwide data from India spanning over a period of 15-year allow us to assess the impact of reservations on leader’s qualifications, quality delivery of public goods, political participation and their self-reported ability to hold leaders to account. Substantively, the inferences regarding the underlying mechanisms turn out to be informative. Although leader quality declines and impacts on service quality are ambiguous, variables such as political participation, access to information, willingness to contribute to public goods and the ability to hold local leaders accountable, all appear to be increase by gender quotas. It is found that key effects persist beyond the reserved period and impacts on females often materialize with a lag.

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