<img width="1024" height="576" src="https://cms.qz.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/AP_19145635718913-e1558930293442.jpg?quality=80&strip=all&w=1024" class="attachment-medium_10 size-medium_10 wp-post-image" alt="" /><p>India&#8217;s parliament is still a considerable distance from a reasonable measure of gender equality, but undoubtedly, it has made strides.</p>
<p>At 14%, or 77 of all 542 seats, the 17th Lok Sabha (lower house of parliament) will have the highest representation of women ever, <a href="https://lokdhaba.ashoka.edu.in/LokDhaba-Shiny/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">according to Lok Dhaba</a>, a repository of election results based on data from the election commission of India (ECI).</p>
<p>The share of sitting women members of parliament (MPs) is up from <a href="https://www.prsindia.org/parliamenttrack/vital-stats/profile-newly-elected-17th-lok-sabha" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">5% in the first Lok Sabha</a> way back in 1952.</p>
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<p>Priyanka Chaturvedi, a Congress spokesperson who <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/elections/lok-sabha/maharashtra/shiv-sena-appoints-priyanka-chaturvedi-as-upneta/articleshow/69073780.cms?from=mdr" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">joined the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party&#8217;s ally Shiv Sena</a> only a few weeks before the elections, observed that women had a better winning streak than men during the recent polls.</p>
<p>In 2019, up to <a href="https://thewire.in/politics/how-women-candidates-fared-in-the-2019-elections" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">715 women candidates contested</a> the Lok Sabha elections versus 7,334 males—10% of women won as opposed to 6% of the men.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"  data-dnt="true">
<p lang="und" dir="ltr">17th Lok Sabha will have more women representation than ever at 14.4%! This election has broken another myth that women have lesser chances of winning&#8230;Their winning strike rate is better than the men! <br />Shine on!<br />राज तिलक की करो तैयारी, आगे बढ़ रहीं हैं महिलाएँ हमारी!</p>
<p>&mdash; Priyanka Chaturvedi (@priyankac19) <a href="https://twitter.com/priyankac19/status/1132123615275749379?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 25, 2019</a></p></blockquote>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Some of the larger states saw a higher number of women winning, Quartz&#8217;s analysis of Lok Dhaba data shows. India&#8217;s most populous state with 80 seats, Uttar Pradesh elected the most number of women (11).</p>
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<p>The profiles of 700-plus female candidates contesting the 2019 general elections, according to an analysis by the <a href="https://adrindia.org/content/lok-sabha-elections-2019-analysis-criminal-background-financial-education-and-other-details" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Association for Democratic Reforms</a>, are as follows:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>396</strong> women candidates attained graduate-level or more of education. That&#8217;s over half the total pool.</li>
<li><strong>531</strong> aged between 25 and 50 years. A quarter of them were aged between 51 and 80 years. The <a href="https://twitter.com/Tejasvi_Surya/status/1132173309456478208?s=19" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">youngest was</a> 25-year-old Chandrani Murmu of Biju Janata Dal (BJP) who won from Keonjhar, Odisha.</li>
<li><strong>110</strong> had criminal cases registered against them. Up to 78 faced serious charges.</li>
<li><strong>255</strong> crorepati women candidates. The average assets of women candidates stood at Rs5.63 crore ($810,945). Hema Malini, a two-time winner from Mathura, Uttar Pradesh, boasted of the highest value of assets with over Rs250 crore.</li>
</ul>
<p>Smriti Irani, who <a href="https://qz.com/india/1626699/smriti-irani-from-modi-critic-to-rahul-gandhis-amethi-nemesis/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">beat Congress president Rahul Gandhi</a> on his traditional home turf, Amethi, is being heralded as the biggest winner of them all. Pragya Thakur, the Malegaon blast-accused who called Mahatma Gandhi&#8217;s assassin Nathuram Godse a patriot, is perhaps <a href="https://qz.com/india/1626137/india-to-get-terror-accused-parliamentarian-in-pragya-thakur/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the most controversial</a> among them.</p>