Rachel Brulé

During her time at CASBS, Rachel Brulé will complete her second book, tentatively titled Unequal in Office: Dynamics of Gendered Political Marginalization in Rural India, with Alyssa Heinze and Simon Chauchard, and advance her third book, Restorative Weather? Climate Change and the Disruption of Gendered Power. Unequal in Office tackles a core tension in representative democracy: social inequalities color the practice of power, limiting the capacity of elected representatives to shape governmental decisions. With innovative behavioral and attitudinal measures of centrality in democratic decision-making, we experimentally investigate whether changing micro-level institutions helps curb gender gaps in elected officials’ influence. Restorative Weather identifies the ability of climate change-induced extreme weather to alter systems of power in families, economies, and states by altering the gendered division of labor.

Brulé is an associate professor at Boston University’s Pardee School of Global Studies. She is a political scientist with expertise in the political economy of gender and power, primarily in South Asia. Her research combines experimental methods, innovative theory building, and in-depth qualitative work to identify the causal impact of institutions on the ability of women and other traditionally-marginalized group members to engage states and advance transformative change. 

Her first book, Women, Power, and Property: The Paradox of Gender Equality Laws in India (Cambridge University Press, 2020) won the 2021 Luebbert Prize for the Best Book in Comparative Politics from the American Political Science Association. She has been selected for a National Science Foundation CAREER Award (2024-29). She is partnering with the State Department to expand Afghan women’s educational and economic opportunities through the Alliance for Afghan Women’s Economic Resilience.

For more, please visit: http://rachelbrule.com/