A thousand steps to parliament: Constructing electable women in Mongolia By Manduhai Buyandelger. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2022. 288 pp.

A Thousand Steps to Parliament is the second book by Manduhai Buyandelger, a cultural anthropologist educated in the United States but originally from Ulaanbaatar. In this work she examines the challenges and opportunities encountered by Mongolian women on their long journey to parliament. Comprising six chapters along with a preface, introduction, and conclusion, the book starts off with a vignette about US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's visit to Mongolia in 2012. During her visit, Clinton lauded Mongolia's nine recently elected female parliamentarians, setting the stage for this pioneering anthropological examination of women's daily struggles in navigating electoral politics in a male-dominated environment. Central to the book's analysis is the concept of “electionization,” in which political campaigns permeate everyday life, mimicking traditional governance structures not only during elections but also before and after them. In fact, electionization is a never-ending phenomenon, bridging the gap between electoral cycles. This is a result of Mongolia's weak and impoverished welfare state, which has outsourced some of its functions to external providers such as electoral candidates. Another factor that renders electionization all-pervasive is the fact that with each election and shift in political power from one party to another, many jobs, even the most mundane ones, migrate from the members and followers of the losing party to those of the winning party, making elections relevant and influential forces in many people's everyday lives. Buyandelger's analysis is compelling and aligns with my own observations as a fellow Mongolian. Drawing on ethnographic research on the 2008 parliamentary elections, as well as later elections, such as the one in 2012, the book illustrates how electionization exacerbates obstacles for female candidates, reinforcing a male-centric political culture. In this milieu, male candidates alienate their female counterparts, given that they disproportionately control economic resources and political capital, and hence can afford to participate in electionization (by providing local services, free dental care, donating, sponsoring community events, organizing holidays and disaster relief measures). To overcome these and other barriers, female candidates employ various strategies of self-polishing and embrace specific forms of femininity influenced by national and transnational politics. Buyandelger's rich ethnography, narrated from a woman's perspective, offers a groundbreaking lens on the gendered aspects of Mongolian elections while shedding light on broader issues faced by postsocialist democracies grappling with corruption, poverty, misogyny, a weakened welfare state, and disenchantment with democracy. Besides being the first book written about Mongolian elections from a feminist perspective, Buyandelger's work is distinctive for its detailed ethnography, enhanced by the author's mastery of various relevant theories, providing a nuanced understanding of women's experiences in Mongolian parliamentary elections. The book not only enriches our understanding of Mongolian electoral politics but also offers insights into Mongolian society, and it contributes to the anthropological inquiry into broader issues of gender and power in postsocialist societies and beyond. Chapter 1 examines gender and feminist politics in socialist Mongolia (1924–90), offering a historical analysis of the Mongolian Women's Committee's role in shaping women as active political participants. As is the case throughout the book, this chapter is full of fascinating information. One such fact is that the women's organization (then known as the Women's Section) was chaired from 1925 to 1927 by Yanjimaa, a widow of the revolutionary commander Suhbaatar, who after his death was elevated by propaganda to a status comparable to that of Lenin in the Soviet Union. Yanjimaa went on to serve as the acting president of Mongolia in 1953–54. The socialist state codified the principle of gender equality as early as 1924 in Mongolia's first constitution. Although in practice the road to women's leadership was constrained, the pro-women ideological principles propagated by the Women's Committee and the state nevertheless led women to aspire to a certain status and place in society. This discussion is crucial for understanding postsocialist Mongolia and the roots of contemporary female activism in politics. Chapter 2 expands on the concept of electionization, illustrating how parliamentary elections have evolved into a pervasive force structuring daily life for people from different strata across the country. In this sense, electionization defines postsocialist Mongolian social life itself. The chapter highlights how precampaigning (which lasts for almost four years after the official election period) and election campaigns not only create all kinds of jobs and employment opportunities but also serve as events used by the populace for mitigating the uncertainties and impoverishment introduced by neoliberalism, thus perpetuating electionization. Hence, the voter participation rate in Mongolia is among the highest in the world. Electionization, however, presents new challenges for women candidates, especially newcomers, because the high costs of running preelection and election campaigns, covered by candidates themselves, create barriers to entry in this highly competitive, commercialized, and equally murky arena. In chapter 3, readers are transported to the bustling streets of Ulaanbaatar and television studios, where election campaigns unfold. Buyandelger theorizes the proliferation of candidates’ portrait posters and examines how gender dynamics reinforce patriarchal norms and shape visibility and invisibility in the campaign landscape littered with posters, magazines, and other campaign materials, including toys, food items, wall clocks, coffee mugs, and candidate names on toilet paper. Chapter 4 offers an ethnographic account starting off with precampaigning activities that inform official campaign strategies and experiences. Through the story of a female candidate navigating a male-dominated arena replete with hard liquor consumption and patronizing behavior, among other things, the chapter sheds light on the intricacies of preelection and election-time maneuvering for women. If the previous chapters focus on wider structural descriptions, chapters 5 and 6 zoom in on individual female candidates by examining their strategies to carve out political space. These two chapters analyze the notion of being “intellectful” (oyunlag) and describe what “self-polishing” entails. Overall, the book's pioneering and detailed exploration of gender dynamics in Mongolian electoral politics offers invaluable insights into the gendered complexities of contemporary electoral processes. This powerful and convincing ethnography is set to become a classic primarily for scholars working in Mongolian politics, gender and power, and postsocialist society.