Abstract
Before independence, India was divided into areas directly ruled by the British and protectorates under the partial control of local chiefs. One of these has been ruled by four consecutive queens over almost a century, as opposed to the usual male hereditary lines. After independence, the borders of the federate states of India overlapped with some of the native states, but this is not the case in the area under study. Since there is no confounder from further legislative heterogeneity, I exploit the border existing before independence in a RD setting. The aim is to understand if the habitude of giving power to women shaped a different, long-lasting cultural attitude towards women. To this purpose, I focus on DHS data from the year 2015 and female respondents. While variables related to development and education seem balanced across the areas that were formerly under the government of the native rulers, those that used to have female native rulers highlight more female empowerment today. Especially, I notice higher usage of contraceptives, lower misalignment between the desired and actual number of children, higher age at first marriage, as well as lower interference with medical issues by the husband. However, these results do not to persist when the control group shifts from native states with male rulers to British India, because this latter underwent higher economic development in the area under study. In short, it seems that having had a history of ruling women helps the current levels of female empowerment when the underlying economic conditions are comparable.