The city is looking better than it could have with so many women staring out of the civic poll billboards. It could have been worse. Men have moustaches.

But are women better human beings, capable of better governance?

It’s a well-known fact that this is an essentialist question, which really can’t be answered. Generalisations about the nature of things, especially men and women, are doomed, a matter of sexist jokes.

Forty-six of the 141 wards have been reserved for women for the polls on Sunday. It’s difficult to say whether women will work better, says activist Anchita Ghatak.

“These women will be influenced by their parties and also it depends on the women themselves and the kind of experience that they have,” she says.

“I would definitely want to see these women pull their weight,” she adds.

Ok, think Mayavati. Or, Jayalalitha. (Ask Amar Singh and he would add Jaya B.)

But the women candidates think they will do a good job. Sometimes a better job than men. Because of their “lot”, and because, though it may be politically incorrect, their nature. It’s a useful combo.

A majority of them think that looking after family is the stepping stone to a bigger, but similar, management job.

A great divide has collapsed. Family equals experience on the CV.

First-time candidate Anita Basu is contesting on a Trinamul ticket from ward 69 of Lansdowne-Puddapukur. She is the widow of Gautam Basu, who was additional private secretary to Mamata Banerjee.

“Women are sincere, but more importantly a councillor’s job is similar to looking after the family. My aim would be to look after the people of the ward in the same way that I look after the people of my family,” says Basu, a lawyer, a poet and a mother of one. Her aim is to get cleanliness and drinking water for her ward.

Indeed. How many men organise drinking water for the family? How many unclog the wash basin? Whether they like it or not, a woman is a pro at these. So it is no coincidence that so many of them talk about drinking water and drainage.

Sanchita Mitra, 44, is contesting from ward 132, in the Behala-Parnasree area. She is another first-time candidate from the Trinamul, though she has been “busy in the ward” as a social worker for a decade.

She lives with her husband and son. “I usually leave home by 6.30-6.45am after making tea for my husband. I work in the ward for a couple of hours, then come back at 8.30am to do some housework,” she says. She too talks about, yes, arranging for drinking water and proper drainage.

Trinamul candidate from south Calcutta Soma Chakraborty, 40, is confident of snatching ward 122, which covers Haridevpur and Keorapukur from the CPM’s control. The political science post-graduate from Calcutta University talks, yet again, of bad drains, and blames them on the former councillor. “There are open drains that often overflow. The condition of the roads are very poor,” she adds.

Soma’s son will appear for the Class X board exams next year. She believes her experience of living in a joint family will come in handy to manage the ward if she wins.

“Women are natural managers,” feels actress June.

The women think they are friendlier than men, which helps. In addition, Soma, the former teacher of Kidderpore Academy, thinks women are more sensitive to other’s problems.

Farzana Chowdhury, CPI councillor from ward 64 in Park Circus, is contesting this year too. “Women work well, especially as councillors. Women open up better to women and in my past five years as a councillor I have found that men also give a lot of respect to a woman councillor. I have been helped by everyone in my work.”

Birati Dutta, 47, another first-timer in the poll fray, is the CPM candidate from ward 13 in Muchibazar, a party stronghold. “I think more women in politics will lessen the acrimony that now exists in many places,” says the mother of two boys.

For Dutta, increasing the standard of living in the slums, and yes, cleaning the canal are the top priorities. She is banking on her woman next-door-image to woo the 22,600 voters in the ward.

Mir, known for his wisecracks on stage and screen, is serious when it comes to women in power. “I think it’s got to do with the (intention of securing) 33 per cent reservations for women in Parliament. I think it’s a good thing, especially in this heat. Men are hot-headed, but you can expect cooler reasoning and logic from the women. That should help in coaxing and cajoling for votes,” he says.

“Also, women are more honest and hardworking. They are more organised. So you can expect better governance from the women,” adds Mir.

It is now for the women to live up to these great expectations. For that they will have to best the men.

Then why are there almost no women fighting it out in the unreserved wards?

“Even now women are not perceived as independent beings, who can think and work on their own. Even now they are considered to be several notches below a man,” says Sufia Shireen, the CPM candidate from ward 53.

Want a different perspective? Ask the CPM about Mamata Banerjee.

Better still, ask the BJP about Sonia Gandhi.

Do you think women make better councillors than men? Tell ttmetro@abpmail.com