As a result, 14,030 women were elected to the Union Parishads in the 1997 elections. This number is much higher than the 1977 election, when only 863 women were elected (Begum 2012). However, the constitutional clause did not assign specific roles, power or responsibilities to the women, giving room for ambiguity. Each Union Parishad has 13 members: one chair, nine elected members from the general seats (mostly men) and three women members from reserved seats (The Local Government/Union Parishads Act, 2009, s. 10).