Education as a Pathway to Women’s Leadership: Lessons from Rural Maharashtra

In this blogpost, Sara Ferrari presents key takeaways from her Master’s thesis “Voices of Change: Examining the Role of Education on Women’s Leadership Roles in Rural Maharashtra, India” which was awarded an Honourable Mention for the 2025 NORRAG Prize in Comparative and International Education. The prize, awarded by the NORRAG Global Education Centre and the UNESCO Chair in Comparative Education Policy, recognizes exceptional Master’s theses at the Geneva Graduate Institute that address critical issues in the field of comparative and international education.

“In educating women, we educate generations and shape a just society.” – Savitribai Phule

Returning to India after ten years to conduct this Master’s thesis fieldwork in Pune district, Maharashtra, carried both academic curiosity and a deep sense of personal rediscovery. This research sought to understand a simple yet profound question: How does education empower women and girls in rural Maharashtra to take on both formal and informal leadership roles?

India has made remarkable progress in expanding access to education. Girls’ enrolment in secondary and tertiary education has risen dramatically. Policies such as the Right to Education Act and the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao campaign have contributed to closing gender gaps in school attendance (Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation – MoSPI, 2024). Yet this progress has not translated evenly into empowerment. While more young women than ever are in school, India’s female labour force participation rate continues to hover among the lowest globally – about 35 percent compared to 76 percent for men. Education, it seems, is not automatically translating into empowerment or leadership (World Economic Forum, 2024).

This paradox reveals a deeper issue: access to education does not automatically create pathways to leadership or social transformation. Structural inequalities, particularly those shaped by caste, class, and patriarchal norms, continue to limit women’s ability to translate education into meaningful opportunities (Kabeer, 1999; Crenshaw, 2013).

To better understand this gap, the research focused on Pune district, Maharashtra, in collaboration with MASUM (Mahila Sarvangeen Utkarsh Mandal), a grassroots feminist NGO working in more than 40 villages. Over two months of fieldwork, 20 interviews, two focus group discussions, and ethnographic observations were conducted to explore the lived experiences of women and girls navigating the promises and pitfalls of education

Findings show that leadership is not confined to formal positions in politics or business. Women often exercise leadership in less visible but equally impactful ways: organizing self-help groups, mentoring younger girls, or asserting decision-making roles within households. Yet these contributions often go unrecognized and uncompensated, despite the vital role they play in sustaining families and communities (Cornwall, 2016). At the same time, many testimonies underline how education, when paired with mentorship and safe spaces, fosters agency and confidence. Leadership, in this sense, is both personal and collective.

But education alone does not dismantle centuries-old structures of caste, class, and patriarchy. Women from Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes often spoke of the double burden they face even when educated, they are not easily accepted in positions of authority. Many explained that despite their qualifications, they were denied local leadership roles.

This reflects broader academic debates on intersectionality, echoing what feminist scholars like Naila Kabeer (1999) and Kimberlé Crenshaw (2013) have long argued: empowerment must be understood not just as access to resources but as the ability to navigate intersecting inequalities and forms of discrimination. In the Saswad region of Pune district, rural women often face additional barriers such as unsafe transport, lack of childcare, and restrictive gender norms around mobility (Deshpande, 2020). These obstacles mean that education alone, while necessary, is not sufficient. Without addressing structural inequalities, education risks becoming a partial promise rather than a transformative force.

This is where organisations like MASUM play a pivotal role. Their Education Fellowship Programme supports marginalized girls from disadvantaged backgrounds to complete their studies, providing not only school fees but also safe accommodation, transport, and mentorship. Several girls interviewed said bluntly that without this programme, they would have dropped out or been married early.

Another initiative, MASUM’s Empowerment Through Sport Programme, uses volleyball as an entry point to challenge restrictive norms. Girls aged 10 to 15 learn discipline, teamwork, and confidence by competing in public spaces historically reserved for boys. For many, stepping onto a volleyball court is a first step toward leadership.

These grassroots interventions demonstrate how education becomes transformative when embedded in feminist, context-sensitive approaches. They create supportive ecosystems that enable women not only to study but also to imagine themselves as leaders (Batliwala, 2007).

At the national level, India has invested heavily in girls’ education through schemes such as Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and the Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya. But policies often assume that access to classrooms will naturally lead to empowerment. This research suggests otherwise.

Education must be accompanied by:

• Feminist pedagogies that encourage critical thinking and self-expression.
• Support networks such as mentorship and safe spaces for dialogue.
• Structural reforms that tackle safety, mobility, and labour market discrimination.

Without these, education risks becoming a hollow promise. Women may earn degrees but remain excluded from leadership, reinforcing a cycle of frustration rather than transformation.

The lessons from Pune district resonate far beyond Maharashtra. Around the world, education is celebrated as a cornerstone of development and gender equality. Yet we must ask: how do we measure success? By enrolment numbers alone, or by the agency and leadership that education unlocks?

For the global education community, this is not a theoretical debate. As we work toward the Sustainable Development Goals – particularly SDG 4 (Quality Education) and SDG 5 (Gender Equality) – it is essential to ensure that education is not only about access but also about empowerment.

Grassroots voices, especially from the Global South, remind us that transformative education requires listening to lived realities, acknowledging intersectional barriers, and supporting diverse pathways to leadership.

Hence, if education is to be truly transformative, how can we design systems that value not only women’s presence in classrooms but also their leadership in shaping communities and futures?

The answer lies in combining structural reforms with grassroots wisdom – ensuring that education is not only a right, but also a pathway to agency, dignity, and leadership. If education is to fulfil its transformative promise, policymakers and practitioners must look beyond enrolment rates. The real test is whether education enables women not just to study, but to lead – in their families, communities, and societies at large.

The Author

Sara Ferrari is a recent graduate of the Geneva Graduate Institute, where she completed her Master’s degree in International and Development Studies, specializing in Gender, Race, and Diversity. She also holds a Bachelor of Science (BSc) in International Relations and Organizations from Leiden University. Additionally, she also lived in India for five years during her childhood, she was deeply influenced by this experience, which shaped her worldview and made her more attentive and sensitive to issues of inequality, culture, and social justice. This is also why she chose to dedicate her Master’s thesis to these themes and returned to India to conduct fieldwork in the rural parts of the city where she had once lived. She can be reached at sara.ferrari.ge@gmail.com.