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Transformative Grassroots Leadership: Understanding the Role of Rojiroti's Women Leaders in Supporting Social Change
[journal article]
Abstract Many have argued that supporting women’s leadership is an important pathway to women’s empowerment. However, there is still a need for better understanding of how women become leaders, particularly at the grassroots level, and how they support social change. This article explores women’s leadership ... view more
Many have argued that supporting women’s leadership is an important pathway to women’s empowerment. However, there is still a need for better understanding of how women become leaders, particularly at the grassroots level, and how they support social change. This article explores women’s leadership as part of a grassroots microfinance organisation, Rojiroti. Through interviews and focus group discussions, it finds that Rojiroti’s women leaders were motivated to become leaders to create better opportunities for their families and communities, and that they lead in line with frameworks of transformative leadership by supporting relationship building, by facilitating and guiding knowledge transfer and by providing space for reflection and skills for action (Wakefield, 2017). In particular, their situated knowledge was essential for inspiring shared vision for challenging unequal power relations. Overall, better understanding their leadership, that particularly nurtures relationships and collaboration, due to their position as being from the social groups they sought to support, is critical to the current challenges facing interventions and activism that seek to promote women’s empowerment and contribute to social change.... view less
Keywords
social change; social movement; gender-specific factors; woman; executive position; microfinance; organizations; inequality; mobilization; India; South Asia
Classification
Political Process, Elections, Political Sociology, Political Culture
Women's Studies, Feminist Studies, Gender Studies
Free Keywords
Rojiroti; gender; grassroots; leadership; power relations
Document language
English
Publication Year
2020
Page/Pages
p. 180-190
Journal
Politics and Governance, 8 (2020) 4
Issue topic
Leadership and Political Change in Asia-Pacific
ISSN
2183-2463
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed