Authors: Rote Rekha Atmaram
Abstract: Women’s empowerment is regarded as a driving force behind sustainable economic development and is now high on the agenda in emerging markets. Although progress has been made in achieving gender equality worldwide, gaps in economic participation, education, healthcare, and political representation persist, undermining prosperity and societal resilience. This article examines how women’s empowerment intersects with development pathways in India, Bangladesh, and Rwanda, and the related structural challenges and opportunities. Objectives: The purpose of the study is to analyse the effects of women’s empowerment on the national economy. It examines what policy interventions have contributed towards women having greater agency, and also analyses the sociostructurally barriers that prevent women from being empowered, particularly from an intersectional perspective of identity amass caste, class, and geographic divides. Methods: Utilising a qualitative-descriptive design within a constructivist paradigm, the study utilises a thematic analysis of secondary sources, including policy reports, international development reports, and peer-reviewed case studies. A purposive sampling technique was used to select important national programs (India’s MGNREGA and SHGs, Bangladesh’s, Rwanda’s gender quota) for further exploration. Results: The study finds that access to education, wage employment, and credit by women has a significant positive relationship with the national development outcomes like GDP growth, child health, and governance quality. Interventions that embedded gender accountability, such as school stipend programs and political quotas, resulted in greater long-term impact. But social norms, the digital divide, and unpaid care work still stand as formidable impediments to continued empowerment. Conclusion: The results indicate that women’s empowerment should not only be considered as an economic input, but as a structural transformation in need of rights-based, intersectional, and community-based approaches. Participation, when embedded in inclusive policy ecosystems, supports both the dignity of my self-as-agent and the progress-by-you-and-through-you accountability of the wider community, thereby reiterating the centrality of the process in equitable growth.
