Building leadership capacity in women: an NGO in India’s initiative towards women members of SHGs

Many NGOs in India strive to empower women to lead through various programmes, but their effectiveness in the participants’ lives is not known. This article reports on a descriptive cross-sectional study that used authentic leadership theory to explore an NGO’s self-help group programme’s ability to empower women by building their leadership capacity and self-efficacy to lead. Participants reported an increased capacity and self-efficacy to lead in their daily lives. Women who were in the programme for a longer period reported greater self-efficacy to lead, as compared to those who recently joined, showing the significance of women’s empowerment programmes.