Who Leads and at What Cost? Piloting an RCT on Women’s Community Leadership in Rural India

While there is growing evidence on how women leaders respond to the needs and priorities of
other women, less is known about who selects into these roles, and the private costs and
benefits they and their relatives may face. This project proposes a pilot examining both rural
Indian women’s selection into leadership and the potential benefits and costs of leadership for
women and their relatives (e.g., backlash, scrutiny, social sanctions, or household conflict ).
We will study these questions in partnership with Buzz Women through its Nagarika Sakhi
program, a civic leadership initiative that trains rural women to engage with Panchayat
institutions, raise community concerns, and catalyze grassroots problem-solving. Buzz
Women has reached over 700,000 women and trained more than 13,000 community leaders.
This pilot will inform the design of a large-scale RCT to: (1) evaluate the program’s
effectiveness in shifting gender norms, enhancing women’s civic participation, and promoting
collective action; (2) understand when, for whom, and under what conditions these benefits
and costs arise, and whether social arrangements, such as peer support structures, can help
mitigate the private costs of leadership. It will also help us understand self-selection into
leadership.