Women as Architects of Change: Women’s Strategic Agency and the Dialectical Reconfiguration of Gendered Institutions
Author : Ramandeep Kaur
Abstract :
This paper reconceptualizes women as architects of change, whose strategic agency functions as a constitutive force in the dialectical reconfiguration of gendered institutions. Despite global commitments to gender equality under Sustainable Development Goal 5, structural inequalities persist. The World Economic Forum (2025) reports 68.8% global gender parity, yet women remain underrepresented in parliamentary (26.9%) and ministerial (21%) positions. In India, disparities are reflected in a 37% female labour force participation rate (PLFS 2023–24), concentration of 81.8% women workers in the informal sector, and significant prevalence of gender-based violence (NFHS-5: 29.3%). Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of symbolic power, Raewyn Connell’s gender regimes, and Naila Kabeer’s empowerment framework, this study employs qualitative thematic analysis of secondary datasets, policy reports, and Scopus-indexed literature (2015–2025). The analysis identifies five interconnected domains of women’s strategic agency: economic participation, political leadership, institutional negotiation, cultural transformation, and psycho-social empowerment.
The study develops a dialectical agency–structure model, arguing that gendered institutions are not fixed structures but contested fields where women’s strategic action produces transformative change. It further reconceptualizes agency as generative and structural rather than adaptive or residual.
The paper concludes that achieving substantive gender equality requires institutional recognition of women’s strategic agency as a central mechanism of social transformation, enabling redistribution of resources, reconfiguration of norms, and democratization of governance in alignment with SDG-5.
Keywords :
Women, Architects of Change, Strategic agency; Gendered institutions; Institutional institutionalism; SDG-5; India; Social transformation; Push factor; Constitutive agency.
