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Revolution by Stealth

How Women's Groups Catalyzed a Cultural Transformation in Bihar

Expected online publication date:  10 September 2026

Shruti Majumdar
Affiliation:
UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women and Girls
Vijayendra Rao
Affiliation:
Northwestern University and The World Bank
Paromita Sanyal
Affiliation:
Florida State University

Summary

Revolution by Stealth: How Women's Groups Catalyzed a Cultural Transformation in Bihar tells the story of how Jeevika, a large-scale livelihoods project, sparked far-reaching change in one of India's poorest and most patriarchal states. Based on four years of qualitative fieldwork embedded within a randomized trial, the Element traces how federated self-help groups enabled marginalized women to access credit, build collective capacity, and reshape gender norms. Through shared rituals, new roles, and solidarity networks, women moved from domestic isolation to public voice, challenging caste and patriarchal hierarchies. Conceptualizing Jeevika as an “induced social movement,” the authors show how state-supported programs rooted in local traditions can generate durable empowerment. Empirically rich and theoretically grounded, the Element offers an interdisciplinary synthesis across development economics, sociology, and feminist theory, advancing debates on agency, norm change, and participatory development. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

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