Where are the mid-career women leaders?
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Summary
Women's leadership in India's development sector presents a paradox. There's plenty of scaffolding—mentoring circles, workshops, leadership academies, networking dinners—built with genuine intention and care. Women climb it. They lean in, network, build credentials, and do the quiet work of becoming legible to power. And yet numbers and conversations are not as promising as they should be. According to a study published in 2025, women hold 67 percent of leadership in small social sector organisa