A Phenomenological Study of Women's Transformative Learning Experiences through Women’s Groups

Abstract

My interest in exploring the phenomenon of transformative learning experiences of women through their involvement in women’s groups rose from my internalization of learning in the women’s group I have been involved in. I have experienced a profound shift in my personality, resulting from the pragmatic knowledge and skills I gained from my involvement in the women’s group activities. This shift changed my personal and social life experiences. To be specific, I have transformed into becoming an active contributor to community building by engaging in a wide range of community activities, from being home-confined and a vulnerable personality who was ignorant of public spheres. My journey of personal growth inspired me to explore how women in the community build feminine agency to influence their domestic and social life circumstances through collective learning in women’s groups. Women’s groups have emerged as self-help organizations to address personal and community needs. Over the past three decades, women’s groups have played a vital role in development projects focused on empowering women by increasing their awareness and access to economic and social opportunities through microcredit, livelihood, or health initiatives. As a result, research on women’s groups has largely focused on how women participate in these activities and how their involvement impacts their lives. Little attention has been given to how women’s groups as self-organized informal associations within communities, serve as spaces for learning that lead to transformations in women’s personal and social lives. Therefore, this study aimed to explore how women’s groups function as learning spaces for community women to educate and empower themselves at the community level. For this, I investigated how women learn within these groups and how they internalize the learning in their personal and social life circumstances. I conducted the study in a self-initiated and self-reliant women’s group formed in a semi-urban new settlement community where the group members belong to diverse sociocultural backgrounds. Despite belonging to diverse backgrounds, women in the community, as migrants to the new settlement community, faced similar challenges in adapting to the new context. Likewise, they also had opportunities to actively participate in community-building activities at all levels, as there were few households in the area at that time. Building on these common grounds, I purposively selected seven executive members of the women’s group as the participants of my study. Using the interpretive phenomenological methodology, I gathered participants' lived experiences of their learning processes in the women’s group and the changes they experienced in their personal, family, and social life situations. The findings of my study highlighted women’s groups as informal learning spaces for women in the community that not only educate women but also empower them to transform their life situations in both domestic and social spheres. My study concluded that women’s groups play a crucial role in women's empowerment at the community level, especially in new settlement areas, where women create a favorable environment for negotiating social roles and responsibilities through the collective social awareness they foster within the group. The study found that women foster collective social awareness by educating themselves through sharing their lived experiences of their family and social circumstances and building a sense of belonging through collaborations within group activities. Therefore, my study perceived women’s groups as platforms for women in the community to generate new knowledge and skills, thereby empowering women to adopt new roles and identities in the family and society.