The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) in India has empowered women both as beneficiaries and implementers. As beneficiaries, NREGA improved women’s labor force participation and increased mothers’ decision making power in the household. This led to substantially better educational outcomes for children such as increased time spent in school. However, women leaders implementing NREGA faced initial disadvantages like less education and experience than male leaders. But over time as women leaders gained experience, their performance improved, showing the importance of capacity building for effective social policies.<\/p>\n