Women's Economic Empowerment & Leadership
Planned Social Concern in Rajasthan, India provides loans for women entrepreneurs to start and grow businesses. This women grew a successful clothing business and was able to build her own home. Photograph: ©Steven Wade Adams
Women's Empowerment Programs
Women’s economic empowerment programs require visual storytelling that demonstrates impact while honoring women’s agency and dignity. I partner with nonprofits and NGOs implementing entrepreneurship development, vocational training, and gender equity initiatives across multiple regions of India.
This documentation supports fundraising campaigns, donor stewardship, advocacy for gender equity, and communications that build stakeholder confidence in program effectiveness. Representative partners include C3 India (Center for Catalyzing Change), PCI India, and Planned Social Concern in Rajasthan.
Field Experience Across Programs
Documentation has included microfinance and women’s entrepreneurship initiatives in Rajasthan, vocational education programs in New Delhi, and women’s leadership development efforts in wide areas of Bihar State.
This work spans economic empowerment through support of small-business development, skills training to support employment, and programs that address structural gender barriers and promote women’s leadership.
Each engagement begins with a clear understanding of the communication objectives and program context, so visual assets serve both immediate campaign needs and long-term advocacy goals. Several of these collaborations remain ongoing as we work to strengthen further the storytelling that will most strongly communicate the full scope of the impact.
A state-sponsored program in Bihar, India has provided development opportunities for women to assume managerial roles traditionally held by men. Photograph: ©Steven Wade Adams
After obtaining a series of micro-loans from Planned Social Concern, this women in Rajasthan, India was able to grow her local business and finally open her own permanent shop.
SELECT FIELD ASSIGNMENTS
Planned Social Concern: Women's Microfinance & Entrepreneurship Rajasthan, India
Planned Social Concern promotes vocational skills development and microcredit services for women entrepreneurs in Rajasthan. This assignment documented success stories across the Jaipur region, featuring women who built retail shops, garment production studios, small livestock operations, and various craft businesses through microcredit support.
Visual storytelling supported annual reporting, fundraising, and advocacy for expanded microfinance programming by demonstrating the economic impact on women’s livelihoods and household stability.
PCI India Girls Vocational Education Center New Delhi, India
The PCI India Vocational Center provides a place to develop marketable skills and create a stronger sense of identity for young women from less advantaged neighborhoods in New Delhi, India. Photograph: ©Steven Wade Adams
PCI India supports the social and economic development of women and girls in New Delhi by addressing gender barriers, raising awareness, increasing community support for women’s agency, and reducing restrictive gender-based practices.
The vocational center provides training for adolescent girls from disadvantaged neighborhoods, including Kalandar Colony. Programs at the Center include computer skill training, record-keeping, and garment production, with the goal of creating employment pathways for young women with limited formal education and few economic options.
The curriculum addresses not only practical skills but also gender identity, equality, and empowerment education. Documentation supported donor reporting, program advocacy, and communications demonstrating both skills development and gender empowerment outcomes.
Women's Development in Bihar, India State-Sponsored Leadership & Economic Programs
While documenting programs for PCI India, the State of Bihar requested imagery highlighting government initiatives supporting women’s economic advancement in one of India’s poorest regions.
Field work here included documenting women’s cooperative enterprises, such as dairy collection, livestock rearing, recycling, and other income-generating activities, as well as examples of women assuming supervisory and leadership roles traditionally held exclusively by men.
These visual narratives supported communications around state-led efforts to expand women’s economic participation and leadership, illustrating shifts in both income opportunities and social norms.
Bihari woman delivering milk to collection station to be weighed and analyzed for fat content. Photograph: ©Steven Wade Adams
Thanks to the state-sponsored program to promote advancement of woman, this woman has assumed a traditional male managerial role in rural Bihar. Photograph: ©Steven Wade Adams
Small business entrepreneur in Bihar caring for her chickens. Photograph: ©Steven Wade Adams