Introduction
Across the world, coaching is marketed as a transformational tool for leaders: CEOs, founders, senior managers, celebrities, and the well-networked. Yet the women who carry the heaviest emotional, economic, and caregiving burdens: rural, semi urban, low income, Community Health Workers, Self Help Groups: are the least likely to receive coaching support.
This is not an accident. It is a structural exclusion created by the coaching industry’s elite design.
The global coaching industry is valued at more than USD 20 billion and continues to grow. Yet more than 80 percent of its consumers come from privileged, urban, corporate backgrounds. Grassroots women: despite being the backbone of community development: remain invisible in the coaching narrative.
This blog uses the HEMAC framework to analyze why current coaching models fail grassroots women and how contextualized coaching can unlock unprecedented leadership strength at the last mile.
H — History
Coaching emerged from Western corporate culture: expensive, English speaking, individualistic, and designed for leaders with power, autonomy, and resources.
Grassroots women leaders operate differently. They lead collective responsibilities, navigate patriarchal structures, manage family survival, and carry unpaid care burdens. Coaching frameworks have never been designed for their environment, which is why they rarely benefit from this support.
E — Environment
Grassroots women operate within:
• Restrictive gender norms
• Low resource settings
• Caste and class hierarchies
• Limited digital access
• Constant livelihood insecurity
• High emotional labour
In India alone, more than 6 million women in frontline leadership roles have never received coaching. Coaching is often priced at levels equal to weekly household income for such families.
M — Mindset
Grassroots women demonstrate courage, resilience, responsibility, and leadership. Yet they also experience conditioning that reinforces silence, self doubt, and normalization of discrimination. Coaching can strengthen mindset and agency, but only if delivered in culturally and linguistically appropriate ways.
A — Action
Grassroots women deliver outcomes for community development:
• SHG leaders manage credit and conflict
• ASHAs act as health negotiators
• Women farmers manage climate and markets
• Community leaders negotiate with local power structures
Yet they receive no coaching in decision making, emotional regulation, conflict navigation, or leadership development. They are asked to lead without support.
C — Change
A contextualized coaching model for grassroots women can create deep systemic change. This includes:
• Coaching in local languages
• Affordable or sponsored coaching
• Community rooted coaching
• Training local women as coaches
• Integrating coaching with SHGs, WEE programs, and GBV prevention
Coaching is not a luxury for the few. It is a capability every woman deserves.