“Good but Not for Us”: Contesting Neoliberal Representations of Feminism Among Beneficiaries of Gender Emancipation Projects in Rural India

ABSTRACT Existing literature illustrates how development agendas reproduce colonial constructions of women in the Global South as backward and passive and attribute their poverty to traditional cultural practices rather than material inequalities. Yet, little is known about how the intended beneficiaries of women's emancipation programs respond to such messages. This would be important to study as the social representations theory—a social psychological theory of knowledge construction—highlights how marginalized groups can negotiate with hegemonic perspectives to produce polemic understandings. Accordingly, five focus group interviews were conducted with 33 rurally located female beneficiaries of three non‐governmental organizations in the North Indian states of Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, and Uttar Pradesh. Thematic analysis, along with a decolonial approach to social representations, was utilized in analyzing the interview material. Findings illustrate how participants challenge hegemonic representations by situating their lack of agency in structural constraints, rejecting their backwardness by emphasizing changes within their communities, and contesting self‐sufficiency as a solution by emphasizing the importance of community action and participatory governance. These results are discussed in relation to their geopolitical implications to shed light on the interaction between micro and macro‐level phenomena that shape social representations and social practices related to women's emancipation.