From Internal Capability to External Outcome: A Systematic Review of Personality Development Programmes and Women's Empowerment
Keywords:
personality development; women's empowerment; life skills education; self-efficacy; systematic review; thematic synthesisAbstract
Women receive personality development programmes, life skills education and soft skills training in large numbers, and behind the delivery lies a premise about where the obstacle to their advancement sits: inside them, in confidence, communication and assertiveness. What the accumulated evidence establishes about that premise is what this review asks. A protocol drove the work, which is reported to PRISMA 2020. Alongside eight electronic databases, repositories, hand-searching and citation searching were used. Two reviewers screened independently; design-matched instruments appraised what was included, and the synthesis was thematic. Searching turned up 2,010 records; 1,483 reached screening, 196 were read in full, and the synthesis took in 42 studies carried across 47 publications. A gradient runs through the findings. Psychological outcomes came from 41 of the 42 studies at a mean standardised effect of +0.63, social outcomes from 29 at +0.46, educational from 16 at +0.31, civic from 14 at +0.28, economic from 17 at +0.20. Five analytical themes were constructed. Internal change is the most consistent of the effects and the best evidenced. Whether it transfers to external outcomes is conditional and not automatic, with transfer showing up mainly where programmes ran longer and sat within a continuing structure. Leadership self-perception outruns leadership attainment. Household and institutional response gatekeeps the transfer. Durability, meanwhile, goes essentially unmeasured: 32 of the 42 studies took no measurement once the programme had closed.
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