SWEEP chapters in higher education institutions serve as convergence points where academic knowledge, lived experience, community resources and cross-sector partnerships meet. This facilitates women students in co-creating development pathways beyond their campuses. The paper examines the role of Student Women Economic Empowerment Programme (SWEEP) chapters in South African higher institutions of learning as platforms for community-engaged entrepreneurship, leadership and local economic development. The paper addresses two key questions: (1) To what extent do SWEEP chapters position young women as active facilitators of community development rather than mere beneficiaries? (2) How does SWEEP foster intergenerational learning and leadership within higher education? To achieve the study's aim, a document analysis is conducted to examine how empowerment, leadership, and community development are formally conceptualized and operationalized. The analysis will review the constitutions, reports, training materials, and published success stories of SWEEP members across various institutions of learning. Through the lens of feminist development theory, SWEEP is analyzed not just as a skills development programme but as a transformative sisterhood space that repositions young women from marginalized participants to active agents of community development. Thus, the study creates a pathway to view young women students as capable navigators of gendered and institutional dynamics, employing entrepreneurship training, mentorship and peer learning to foster local economic and social change.
