Women’s empowerment has become a crucial component of inclusive and sustainable development, particularly in emerging economies such as India. Among the various factors influencing empowerment, education is widely recognized as a key driver of social, economic, and personal transformation. The present study investigates the relationship between education and women’s empowerment by examining the direct, mediating, and moderating mechanisms underlying this association. Drawing upon the Capability Approach and Human Capital Theory, the study develops aempirical framework linking education, awareness, economic participation, decision-making power, and women’s empowerment. Using a Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) approach, the findings reveal that education positively influences women’s awareness and directly contributes to empowerment. Increased awareness further enhances economic participation, which strengthens decision-making power and subsequently promotes higher levels of empowerment. The study also confirms the mediating roles of awareness, economic participation, and decision-making power in explaining the education–empowerment relationship. Furthermore, socio-cultural factors are found to negatively moderate the impact of education on women’s empowerment, indicating that traditional norms and social constraints may limit the benefits of educational advancement. The empirical results indicates that the need for policies that not only expand access to quality education but also strengthen digital literacy, economic opportunities, and supportive socio-cultural environments to achieve sustainable empowerment outcomes for women.