From the Margin to the Mainstream
Micro-Finance Programmes and Women's Empowerment: The Bangladesh Experience
|
|
|
|
Centre for Development Studies
UNIVERSITY OF WALES SWANSEA
From the Margin to the Mainstream
Micro-Finance Programmes and Women's Empowerment: The Bangladesh Experience
Gita Sabharwal
In the 1990s, Micro-finance Programmes (MFPs) are being promoted as the single most important mechanism for poverty alleviation and women's empowerment. The positive claims being made about the transformative capacity of MFPs is leading to an increase in funding for such interventions. The minimalist approach, with its focus on financial sustainability, is being propounded as the way forward. This approach subscribed to by most donor agencies and non-government organisations, is resulting in a streamlined focus upon micro-credit delivery, leading to a marginalisation of issues concerning women's empowerment.
In this context, the study examines the nature of women's empowerment promoted by MFPs operating from the minimalist and integrated framework across Bangladesh. It is based on a review of ten research studies carried out in the 1990s.
The study is premised on a multidimensional empowerment framework. It views empowerment as a process having personal, economic, social and political dimensions, with personal empowerment being the 'core' of the empowerment process.
The study establishes that MFPs create empowerment promoting conditions for women to move from positions of marginalisation within household decision-making process and exclusion within the community, to one of greater centrality, inclusion and voice. The social processes of MFPs strengthen women's self-esteem and self-worth, instil a greater sense of awareness of social and political issues, leading to increased mobility and reduced traditional seclusion of women. Most importantly, MFPs enable women to contribute to the household economy, increasing their intra-household bargaining power. However, the study recognises the limitations to the transformative capacities of MFPs, especially those operating from a minimalist framework, as economic empowerment doesn't always lead to a reversal in gender relationships.
The study concludes by advocating for an integrated approach, as this furthers the chances for credit to become an empowering means, by supporting a continuous process of institutional and legal change.
Hari Srinivas - hsrinivas@gdrc.org
 Return to the Improving Women's Access to Credit Page
 Return to the Virtual Library on Microcredit
| |
| |
