Nongovernmental Organizations, Micro-Credit, and Empowerment of Women

Jude Lal Fernando

124 citations0/0 files storedThe Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science

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Microfinance and Financial Inclusion Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics Bangladesh Politics, Society, and Development

Abstract

Empowerment of women by means of micro-credit-based income generation programs is a new orthodoxy in the development discourse. The first part of the article appraises this phenomenon in a broader historical context. It shows how women's interests are being subsumed by and subordinated to the priorities of mainstream development in ways detrimental to the radical aspirations of the NGOs' empowerment project. The second part is a critical evaluation of the current approaches used in studies on micro-credit and empowerment. These studies have mostly focused on the final outcomes of micro-enterprises rather than the process through which they are achieved. The third part, based on field research in Bangladesh, demonstrates that the widely documented successes of micro-enterprises are a result of the activities of the very institutions that are considered to be oppressive to women. In this process, NGOs contribute to further legitimization of the same institutions that their micro-enterprises desire to transform.

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References

1998The impact of Group‐Based Credit Programs on Poor Households in Bangladesh: Does the Gender of Participants Matter?1996India Economic Development and Social Opportunity 1996Who takes the credit? Gender, power, and control over loan use in rural credit programs in Bangladesh 1995Reversed Realities: Gender Hierarchies in Development Thought.1994Population Policies Reconsidered: Health, Empowerment, and Rights.1989Feminism and nationalism in the third world 2002Women and the Welfare State 1977Women and World Development.

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