IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/indgen/v14y2007i3p409-437.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Women Making Choices

Author

Listed:
  • Ashima Goyal

    (Ashima Goyal is Professor, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Gen. Vaidya Marg, Santosh Nagar, Goregaon (E), Mumbai 400 065. E-mail:ashima@igidr.ac.in.)

Abstract

Amartya Sen's capability approach is very useful to analyse how choices affect the potential of women, once the position that women lack self-awareness when they make their choices is dropped. Women's agency is underestimated. Women's ‘otherregarding choices’ are not irrational because altruism has not only intrinsic, but also instrumental value as a source of social capital; it may even increase some types of freedom. The mask of conformity women wear in preferring less to more can be misinterpreted as a lack of awareness. The rapidity with which even poor women make use of opportunities that suit their other-regarding choices and the special modes of functioning they have developed as a result prove that the mask of women's conformity is a shallow one.

Suggested Citation

  • Ashima Goyal, 2007. "Women Making Choices," Indian Journal of Gender Studies, Centre for Women's Development Studies, vol. 14(3), pages 409-437, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:indgen:v:14:y:2007:i:3:p:409-437
    DOI: 10.1177/097152150701400303
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/097152150701400303
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/097152150701400303?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Seemanthini Niranjana, 1999. "Off the Body: Further Considerations on Women, Sexuality and Agency," Indian Journal of Gender Studies, Centre for Women's Development Studies, vol. 6(1), pages 1-19, March.
    2. Jon Elster, 1998. "Emotions and Economic Theory," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 36(1), pages 47-74, March.
    3. Rahman, Aminur, 1999. "Micro-credit initiatives for equitable and sustainable development: Who pays?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 67-82, January.
    4. Avner Ben-Ner & Louis Putterman, "undated". "Trust in the New Economy," Working Papers 1102, Human Resources and Labor Studies, University of Minnesota (Twin Cities Campus).
    5. Mark M. Pitt & Shahidur R. Khandker, 1998. "The Impact of Group-Based Credit Programs on Poor Households in Bangladesh: Does the Gender of Participants Matter?," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 106(5), pages 958-996, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Birhanu Megersa Lenjiso & Jeroen Smits & Ruerd Ruben, 2016. "Smallholder Milk Market Participation and Intra-household Time Allocation in Ethiopia," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 28(5), pages 808-825, November.
    2. Chaudhuri, Sanjukta, 2010. "Women's Empowerment in South Asia and Southeast Asia: A Comparative Analysis," MPRA Paper 19686, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Eswarappa Kasi, 2013. "Role of Women in Sericulture and Community Development," SAGE Open, , vol. 3(3), pages 21582440135, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Islam, Asadul & Nguyen, Chau & Smyth, Russell, 2015. "Does microfinance change informal lending in village economies? Evidence from Bangladesh," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 141-156.
    2. Simon Zaby, 2019. "Science Mapping of the Global Knowledge Base on Microfinance: Influential Authors and Documents, 1989–2019," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(14), pages 1-21, July.
    3. Gutiérrez-Nieto, Begoña & Serrano-Cinca, Carlos, 2019. "20 years of research in microfinance: An information management approach," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 183-197.
    4. Tunvir Ahamed Shohel & Sara Niner & Samanthi J. Gunawardana, 2023. "‘Even Though I Get a Loan, My Husband Controls It’: Rhetoric Versus Reality of Empowering Bangladeshi Women Through Microfinance Programs," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 35(4), pages 794-819, August.
    5. Prabirendra Chatterjee & Sudipta, Sarangi, "undated". "Social Identity and Group Lending," Working Papers UWEC-2005-06-R, University of Washington, Department of Economics.
    6. Tassel, Eric Van, 2004. "Household bargaining and microfinance," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(2), pages 449-468, August.
    7. Dilruba Khanam & Muhammad Mohiuddin & Asadul Hoque & Olaf Weber, 2018. "Financing micro-entrepreneurs for poverty alleviation: a performance analysis of microfinance services offered by BRAC, ASA, and Proshika from Bangladesh," Journal of Global Entrepreneurship Research, Springer;UNESCO Chair in Entrepreneurship, vol. 8(1), pages 1-17, December.
    8. Subrata Chakrabarty & A. Bass, 2014. "Institutionalizing Ethics in Institutional Voids: Building Positive Ethical Strength to Serve Women Microfinance Borrowers in Negative Contexts," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 119(4), pages 529-542, February.
    9. Prof dr Erik Stam & Felix Meier zu Selhausen, MSc MA, 2014. "Husbands and Wives. The powers and perils of participation in a microfinance cooperative for female entrepreneurs," Working Papers 2014/20, Maastricht School of Management.
    10. Md. Nur Nobi & Md. Arif Billah & Asaduzzaman Shohel & Tani, 2021. "Effectiveness of Islamic Microfinance in Alleviating Poverty: Empirical Evidence from Bangladesh," International Journal of Science and Business, IJSAB International, vol. 5(4), pages 1-10.
    11. Quibria, M. G., 2012. "Microcredit and Poverty Alleviation: Can Microcredit Close the Deal?," WIDER Working Paper Series 078, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    12. Godfroid, Cécile & Otiti, Naome & Mersland, Roy, 2022. "Employee tenure and staff performance: The case of a social enterprise," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 457-467.
    13. Mohamed El Hedi Arouri & Nguyen Viet Cuong, 2016. "Does Microcredit Reduce Gender Gap in Employment? An Application of Decomposition Analysis to Egypt," Working Papers 1017, Economic Research Forum, revised Jun 2016.
    14. Rao, Smriti, 2008. "Reforms with a Female Face: Gender, Liberalization, and Economic Policy in Andhra Pradesh, India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 36(7), pages 1213-1232, July.
    15. Mohamed Arouri & Nguyen Viet Cuong, 2020. "Does microcredit reduce the gender gap in employment? Evidence from Egypt," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 32(2), pages 111-124, June.
    16. Ashish Bajracharya & Sajeda Amin, 2013. "Microcredit and Domestic Violence in Bangladesh: An Exploration of Selection Bias Influences," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 50(5), pages 1819-1843, October.
    17. Mauricio Cervantes & Miguel A. Montoya & L. Arturo Bernal Ponce, 2017. "The contrasts of microcredit and some unresolved institutional challenges of microfinance: evidence from Mexico," EconoQuantum, Revista de Economia y Finanzas, Universidad de Guadalajara, Centro Universitario de Ciencias Economico Administrativas, Departamento de Metodos Cuantitativos y Maestria en Economia., vol. 14(2), pages 105-124, Julio-Dic.
    18. Touseef Ahmed Khan & Fahem Ahmed Khan & Qristin Violinda & Ilyas Aasir & Sun Jian, 2020. "Microfinance Facility for Rural Women Entrepreneurs in Pakistan: An Empirical Analysis," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-17, February.
    19. Chliova, Myrto & Brinckmann, Jan & Rosenbusch, Nina, 2015. "Is microcredit a blessing for the poor? A meta-analysis examining development outcomes and contextual considerations," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 467-487.
    20. M. G. Quibria, 2012. "Microcredit and Poverty Alleviation: Can Microcredit Close the Deal?," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2012-078, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:indgen:v:14:y:2007:i:3:p:409-437. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.