IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/indgen/v24y2017i1p1-23.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Collective Action, Envisioning the Future and Women’s Self-help Groups: A Case Study from South India

Author

Listed:
  • Elizabeth Finnis

Abstract

In this article, I discuss women’s perceptions of and experiences with self-help groups and collective action in two agricultural communities in Tamil Nadu, India. Focusing on women’s social and political activities, particularly in terms of the struggle for the approval and construction of a new road, I argue that in these communities, self-help groups offered a conceptual space that encouraged collective actions, and contributed to processes of change in the ways women perceived and experienced their personal power and their social positions within their households and communities. I demonstrate how these groups offered a way for members to add their voices to political struggles and articulate their visions of the future, even as they recognised everyday gender inequities.

Suggested Citation

  • Elizabeth Finnis, 2017. "Collective Action, Envisioning the Future and Women’s Self-help Groups: A Case Study from South India," Indian Journal of Gender Studies, Centre for Women's Development Studies, vol. 24(1), pages 1-23, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:indgen:v:24:y:2017:i:1:p:1-23
    DOI: 10.1177/0971521516678529
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0971521516678529
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0971521516678529?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. Hein de Haas & Aleida van Rooij, 2010. "Migration as Emancipation? The Impact of Internal and International Migration on the Position of Women Left Behind in Rural Morocco," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(1), pages 43-62.
    2. F. Nader, Yasmine, 2008. "Microcredit and the socio-economic wellbeing of women and their families in Cairo," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 644-656, April.
    3. Deininger, Klaus W. & Liu, Yanyan, 2008. "Economic and Social Impacts of Self-Help Groups in India," 2008 Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2008, Orlando, Florida 6482, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    4. Tara Natarajan, 2005. "Agency of Development and Agents of Change: Localization, Resistance, and Empowerment," Journal of Economic Issues, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(2), pages 409-418, June.
    5. Ranjula Bali Swain & Fan Yang Wallentin, 2009. "Does microfinance empower women? Evidence from self-help groups in India," International Review of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(5), pages 541-556.
    6. Nair, Ajai, 2005. "Sustainability of microfinance self help groups in India: would federating help?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3516, The World Bank.
    7. Raj M. Desai & Shareen Joshi, 2014. "Collective Action and Community Development: Evidence from Self-Help Groups in Rural India," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 28(3), pages 492-524.
    8. Kabeer, Naila, 2001. "Conflicts Over Credit: Re-Evaluating the Empowerment Potential of Loans to Women in Rural Bangladesh," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 63-84, January.
    9. S. Kumar & S. SurnameCorbridge, 2002. "Programmed to Fail? Development Projects and the Politics of Participation," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(2), pages 73-103.
    10. Smita G. Sabhlok, 2011. "Development and Women," Indian Journal of Gender Studies, Centre for Women's Development Studies, vol. 18(2), pages 241-261, June.
    11. Supriya Garikipati, 2013. "Microcredit and Women's Empowerment: Have We Been Looking at the Wrong Indicators?," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(sup1), pages 53-75, August.
    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. Annabel Dulhunty, 2022. "The microcredit continuum: From ‘smart economics’ to holistic programming," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 34(6), pages 1213-1226, August.
    2. Sunita Dhal & Linda Lane & Nilima Srivastava, 2020. "Women’s Collectives and Collective Action for Food and Energy Security: Reflections from a Community of Practice (CoP) Perspective," Indian Journal of Gender Studies, Centre for Women's Development Studies, vol. 27(1), pages 55-76, February.
    3. Richa Kandpal & Izuru Saizen, 2019. "Enabling Collaborative Action between Self-Help Groups and Rural Local Bodies through an Exploratory Workshop: The Case of a Peri-Urban Village in Mumbai Metropolitan Region, India," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-16, March.

    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. Weber, Olaf & Ahmad, Adnan, 2014. "Empowerment Through Microfinance: The Relation Between Loan Cycle and Level of Empowerment," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 75-87.
    2. Deshpande, Ashwini & Khanna, Shantanu, 2021. "Can weak ties create social capital? Evidence from Self-Help Groups in rural India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    3. N. Rajagopal, 2020. "Social Impact of Women SHGs: A Study of NHGs of ‘Kudumbashree’ in Kerala," Management and Labour Studies, XLRI Jamshedpur, School of Business Management & Human Resources, vol. 45(3), pages 317-336, August.
    4. Funmi (Olufunmilola) Ojediran & Alistair Anderson, 2020. "Women’s Entrepreneurship in the Global South: Empowering and Emancipating?," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-22, November.
    5. Roy, Chandan & Chatterjee, Susmita & Dutta Gupta, Sangita, 2017. "Women Empowerment Index: Construction of a Tool to Measure Rural Women Empowerment Level in India," MPRA Paper 92796, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Deininger, Klaus & Liu, Yanyan, 2009. "Longer-term economic impacts of self-help groups in india," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4886, The World Bank.
    7. Desai, Raj M. & Olofsgård, Anders, 2019. "Can the poor organize? Public goods and self-help groups in rural India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 33-52.
    8. Supriya Garikipati, 2012. "Microcredit and Women's Empowerment: Through the Lens of Time-Use Data from Rural India," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 43(3), pages 719-750, May.
    9. Paolo Casini & Lore Vandewalle & Zaki Wahhaj, 2017. "Public Good Provision in Indian Rural Areas: The Returns to Collective Action by Microfinance Groups," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 31(1), pages 97-128.
    10. Maria Figueroa-Armijos & John P. Berns, 2022. "Vulnerable Populations and Individual Social Responsibility in Prosocial Crowdfunding: Does the Framing Matter for Female and Rural Entrepreneurs?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 177(2), pages 377-394, May.
    11. João Paulo Coelho Ribeiro & Fábio Duarte & Ana Paula Matias Gama, 2022. "Does microfinance foster the development of its clients? A bibliometric analysis and systematic literature review," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 8(1), pages 1-35, December.
    12. Hillesland, Marya & Kaaria, Susan & Mane, Erdgin & Alemu, Mihret & Slavchevska, Vanya, 2022. "Does a joint United Nations microfinance ‘plus’ program empower female farmers in rural Ethiopia? Evidence using the pro-WEAI," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    13. Kausar Yasmeen & Mohd Zaini Abd Karim, 2014. "Impact of Interaction Term between Education and Loan Size on Women’s Decision Making," Journal of Entrepreneurship and Business Innovation, Macrothink Institute, Journal of Entrepreneurship and Business Innovation, vol. 1(1), pages 123-141, June.
    14. Mary Kay Gugerty & Pierre Biscaye & C. Leigh Anderson, 2019. "Delivering development? Evidence on self‐help groups as development intermediaries in South Asia and Africa," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 37(1), pages 129-151, January.
    15. Gregor Dorfleitner & Eva-Maria Oswald & Rongxin Zhang, 2021. "From Credit Risk to Social Impact: On the Funding Determinants in Interest-Free Peer-to-Peer Lending," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 170(2), pages 375-400, May.
    16. B, Ranjula & Wallentin, Fan Yang, 2008. "Economic or Non-Economic Factors – What Empowers Women?," Working Paper Series 2008:11, Uppsala University, Department of Economics.
    17. Balasubramanian, Pooja & Ibanez, Marcela & Khan, Sarah & Sahoo, Soham, 2024. "Does women's economic empowerment promote human development in low- and middle-income countries? A meta-analysis," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 178(C).
    18. Cristina Elisa Orso & Enrico Fabrizi, 2013. "Microcredit and women's empowerment in Bangladesh: a structural equation model for categorical observed variables," DISCE - Quaderni del Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e Sociali dises1396, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Dipartimenti e Istituti di Scienze Economiche (DISCE).
    19. Kumar, Neha & Raghunathan, Kalyani & Arrieta, Alejandra & Jilani, Amir & Chakrabarti, Suman & Menon, Purnima & Quisumbing, Agnes R., 2019. "Social networks, mobility, and political participation: The potential for women’s self-help groups to improve access and use of public entitlement schemes in India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 28-41.
    20. Dahoun, Dieudonné Bleossi & Manlan, Olivier & Vodonou, Cosme & Mongan, Saint-Martin & Mededji, Damien & Alofa, Janvier P., 2013. "Microcrédit, pauvreté et autonomisation des femmes au Bénin," PEP Working Papers 160426, Partnership for Economic Policy (PEP).

    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:24:y:2017:i:1:p:1-23. 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.