IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/femeco/v23y2017i1p160-185.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does Microfinance Enhance Gender Equity in Access to Finance? Evidence from Pakistan

Author

Listed:
  • Ghazal Zulfiqar

Abstract

This paper descriptively analyzes longitudinal microfinance outreach numbers and interview data from 140 practitioners and borrowers in Pakistan to examine whether the claim that microfinance enhances gender equity in access to finance can be substantiated. This assertion has recently replaced the more ambitious contention that microfinance has an empowering impact on women. The paper argues that this shift has occurred because of increased commercialization at the global level and authoritative assessments against the empowerment claim. The study further considers whether the frame of competing logics from institutional theory can explain the case of the Pakistani microfinance sector, in which, as shown here, commercialized microfinance has actually led to a rise in gender inequalities in access to finance. The paper attributes this rise to the inability of the Pakistani microfinance sector to reconcile the competing logics of development and banking.

Suggested Citation

  • Ghazal Zulfiqar, 2017. "Does Microfinance Enhance Gender Equity in Access to Finance? Evidence from Pakistan," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(1), pages 160-185, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:femeco:v:23:y:2017:i:1:p:160-185
    DOI: 10.1080/13545701.2016.1193213
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/13545701.2016.1193213
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/13545701.2016.1193213?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Demirguc-Kunt, Asli & Klapper, Leora & Singer, Dorothe, 2013. "Financial inclusion and legal discrimination against women : evidence from developing countries," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6416, The World Bank.
    2. Mehnaz Safavian & Aban Haq, 2013. "Are Pakistan's Women Entrepreneurs Being Served by the Microfinance Sector?," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 15929.
    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. Nyarko, Samuel Anokye, 2022. "Gender discrimination and lending to women: The moderating effect of an international founder," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(4).
    2. Malki, Issam & Ghalib, Asad & Kaousar, Rukhsana, 2024. "The impact of microfinance on entrepreneurship and welfare among women borrowers in rural Pakistan," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 35(C).
    3. Salman Mahmood & Wen shuhui & Shoaib Aslam & Tanveer Ahmed, 2022. "The Financial Inclusion Development and Its Impacts on Disposable Income," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(2), pages 21582440221, April.
    4. Sarah Wali Qazi, M. Zaki Rashidi, 2018. "Nurturing Women Empowerment? A Phenomenological Study of the Linkages between Women, Micro Entrepreneurship and Access to Microcredit," Journal of Management Sciences, Geist Science, Iqra University, Faculty of Business Administration, vol. 5(2), pages 3-21, October.
    5. Tisdell, Clem & Ahmad, Shabbir, 2017. "Microfinancing in Developing Countries: An Assessment Taking Particular Account of the Views of Becker and Posner," Social Economics, Policy and Development Working Papers 263400, University of Queensland, School of Economics.
    6. Zeleke Worku, 2019. "Regulatory Obstacles and Small, Micro and Medium-sized Enterprises," International Review of Management and Marketing, Econjournals, vol. 9(6), pages 44-50.
    7. Icíar García-Pérez & María Ángeles Fernández-Izquierdo & María Jesús Muñoz-Torres, 2020. "Microfinance Institutions Fostering Sustainable Development by Region," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-23, March.
    8. Md. Ali Rasel & Sandar Win, 2020. "Microfinance governance: a systematic review and future research directions," Journal of Economic Studies, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 47(7), pages 1811-1847, April.

    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. Anh L.N. Ngo, 2019. "Index of Financial Inclusion and the Determinants: An Investigation in Asia," Asian Economic and Financial Review, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 9(12), pages 1368-1382, December.
    2. Hermann Hegueu Ndoya & Charly Ondobo Tsala, 2021. "What drive gender gap in financial inclusion? Evidence from Cameroon," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 33(4), pages 674-687, December.
    3. Caroline PERRIN & Laurent WEILL, 2021. "No Men, No Cry? How Gender Equality in Access to Credit Enhances Financial Stability," Working Papers of LaRGE Research Center 2021-02, Laboratoire de Recherche en Gestion et Economie (LaRGE), Université de Strasbourg.
    4. Chandralekha Ghosh & Rimita Hom Chaudhury, 2019. "Gender Gap in case of Financial Inclusion: An Empirical Analysis in Indian Context," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 39(4), pages 2615-2630.
    5. Ozili, Peterson K, 2020. "Financial inclusion: a strong critique," MPRA Paper 101813, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Shahid Manzoor Shah & Amjad Ali, 2023. "Macro Dimensions of Financial Inclusion Index and its Status in Developing Countries," Journal of Policy Research (JPR), Research Foundation for Humanity (RFH), vol. 9(1), pages 1-12, March.
    7. Ekin Ayşe Özşuca, 2019. "Gender gap in financial inclusion: Evidence from MENA," Economics and Business Letters, Oviedo University Press, vol. 8(4), pages 199-208.
    8. Thi Thu Tra Pham & Thai Vu Hong Nguyen & Son Kien Nguyen & Hieu Thi Hoang Nguyen, 2023. "Does planned innovation promote financial access? Evidence from Vietnamese SMEs," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 13(2), pages 281-307, June.
    9. António Afonso & M. Carmen Blanco-Arana, 2024. "The persistence of gender pay and employment gaps in European countries," Working Papers REM 2024/0338, ISEG - Lisbon School of Economics and Management, REM, Universidade de Lisboa.
    10. Zelu, Barbara Ama & Iranzo, Susana & Perez-Laborda, Alejandro, 2024. "Financial inclusion and women economic empowerment in Ghana," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    11. Leora Klapper & Sandeep Singh, 2015. "The Gender Gap in the Use of Financial Services in Turkey," World Bank Publications - Reports 25412, The World Bank Group.
    12. Zelda Marquardt & Yuichi Ikeda, 2022. "Network Analysis of the Gender Gap in International Remittances by Migrants," The Review of Socionetwork Strategies, Springer, vol. 16(2), pages 337-376, October.
    13. Ozili, Peterson Kitakogelu, 2021. "Financial inclusion and legal system quality: are they correlated?," MPRA Paper 110518, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Kara, Alper & Zhou, Haoyong & Zhou, Yifan, 2021. "Achieving the United Nations' sustainable development goals through financial inclusion: A systematic literature review of access to finance across the globe," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    15. Valerija Botric & Tanja Broz, 2017. "Gender Differences in Financial Inclusion: Central and South Eastern Europe," South-Eastern Europe Journal of Economics, Association of Economic Universities of South and Eastern Europe and the Black Sea Region, vol. 15(2), pages 209-227.
    16. Leanne Roncolato & Nicholas Reksten & Caren Grown, 2017. "Engendering Growth Diagnostics: Examining Constraints to Private Investment and Entrepreneurship," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 35(2), pages 263-287, January.
    17. Sholevar, Maryam & Harris, Laurence, 2019. "Mind the gap: A discussion paper on Financial Literacy, Financial behaviour and Financial Education : Is there any Gender Gap?," OSF Preprints b7zd6, Center for Open Science.
    18. Ndanshau, Michal O.A. & Njau, Frank E., 2021. "Empirical Investigation into Demand-Side Determinants of Financial Inclusion in Tanzania," African Journal of Economic Review, African Journal of Economic Review, vol. 9(1), January.
    19. Emma Galli & Danilo Valerio Mascia & Stefania Patrizia Sonia Rossi, 2018. "Does Corruption Influence the Self-Restraint Attitude of Women-led SMEs towards Bank Lending?," CESifo Economic Studies, CESifo Group, vol. 64(3), pages 426-455.
    20. Farzana Chowdhury & David B. Audretsch, 2021. "A dynamic relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and entrepreneurial activity," Journal of International Entrepreneurship, Springer, vol. 19(3), pages 339-356, September.

    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:taf:femeco:v:23:y:2017:i:1:p:160-185. 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RFEC20 .

    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.