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Microcredit and Women's Empowerment: Have We Been Looking at the Wrong Indicators?

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  • Supriya Garikipati

Abstract

The impact that microcredit has on women's empowerment has been much debated in the literature. Some studies find negative effects; some find positive effects and others no effect. A reconciliation of these discrepancies has been attempted by attributing them to the usage of different measures of empowerment. In particular, it has been argued that those studies that view empowerment as outcomes for women associated with their access to loans, find positive effects, and those studies that focus on processes of loan use find negative effects. These different ways of measuring empowerment are the focus of this study. Using data collected from 397 women participants in a microcredit programme in rural India, it is evident that measuring empowerment in terms of outcomes alone--as most impact assessments do--is not only insufficient but can actually be misleading as well. The findings of this study suggest that a more robust understanding of the linkages between lending to women and their empowerment can be achieved by focusing on the processes surrounding loan use and repayment. The findings of this study also caution against the excessive focus on outcomes as a measure of women's empowerment.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:oxdevs:v:41:y:2013:i:sup1:p:s53-s75
    DOI: 10.1080/13600818.2012.744387
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Jesmin Akhter & Kun Cheng, 2020. "Sustainable Empowerment Initiatives among Rural Women through Microcredit Borrowings in Bangladesh," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-19, March.
    2. Distefano, Rosaria, 2022. "The social cost of playing by the rules in the credit market," MPRA Paper 115326, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Mathilde Maitrot, 2017. "Re-visiting microfinance entrepreneurship in Bangladesh: Can losers be choosers?," Global Development Institute Working Paper Series 192017, GDI, The University of Manchester.
    4. Nassani, Abdelmohsen A. & Aldakhil, Abdullah Mohammed & Abro, Muhammad Moinuddin Qazi & Islam, Talat & Zaman, Khalid, 2019. "The impact of tourism and finance on women empowerment," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 41(2), pages 234-254.
    5. Ruthbah, Ummul, 2020. "Does lower fertility empower women? Evidence from rural Bangladesh," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 36(C).
    6. 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.
    7. Suma Scaria, 2020. "Public Irrigation and Well-being of Women: A Tale of Two Villages in North-east Karnataka, India," Indian Journal of Human Development, , vol. 14(3), pages 447-459, December.
    8. 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).
    9. Bronwyn P. Wood & Poh Yen Ng & Bettina Lynda Bastian, 2021. "Hegemonic Conceptualizations of Empowerment in Entrepreneurship and Their Suitability for Collective Contexts," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-17, March.
    10. Robin A. Richardson, 2018. "Measuring Women’s Empowerment: A Critical Review of Current Practices and Recommendations for Researchers," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 137(2), pages 539-557, June.
    11. Laszlo, Sonia & Grantham, Kate & Oskay, Ecem & Zhang, Tingting, 2020. "Grappling with the challenges of measuring women's economic empowerment in intrahousehold settings," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).

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