Ranjula Bali Swain|Fan Yang Wallentin
Does microfinance empower women? Evidence from self?help groups in India
Uppsala University|Uppsala University|BI Norwegian Business School
abstract microfinance programmes like self help bank linkage program india increasingly promoted positive economic impact belief empower women however studies rigorously examine link microfinance womens empowerment article contributes discussion arguing womens empowerment takes place women challenge existing social norms culture effectively improve wellbeing empirically validates hypothesis using quasiexperimental household sample data collected five states india 2000 2003 general model estimated employing appropriate techniques treat ordinal variables order estimate impact self help group shg womens empowerment 2000 2003 results strongly demonstrate average significant increase empowerment women shg members group significant change observed however members control group elegance result lies fact group shg participants show clear evidence significant higher empowerment allowing possibility members might empowered others keywords microfinancewomens empowermentgeneral modeljel classifications g21j16c33 notes 1 cited dukas hoffman 1981 dukas helen hoffman banesh eds 1981 albert einstein human side princeton princeton univeristy press google scholar 78 2 early 1990s national bank agriculture rural development nabard started new nationwide microfinance initiative linking banks nongovernmental organizations ngos informal local groups selfhelp groups shgs shg bank linkage programme expected become dominant form financial access rural women 3 millennium development goals mdgs agreed united nations summit september 2000 nearly 190 countries mdg goal 3 aims promoting gender equality empowering women 4 discussion refer armendariz de aghion morduch 2005 armendariz de aghion b morduch j 2005 economics microfinance cambridge mit press google scholar 17995 5 detailed survey literature womens empowerment impact microfinance womens empowerment see bali swain 2007 bali swain r 2007 impacting women microfinance dialogue appui au developpement autonome 6179 google scholar 6 finds effects even striking women members group longer period especially greater emphasis laid genuine social intermediation social group intermediation gradually transformed groups actors local institutional change 7 overall economic social political cultural environment 8 nature microfinance administered individuals via groups belonging group leads creation social capital support structure group members empowers women improve overall economic wellbeing furthermore microfinance programs encourage frequent group meetings interaction loan officer bank officials keeping financial records activities encourage discussions issues related economic activities also household village issues mobility increase confidence literacy thereby empowering women improving condition within household village society moreover several microfinance programmes encourage awareness creation via training workshops informal interaction political social economic situation women thereby encourage improve personal situations within household society live 9 problem attribution refers difficulty establishing unequivocally observed changes economic social status members shgs induced formation shgs related component micro finance consequence possible causes arising due changing economic political social cultural policy environment 10 states districts parentheses orissa koraput rayagada andhra pradesh medak rangareddy tamil nadu dharamapuri villupuram uttar pradesh allahabad rae bareli maharashtra gadchiroli chandrapur 11 actual sample size used estimation 961 estimation model explained later article data meet equal categories property therefore seven observations could included 12 see jreskog srbom 1999 jreskog kg srbom 1999 lisrel 8 structual equation modeling simplis command language chicago il scientific software international google scholar 13 result nonsignificant 1 5 level significance 14 field survey bali swain 2003 bali swain r 2003 impact self help groups notes focus group discussions department economics uppsala university unpublished draft google scholar 15 see kabeer 1999 kabeer n 1999 resources agency achievements reflections measurement womens empowerment development change 30 43564 crossref web science google scholar holvoet 2005 holvoet n 2005 impact microfinance decisionmaking agency evidence south india development change 361 75102 crossref web science google scholar