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Questioning Virtuous Spirals: Micro-finance and Women's Empowerment in Africa
Mayoux, L.
Journal: Journal of International Development, 11(7):957-984
Publication Date: 1999
Document Type: Journal Article
This article is available on subscription only.
What are the range of policy choices for women's empowerment in microcredit programmes?
The paper examines credit programmes that target women and presents the essential elements of an effective gender policy
The paper sees three contrasting paradigms of women's empowerment in microfinance programmes: - financial self-sustainability based on programmes sustained by women's repayment rates and expecting empowerment to emerge
- poverty alleviation where microfinance is integrated with community development, targeting the poor and household wellbeing is linked to empowerment
- feminist empowerment is a sectoral strategy that centres women's empowerment and offers microfinance as a means to this end
Proponents of the narrowest category of aims include CGAP, who have been solely concerned with sustainability indicators rather than gender strategies. The paper sees effective empowerment strategies as those which target women rather than divert resources into debt. It offers elements of a gender policy through strategies and guidelines:- strategies targeting women flexible microfinance delivery; services that complement gender; structures for participation; mechanisms for representation; inter-organisational links.
- strategies targeting men gender awareness; property and asset registration incentives; domestic responsibility; organised support for change
- institutionalised gender guidelines gendering all policy; gender equality within institutions; incentives for equity
Based on the examination of evidence from 15 African programmes, the article makes tentative conclusions showing that:- Although micro-finance can make a contribution to empowerment this cannot be assumed to be an automatic outcome
- There have been differences between Asian and African impacts:
- women in Africa are more widely involved in production and marketing and are often responsible for household subsistence
- consequently they are more likely to use credit for their own enterprises and control the income which may however lead to very heavy worksloads
- men may be witholding more of their contribution to the household for their own use
- with women who are already involved in extensive networks, the social and political impacts of micro-finance may be less than that noted for Asia
- programmes in Africa have been less active in linking with women's organisations and working explicitly for social and political empowerment
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