Mediating Production, Re-powering Patriarchy: The Case of Micro Credit

T.J. Jitha
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T.J. Jitha: Jitha T.J. is an independent researcher. E-mail: jithatj@yahoo.com

Indian Journal of Gender Studies, 2013, vol. 20, issue 2, 253-278

Abstract: The micro credit-based development programme working through self-help groups (SHGs) is an initiative whose basic premise is that the empowerment of women can be achieved through economically gainful activities. The lack of access to financial resources is considered to be one of the main reasons for the patriarchal subjection and subjugation of women as well as their low status in family and society. However, empowerment thus achieved or claimed to have been achieved through SHG initiatives may do more to enhancing the bargaining power of women within the existing system of male hegemony, thereby not only acknowledging but also strengthening it—the same unequal, hierarchical, masculine, biased system that SHGs are said to free women from. Using ethnographic field data undertaken in the city of Delhi, the present article examines some of the paradoxes in the practices of micro credit.

Keywords: Micro credit; empowerment; self-help groups; feminist intervention; financial mediation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:indgen:v:20:y:2013:i:2:p:253-278

DOI: 10.1177/0971521513482219

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