 The Dream Merchants Have No Clothes: Women’s Rights and Empowerment in the Microfinance RegimeSoma Kishore Parthasarathy Chapter 10 in Women Reclaiming Sustainable Livelihoods, 2012, pp 142-161 from Palgrave Macmillan Abstract: Abstract This chapter analyses the gender and equity implications and impacts of profit-driven microfinance (MF) for women who are at the centre of the industry. The instrumentalization of women and their labour, resources, and spaces as they participate in market-driven modes of MF has only driven women into distress situations as they attempt to fulfil survival and social production needs and does not address their poverty or bring about transformative change in their lives. The proposed Micro Finance Regulatory Legislation needs to incorporate women’s interests in order to prevent adverse impacts on women. Engendered, equitable, and democratic spaces, institutions, norms, and practices and modes of microfinance that allow grass-roots women to retain control, agency, and ownership of their thrift and of their own resources and institutions, thereby enabling their empowerment and enhancing their economic viability, are an imperative for the success of microfinance. Keywords: Interest Rate; Poverty Alleviation; Poor Woman; Finance Regime; Microfinance Institution (search for similar items in EconPapers) There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it. Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:gdechp:978-1-137-02234-9_10 Ordering information: This item can be ordered from Access Statistics for this chapter More chapters in Gender, Development and Social Change from Palgrave Macmillan |
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