Integrating gender in microfinance: Identifying strategies for women's empowerment across different institutional models

Abstract

The issue of microfinance and women's empowerment has been intensely debated in the last two decades or more. Most of the debates have been about whether microfinance leads to empowerment in the context of specific programmes. Many impact studies focus on specific quantifiable indicators, whether economic or social. This paper moves beyond such debates to understand which strategies work to create empowerment and how. It looks at three institutional models of microfinance across the minimalist and credit plus spaces to identify gender specific and other strategies which enable experiences of empowerment for members of microfinance institutions. Instead of quantitative indicators or specific achievements, the paper explores dimensions and processes of empowerment such as solidarity, leadership and challenge to patriarchal ideology. Although the study is located in a certain district of West Bengal, a state in India, the observations and findings have relevance globally because similar institutional models and strategies are present across the world, especially in the Global South.