Microfinancial Drivers of Women Empowerment: Do Self-help Group Membership and Family Size Moderate the Relation?

Abstract

This study aims at developing a model that would assess women empowerment due to microfinance activities and evaluates the moderating role of self-help group (SHG) membership and family size in women empowerment. Factor analysis and partial least square structural equation modelling are employed to meet the objective of the study. Multigroup analysis is used to assess the moderating role of SHG membership and family size. The data are examined using SPSS 22.0 and SmartPLS 3.3.2 software. Findings reveal that the overall empowerment of women who belong to SHG is more influenced by social empowerment due to microfinance, while non-SHG members who have availed microfinance services feel more empowered due to their economic and psychological empowerment. Women with family size of four or less are more empowered due to their economic and social empowerment, while psychology played a more significant role in women with family size of more than four. The government and microfinance institutions (MFIs) should organise more awareness programmes to help women avail the microfinance services so that the economic activities conducted by them can lift the country’s economy. Women should be motivated to joins SHGs to reduce the chances of domestic violence and to increase their social holding.JEL Classification: C380, D140, G210