Whether monetary empowerment leads to gender empowerment or not: case studies in the context of micro credit programmes in India

• Journal: Global Academic Society Journal: Social Science Insight, Vol. 1, No. 4, year 2008, pp. 18-37.
• Author(s): Tilak Mukhopadhyay
• Category: Social Science Insight II
• Keywords: NGO, gender, gender empowerment, women’s empowerment, monetary empowerment, development, micro credit programmes, banks, Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs), Self Help Group (SHG), rural women in India

Abstract

The paper deals with the relationship between monetary empowerment and gender empowerment. The objective of the paper is to determine whether and to what extent participation in Self Help Groups (SHGs) impacts the empowerment of women members. After briefly discussing the history and structures of Self Help Groups the paper explains the relationship with some case studies. From the case studies, it is evident that the relationship between economic empowerment and gender empowerment does not go in same line in all the cases. The linkage effect of economic empowerment is not readily transformed into decision making power for women in most of the cases. Self Help Groups can be one way to achieve some level of gender empowerment, but in Indian society the gender empowerment depends on much more complex factors rooted in various demographic and religious factors. So the success rate to achieve gender empowerment through micro credit schemes is not very significant in Indian society. The paper proposes a dummy variable model to estimate the level of empowerment of a woman member before and after joining a micro credit scheme.