Does Micro-Credit Empower Women : Evidence from Bangladesh

This paper examines the effects of
men's and women's participation in group-based
micro-credit programs on a large set of qualitative
responses to questions that characterize women's
autonomy and gender relations within the household. The data
come from a special survey carried out in rural Bangladesh
in 1998-99. The results are consistent with the view that
women's participation in micro-credit programs helps to
increase women's empowerment. Credit program
participation leads to women taking a greater role in
household decisionmaking, having greater access to financial
and economic resources, having greater social networks,
having greater bargaining power compared with their
husbands, and having greater freedom of mobility. Female
credit also tended to increase spousal communication in
general about family planning and parenting concerns. The
effects of male credit on women's empowerment were, at
best, neutral, and at worse, decidedly negative. Male credit
had a negative effect on several arenas of women's
empowerment, including physical mobility, access to savings
and economic resources, and power to manage some household transactions.