Empowering Women through Microfinance: Fundamentally Interesting but Pragmatically Irrelevant

Abstract

Empowerment of women should not be started merely using coercion leading to conflicts in households but emphasizing on understanding and consensus. Empowerment begins with transformation and willingness to change. The realization of subordinated status and gender discrimination against women is the starting point of journey of women empowerment. There are differences in perceptions of what stakeholders (government NGOs, donors) of society believe about empowering women through microfinance and the way women (actors) perceive empowerment process itself. To emphasize this gap, the present paper explores observations made at the time of interacting with women of Gujarat on empowerment (through microfinance). Therefore, the objective of this paper is to analyze the perceptions and views of Gujarati women on empowerment through microfinance and critically examine the relationship between the same with the help of review of literature. The observations reveal acceptance of subordinated status; focus on intrinsic value of empowerment, avoiding independent decision making, considering loans as means of assistance and perceiving women as an object of development.