مرکز منطقه ای اطلاع رساني علوم و فناوري - The Neo-Liberal Development Paradigm and Woman: Do Micro-finance Practices Empower Women?

Abstract :

When the objectives of organizations around the globe providing microfinance are inquired into the expression “women’s empowerment” becomes apparent. It should be investigated whether this system, which has such objectives as improving women’s status within the family and society by leaving economic control to them and saving them from dependency by helping them receive income, has the potential to create a new logic, an alternative to the patriarchal mentality. In this paper, the issue of whether microfinance practice is an effective project in reducing women’s poverty and raising their socioeconomic status will be dealt with, substantiated by interviews with 100 women in total who benefited from microfinance in Diyarbakır. According to the results of the research, the loans borrowed are being used for maintaining an existing business, paying for debts or covering urgent needs, rather than in setting up new businesses. The businesses carried out by women using such loans are not secure businesses with regular income, which would integrate them into public life, but are of a traditional and home-based production nature. The levels of income earned by such businesses are very low and fail to go beyond the status of extra income for the family. Ensuring women with access to loans and providing an increase in income levels of the family do not alone create a change in womens social status.