Micro-credit and gendered moral economies: a case study of micro-credit cooperatives in rural Mexico

Micro-credit programs, one of the most important development initiatives within the past decade, often target rural women in the Global South. While some hail micro-credit programs as a development panacea that promotes women's empowerment, others view it as a problematic form of capitalist expansion in an era of neoliberalism. Through a case study of micro-credit in rural Mexico, this article complicates both these views and uses the concept of gendered moral economies to understand the gendered complexities of micro-credit programs. Gendered moral economies emphasizes how gendered social relations are constitutive of economic relations. It serves as a framework to help analyze how gender norms both shape and are shaped by negotiations over the distribution of scarce resources. Examining how micro-credit comes to make sense to rural Mexican women, this study demonstrates that definitions of proper gendered behavior are a key site through which micro-credit programs are accepted or rejected