Women Deserve Credit: Empowering Women through Microfinance

Microfinance has come to be widely accepted as a powerful tool in poverty reduction among the very poor in society, especially women. Its benefits are both tangible and intangible, and of the intangibles, empowerment strikes us as being of utmost importance. This project explores the impact of microfinance on the empowerment of women by focusing on two main issues. The first issue has to do with whether the trend of commercializing microfinance institutions affects the empowerment of women and the second seeks to gauge to what extent non-monetary contributions of male partners in female microfinance clients\u27 lives affects the success of said clients.In the last few years, many Latin American microfinance institutions have transitioned from non- profit organizations to fully regulated financial institutions. The effects of the commercialization on the empowerment of women are explored and whether social development has taken a secondary role. The project offers a statistical analysis of the current relationship between women empowerment and commercialization of microfinance institutions.In Africa gender relations play an important part in socio-economic and political outcomes such that the empowerment of women needs to be explored focusing on the role that gender relations play in the success or failure of female microfinance clients. Three countries are surveyed (Ghana, Uganda, South Africa) so that one can decipher if there are significant cultural differences in West, East, and Southern Africa that would color the findings of this project. This project focuses on qualitative data, which for the most part is not being addressed in the microfinance industry and research