Chapter 3 - Microfinance and women

The situation of women around the world and particularly in developing countries

Women account for the half of the world population and their activity represents two thirds of the total work time. They play an essential role, especially as far as nutrition and food safety are concerned. However, women gain only one third of the world revenue. They own less than 10% of total resources; they make up 2/3 of illiterates; they represent 2/3 of the 1,2 billion people living on less than $ 1 per day. Often isolated in their household, women in most developing countries are excluded from the political, economic and social power and have only seldom access to knowledge. But when they run a profitable business, their whole family eats better, lives better, has access to education, etc. That is why it is imperative to help them fight against poverty.

Microfinance is an efficient fighting tool for women

Many microfinance programmes target women. The example of the Grameen Bank has shown that women repay better their loans (in almost 98% of cases), and that the impact of resources increase was higher when the family head is a woman. The whole family benefits then from the situation, e.g. as far as health and education are concerned. Generally speaking, microfinance tends to improve their living conditions at several levels:

• Improvement of their access to education;
• Encouragement of their participation in household decisions, especially as far as expenses are concerned;
• Contribution to a change of attitude towards them, as far as their role at home in the community is concerned;
• Increase of their power in the society, and help to gain self-confidence so that they can defend their rights;
• Reduction of inequalities related to control over land, work, raw stuff and revenue;
• Improvement of their access to credit (since they are often excluded from the formal financial sector: banks, savings and credit banks, etc), giving them thus the opportunity to increase their revenue and their financial independence;
• Facilitating their access to information networks and to markets, giving them thus the opportunity to experience the world outside the family network and to play new roles, regardless of whether they are political, economic or social.