Reconsidering Women’s Empowerment: the Contradictory Effects of Microfinance for Guatemalan Women

Beck, Erin

doi:10.1007/s12116-017-9247-9

Cited by 13 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…The fourth form -established organizations -embodies a more institutionalized character developing existing strategies rather than building structures from scratch. Established organizations are characterized with a higher rate of interaction among levels of state-like public administration (Scherer, 2018), eco-innovation (Ma, Wang, Skibniewski, & Gajda, 2019), and social entities (Beck, 2017;Murisa & Chikweche, 2013;Warnecke & Houndonougbo, 2016).…”

Section: Established Organizationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While MFIs have aimed at poverty reduction since the 1970s (Murisa & Chikweche, 2013), the efficiency and impact have been challenged by refocused agendas, thus importing grand challenges concerns into daily business (Wright & Nyberg, 2017). Beck (2017) elaborates on development strategies for microfinance NGOs in Guatemala with feminized policies to ensure gender equality, quality education, and the end of poverty. These policies can either solely focus on monetary aid or a rather holistic approach, providing women with cultural, financial, and environmental education, similar to the tools applied in rural Bangladesh communities (Mair, Marti, & Ventresca, 2012).…”

Section: Empirical Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Addressing Grand Challenges Through Different Forms of Organizing: A Literature Review

Kaufmann¹,

Danner-Schröder²

2022

Organizing for Societal Grand Challenges

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We conduct a literature review on forms of organizing that address grand challenges, which are operationalized as the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations, as this framework is universal and widely adopted. By analyzing the articles that match our criteria, we identify six differentiable organizational forms: movements, temporary organizations, partnerships, established organizations, multi-stakeholder networks, and supranational organizations. These six forms are differentiated based on the two following categories: organizing segment and communicational technological approach. Our analysis shows that tackling a grand challenge often starts with collectives as a protest culture without any expected goal, besides sending an impulse to others. This impulse is received by criticized institutionalized organizations that have the capacity and resources to address the problem properly. However, new challenges arise as these organizations inadequately resolve these problems, thereby leading to conflict-laden areas of tension, wherein emergent organizations complement institutionalized organizations that have created the first infrastructure. To solve the most complex problems, a trichotomous

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Section: Established Organizationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Empirical Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Addressing Grand Challenges Through Different Forms of Organizing: A Literature Review

Kaufmann¹,

Danner-Schröder²

2022

Organizing for Societal Grand Challenges

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“…Women who experience increased economic control and partner violence may experience declines in their agency and mental well-being ( Antai et al, 2014 ), and these effects may reciprocally increase women’s risks of coercion and violence ( Kim and Lee, 2013 ). In practice, women’s participation in microfinance may trigger all of these complex pathways, ultimately improving some aspects of women’s lives while diminishing others ( Beck, 2017 ). Given the potential complexity of these pathways, assessing the total (unmediated) effects of women’s participation in microfinance on social and health-related outcomes remains a critical empirical question.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Women's participation in microfinance: Effects on Women's agency, exposure to partner violence, and mental health

Yount

Cheong

Khan

et al. 2021

Social Science & Medicine

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Objectives: The health and social effects of women’s microfinance participation remain debated. Methods: Using propensity-score methods, we assessed effects of microfinance participation on novel measures of agency; intimate partner violence (IPV) exposure; and depressive symptoms in 930 wives in Matlab, Bangladesh interviewed 11/2018–01/2019. Results: Participants, versus non-participants, were married younger (16.7 vs. 17.4 years), more often Muslim (90.7% vs. 86.2%), less schooled (5.4 vs. 6.8 grades), and more often had husbands (27.0% vs. 19.6%) and mothers (63.2% vs. 50.5%) without schooling. Participants and non-participants had similar unadjusted mean scores for prior-week depressive symptoms, prior-year IPV, and intrinsic attitudinal agency (gender-equitable attitudes; non-justification of wife beating). Participants had higher unadjusted mean scores for intrinsic voice/mobility; instrumental agency (using financial services, voice with husband, voice/mobility outside home); and collective agency. Average adjusted treatment effects were non-significant for depressive symptoms, IPV, and attitudinal intrinsic agency, and significantly favorable for other agency outcomes. Conclusions: Microfinance participation had no adverse health effects and favorable empowerment effects in Bangladeshi wives. Policy Implications. Microfinance can empower women without adverse health effects. Social-norms programming with men and women may be needed to change gendered expectations about the distribution of unpaid labor and the rights of women.

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“…So, far from patriarchy being non-negotiable, its inherent contradictions paradoxically create opportunities for women to negotiate within and beyond conjugal relationships (Beck 2017). We have highlighted these contradictions around food provisioning, the creativity that women can deploy in exploiting them, and the resulting negotiations, particularly around foodprovisioning.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 97%

Women bargaining with patriarchy in coastal Kenya: contradictions, creative agency and food provisioning

Kawarazuka

Locke

Seeley

2019

Gender, Place & Culture

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Gender analysts have long recognised that challenging existing patriarchal structures involves risks for women, who may lose both long-term support and protection from kin. However, understanding the specific ways in which they 'bargain with patriarchy' in particular contexts is relatively poorly understood. We focus on a Mijikenda fishing community in coastal Kenya to explore contradictions in gendered power relations and how women deploy these to reinterpret gendered practices without directly challenging local patriarchal structures. We argue that a more complex understanding of women's creative agency can reveal both the value to women of culturally-specific gendered roles and responsibilities and the importance of subtle changes that they are able to negotiate in these. With reference to food provisioning, the analysis contributes to more nuanced understandings of gendered household food security and women's creative approaches to maintaining long-term security in their lives.

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Reconsidering Women’s Empowerment: the Contradictory Effects of Microfinance for Guatemalan Women

Cited by 13 publications

References 49 publications

Addressing Grand Challenges Through Different Forms of Organizing: A Literature Review

Addressing Grand Challenges Through Different Forms of Organizing: A Literature Review

Women's participation in microfinance: Effects on Women's agency, exposure to partner violence, and mental health

Women bargaining with patriarchy in coastal Kenya: contradictions, creative agency and food provisioning

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