EMPOWERED OR INDEBTED? RETHINKING WOMEN’S AGENCY IN MICROCREDIT ECONOMIES IN BANGLADESH
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.69980/1zcjxn57Keywords:
Financial Inclusion, Bangladesh, Women’s Economic Empowerment, Women’s Agency, MicrocreditAbstract
Women's involvement in the micro credit industry in Bangladesh has been seen as a sign of empowerment, but access to finance is not necessarily a means of control over resources, enterprise development or of being free from debt burden. The study in this article employed secondary data from four data sets that focused on women's financial inclusion, microfinance institutions, financial behaviour among the national population and policy priorities for women's economic empowerment to analyse women's agency in the context of microcredit and financial inclusion in Bangladesh. The analysis was done between the participation of women in MFIs, banks, NBFIs, mobile financial services, credit from CMSME and national borrowing and saving indicators. The results indicated a double trend. Women were well represented in MFI deposit accounts (91%), but not in bank loan accounts or NBFI loan accounts or in higher value CMSME credit. Also, opportunity and debt exposure were observed in the MFI sector as it had the highest concentration of borrowers and institutional size. The article maintained that although microcredit had brought women into the financial realm, it had not necessarily resulted in women having full economic agency. The empowerment outcomes needed to be strengthened, which necessitated the credit control, financial capability, enterprise pathways, digital access, and protection from gendered debt burdens.
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