Microcredit, gender norms, and women’s experiences of economic coercion and agency in Matlab, Bangladesh

Abstract

Microfinance organizations in Bangladesh often direct microloans to women, due in part to women’s high repayment rates. Questions remain about how microfinance institutions are addressing – or enabling – economic coercion of women taking out loans. In-depth interviews with 25 men and 24 women examined how the structure of microcredit programs, and men’s reactions to such structures, enabled or challenged women’s economic agency. We found that loan access and control was gendered, that loans were socially disruptive and engendered shame among men and women, and that this social disruption and shame was managed through practices of concealment. Interviews revealed that inequitable gender structures governing microloan administration are impeding gender transformative experiences with microloans. The results of this study illustrate the importance of considering structural and normative elements of gender systems to understand women’s experiences of economic agency and coercion around microloans.

Keywords:

• Microfinance
• microloan
• Bangladesh
• women empowerment
• economic agency
• economic coercion

JEL codes:

• B54 Feminist Economics
• D14 Household Saving, Personal Finance
• G21 Banks, Depository Institutions, Micro Finance Institutions, Mortgages

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethics approval

The parent study received human subjects approval from the Emory University IRB (#00097428) and the icddr,b ethics committee.

Data availability statement

The data that are the basis of this paper are available upon reasonable request from the corresponding author.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by a research grant from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver Institute for Child Health and Human Development [1R21HD093027; PI Yount].

Notes on contributors

A. T. Hoover

Alison T. Hoover, MPH, is a researcher at Emory University. Her research focuses on gender, reproductive and sexual health, health agency, and bioethics.

K. L. Andes

Karen L. Andes, PhD, is Associate Professor of Behavior and Social Sciences and Director of the MPH Program at Brown University’s School of Public Health. She is a broadly trained social scientist with a focus on gender, economic development and demographic change. Her interests include gender and household economies, youth development and resilience, and sexual and reproductive health.

R. T. Naved

Ruchira T. Naved, PhD, is a social scientist at icddr,b, an international research organization. She has been conducting research and publishing on violence against women and girls for 25 years. Dr. Naved was a member of the Coordinating Group of Sexual Violence Research Initiative. She is a member of WHO technical advisory group on Violence against Women: Data and measurement.

A. Talukder

Aloka Talukder, MSS in Anthropology, is a Research Investigator at icddr,b, an international research organization based in Bangladesh. Her research focuses on gender, violence against women and children. She has been working in this field for more than 12 years.

K. M. Yount

Kathryn M. Yount, PhD, Asa Griggs Candler Chair of Global Health (2012) and Professor of Global Health and Sociology (2015) at Emory University; studies the social determinants of women’s health, including mixed-methods evaluations of social-norms and empowerment-based programs to reduce gender-based violence and health disparities in underserved populations; funded since 2002; author of more than 300 publications in the social sciences and global health.