Microcredit and Women's Empowerment: Through the Lens of Time-Use Data from Rural India
ABSTRACT This study examines the impact of microcredit on male and female time use, and draws on this analysis to explore the linkages between credit and women's empowerment. A study of time use can help understand these linkages, because if credit is intended to improve women's livelihoo...
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Published in | Development and change Vol. 43; no. 3; pp. 719 - 750 |
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Main Author | |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Oxford, UK
Blackwell Publishing Ltd
01.05.2012
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Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | ABSTRACT
This study examines the impact of microcredit on male and female time use, and draws on this analysis to explore the linkages between credit and women's empowerment. A study of time use can help understand these linkages, because if credit is intended to improve women's livelihoods, it can also be expected to influence the way women allocate their time. Its other advantages are that it does not suffer from much time lag and can be objectively measured. Using household survey data from rural India, the findings show that while microcredit has little impact on women's time use, it helps their husbands move away from wage work (associated with bad pay and low status) to self‐employment. This is because women's loans are typically used to enhance male ownership of the household's productive assets. Further, it is found that it is only women who use loans in self‐managed enterprises who are able to allocate more time to self‐employment. If credit is intended to increase the value of women's work time, it follows that it is not access to loans but use of loans that matters. Ensuring women's control over loan‐created assets must therefore be a critical policy objective. |
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Bibliography: | ark:/67375/WNG-JKFX3WDT-6 istex:457A6EC3951C9AB88BC2807414F1F51BE2F637F2 ArticleID:DECH1780 ObjectType-Article-2 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-1 content type line 23 |
ISSN: | 0012-155X 1467-7660 |
DOI: | 10.1111/j.1467-7660.2012.01780.x |