“The concept of Gender for

Microfinance in respect of Women

and Man”

Presented by-
Amber Tamrakar
Rashmi Tripathi
Kapil Rawat
 Introduction
Introduction
Gender
The process by which individuals who are born into the biological
categories of ‘male’ or ‘female’ become the social categories of men
and women through the acquisition of culturally defined attributes
of masculinity and femininity as well as the resources and
responsibilities which are associated with these categories.

Gender refers to the social relationship/ roles and responsibilities

of men and women, the expectations held about the characteristics,
aptitudes and likely behaviours of both women and men (femininity
and masculinity) that are learned, change over time and vary
within and between cultures.
THE CONCEPT OF GENDER
PERSPECTIVE
The gender perspective looks at the impact of gender on people's
opportunities, social roles and interactions. Successful
implementation of the policy, Programme and project goals of
international and national organizations is directly affected by the
impact of gender and, in turn, influences the process of social
development. Gender is an integral component of every aspect of
the economic, social, daily and private lives of individuals and
societies, and of the different roles ascribed by society to men and
women
GENDER perspective is essential for MFi

Differential impact of proposed or existing policies, programmes,

projects and legislation on women and men.

Gender perspective is required to know that realities of men’s

and women’s lives are different and that equal opportunities does
not necessarily men equal results.

Gender perspective is important for gender mainstreaming.

Identifies specifically how public microfinance activities affects

women and men differently.
Gender perspective is essential to have a
basic idea of…
Who does what?
What is the actual division of labor between men and women in
the project area?
Who has what?
Who has access to and control over resources in the project
area?
What influences to access and control of resources?
What social, cultural, economic, political influence gender
differentiable rights of access and control?
How are resources distributed and who gets what?
Gender perspective and Microfinance

Recognizing gender issues in microfinance, as in any project

intervention, means more than targeting a programme towards women. 
It means recognizing the position of women in relation to men as actors
in society:  in the context of husbands and families; local community
and authority and more broadly their position in society at the national
level as governed by laws and custom. Then it is necessary to act to
support women to overcome the obstacles they face in these
relationships which prevent them from achieving what they wish for
themselves with financial services.
Identifying the
Identifying the problem
problem
The matrix below identifies constraints which women face in
different areas and which can constrain their ability to utilize
microfinance to the ends they might wish.  These constraints
interact and reinforce each other:
Individual level refers to constraints that operate because of the
woman's own endowment of skills, experience, knowledge,
confidence. 
Household refers to the nexus of social relations within the
household which are mostly talked of in relation to husbands and
wives but usually the household is a broader unit which acts
through sons and daughters, parents and other relatives to
constrain the set of choices which a woman faces 
It is often the case that analysis stops at the level of the household
in the discussion of credit but it is important to recognize the
constraints that the wider society imposes in terms of norms of
behavior, legal rights and perceptions of the value of what women
do.
Gender based obstacles in Microfinance and
Microenterprise
Wider community/
Individual  Household
national context
  men's control over cash
  women lack access to
income   perception of men as controllers
Financial banks/financial services
  men's expenditure of money/loans 
in own right
patterns   
  women underpaid for equal
  gender division of labour work
  women undertake
  unequal access and control   women locked in low paid jobs
activities which produce
of land, labour and inputs   stereotypes of appropriate roles
Economic low returns
  unequal control of joint for women in the economy
  women have a heavy
household produce and   women lack access to markets
domestic work load
income stream from this for inputs and outputs if mobility
constrained due to social norms 
  limited role for women in
household decision making    banks and financial institutions
  women not literate or
  polygamy results in do not view women as a potential
Social/ educated; girls
conflict/competition and market 
cultural education not
discrimination between   women's mobility constrained
prioritized 
wives   by social norms 
  violence towards women
  women's legal rights to
household assets not defined in
  women lack confidence   women lack legal rights to law or useful for collateral
Political/
to claim political/ jointly owned household   women lack political positions
Legal
legal rights assets to establish appropriate laws
  women lack legal rights to land
both traditional and formal
Gender Perspective on Man and Women as a
client for Microfinance

Man have always been the main clients of traditional

financial institution because of the following reasons .
Banks usually asked for security, and most property, which is
acceptable as security, is held in the name of male members of
households not the female.
Most staff members of banks are men and many women prefer
to arrange their personal business with another women not with
men.
Bank procedure requires formalities, which are difficult or even
impossible for illiterate clients to follow , inmost societies the rate
of male literacy is much higher than that of female literacy.
Women like to do business in familiar, secure environments,
with people whom they know and trust. Bank members are
frequently transferred, which makes this difficult.
 Continued
Continued
Women tend to find it difficult to leave their homes, or their own
neighborhood, either because they have to take care of children or
because social conventions discourage them from going out. Banks
want their clients to come to them, they do not generally go to their
clients.
Men are traditionally regulated as the breadwinners of a family,
who decide on and engage in income generating activities.
Men are more likely to have travelled, to know about investment
opportunities, and to have connections with potential customers and
suppliers.
Men for physical as well as socio cultural reasons have a wider
range of income generating opportunities than women, they can
pedal rickshaw and push carts as well as tailors or cultivators.
Why MFI more focused on Women?

Women represent a new and largely untapped market for financial

services of all kinds.

Tend to save more reliably and regularly than men.

Women are more concerned than men about the future of their
children, saving is one way of building security.

Women tend to physically less mobile than men , they do not

migrate so often they can thus be followed up more easily than men.

Women tend to be weaker physically , politically. They are, therefore

less able than men to resist pressure to repay loans.

Women tend to be more able than men at working in small groups.

SHGs are key factor in MFI.
Conti…………
Generally allied activities of agriculture performed by women. Hence
they are I better position to repay the loans.

Women tend to need smaller amounts of money, and for shorter

periods than men, since many of their needs are domestic rather than
for business, and their enterprises mostly tend to remain small
because of other calls on their time. Thus they form a more
homogenous client group than men and it is easier to design
standardized system for them.

Women tend to have less knowledge of or contact with alternative

and completive suppliers of financial services and they therefore
demand less and are easier to satisfy.
GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT
What does gender and development mean?

The concept of GAD stems from the realization that unless one
understands the differences between men and women and the way men
and women interact then one cannot work towards ensuring that
development instruments achieve the set purpose because one does not
have a clear picture of reality.
Having a gender perspective means to be aware that for cultural, class,
legal and/or other reasons men and women generally have different
roles to fulfill, different access to and control over resources, different
needs and priorities and as a result different constraints and
opportunities and bargaining power in the way they relate.

These differences between men and women in a household,

community and society as a whole vary according to the area and
target group considered. It is therefore necessary to check the
local reality before designing a development tool such as
microfinance and related services.
 What are the goals of GAD ?

The purpose of GAD is to ensure that both men and women can
participate in, and benefit from, development in a way that is
equitable. In view of widespread disparities it is a process comprising
both short-term and long-term objectives - "practical and strategic
needs"

Development seeks to fulfill practical needs of men and women. These

are concerned with everyday needs such as food, health, employment
and finance. They are about having access to resources and services.
However, the long-term goal of development is fulfilling strategic
needs. These are about men and women having control over their own
life and the ability to influence the society in which they live so that it
will be more just. Increase in education, self-confidence and self-
reliance are some of the factors that will result in empowerment.
Does microfinance meet GAD objectives?

Yes, GAD and MFI is concerned with meeting practical and

strategic needs of men and women.

“Credit gives men and women the option to exercise choice in their life,
at their own pace and level of ambition, both of which may vary over
time.”

Positive Credit impact on income, & employment.

It is found that the increase in income of borrowers was substantially

higher than that for non-borrowers. Survival skills' rarely provide the
technological or entrepreneurial basis for poor borrowers to move on
to the 'escalator' of sustained growth of income.
Impact of credit on female/male relationships

Some studies give anecdotal evidence of rapid changes in female/male

relationships in terms of increased freedom, autonomy and mobility.
For example after some initial friction a woman could stay overnight in
another village to market her products and another could take part in
a week-long seminar.
In certain cases, microfinance programmes have led to joint action to
deal with issues such as violence, male alcohol abuse, dowries and
harassment by official authorities
Impact of credit on workload and well-
being

However, "increases in access to income are often at the cost

of a heavier work loads" with "adverse effects on women's
health and well-being" .. "as they struggle to combine income-
earning with unpaid domestic responsibilities"
 Impact of credit on children's education

A rise in the income of women, or loans themselves, increase the

likelihood of children attending school particularly when
programmes have an education component.

However, anecdotal evidence suggests that the interests and

education of boy children over girls remain the priority.
MFI brings about male and female customers in the shape of
increased incomes, education, health and nutrition. Some women
also become empowered which will not remain unnoticed and
uncoiled. Therefore, while one should carry out evaluation studies
to understand what the impact of microfinance is and take
appropriate action to increase positive results it is evidently clear
from the limited information available at present that microfinance
is one of the major tools discovered to help the poor this century.

Therefore the priority should be to provide financial products with

characteristics and delivery mechanisms that are attractive to men
and women and that they be advertised in such a way that men and
women are aware of their existence. Evaluating the impact of
microfinance will then make it possible to revise the approach and
add tools to increase the probability of fulfilling practical and
strategic needs.
“If you are serving the poor, it means you are
serving the Nation.”-------- Mahatma Gandhi