Shohel Tunvir Ahamed, Niner Sara, Gunawardana Samanthi
PhD Student at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.
Faculty, Khulna University, Gollamari, Bangladesh.
PLoS One. 2021 Apr 28;16(4):e0250000. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0250000. eCollection 2021.
A significant body of multi-disciplinary research supports the proposition that women may experience empowerment from microfinance programs. This is based on the assumption that an increase in women's financial contribution to the household helps to transform gender norms and relations which increases their decision-making power. However, the relationship between the strength and persistence of patriarchal gender norms within the household and women's financial empowerment needs further exploration. This paper presents the findings of a mixed-method study comprising 331 surveys and 33 in-depth interviews with women receiving microfinance and their husbands in a southern sub-district of Bangladesh; it draws upon gender socialisation and gender performance theory to understand how patriarchal gender norms influence women's financial empowerment in households receiving microfinance. Findings demonstrate that participation in microfinance programs has not shifted gender norms, nor financially empowered women. Women's loans were largely controlled by men as prescribed by underlying, unchanged patriarchal gender norms. The inter-generational reproduction of patriarchal gender relations continued to reproduce a strict gendered division of labour that reinforced restrictions on women's behaviour, mobility, and decision-making domains, and men's dominance in household and economic decision-making.
大量多学科研究支持这样一种观点，即妇女可能会从小额信贷项目中获得赋权。这基于这样一种假设，即妇女对家庭经济贡献的增加有助于改变性别规范和关系，从而增强她们的决策权。然而，家庭内部父权制性别规范的强度和持续性与妇女的金融赋权之间的关系需要进一步探讨。本文介绍了一项混合方法研究的结果，该研究包括对孟加拉国一个南部街区接受小额信贷的妇女及其丈夫进行的331次调查和33次深入访谈；它借鉴了性别社会化和性别表现理论，以了解父权制性别规范如何影响接受小额信贷家庭中妇女的金融赋权。研究结果表明，参与小额信贷项目并没有改变性别规范，也没有赋予妇女经济权力。按照潜在的、未改变的父权制性别规范，妇女的贷款在很大程度上由男性控制。父权制性别关系的代际再生产继续导致严格的性别分工，这强化了对妇女行为、行动能力和决策领域的限制，以及男性在家庭和经济决策中的主导地位。
