Chapter 9: Gender Stratification

Sociology Around the World

Microcredits and
Empowerment of Women

he 30 village women gather regularly to discuss issues of health, crops, their herds, the
predicted rains, goals for their children, and
how to make ends meet. They are from a subsistence farming village in southern Niger on the edge
of the Sahara desert. Recently, a microcredit organization was established with a small grant of $1,500
from abroad. With training from CARE International,
an international nongovernmental organization, the
women selected a board of directors to oversee
the loans. Groups of five or six women have joined
together to explain their projects to the board and
request small loans. Each woman is responsible
for paying back a small amount on the loan each
week, once the project is established and bringing
in money.
The women are enthusiastic. In the past they had
no funds, and banks charged enormous interest rates
on loans.
A loan of between $20 and $50 from the microcredit organization is a tremendous sum considering
that for many of these women, it is equivalent to six
months' earnings. Strong social norms are instituted to
encourage repayment. Women who repay their loans
promptly often decide who is eligible for future loans.
Participation in the program often encourages women
and grants them economic and social capital otherwise
unavailable to them.
With the new possibilities for their lives, they have
big plans: For instance, one group plans to buy a press
to make peanut oil, a staple for cooking in the region.

existence of a matriarchal culture (where women may have

increased authority and power in decision making), political systems that stress proportional representation, and
the adoption of gender quotas for government positions
(Yoon 2004, 2008). Yet, democratization of governmental
systems is sometimes linked to a decrease in representation
by women, a sad reality for those committed to establishing democracy around the world (Yoon 2001). Globally;
women's access to power and prestige is highly variable,
with African and Northern European countries having a

Currently, people pay a great deal for oil imported from

Nigeria. Another group will buy baby lambs, fatten them,
and sell them for future festivals at a great profit. Yet
another group plans to set up a small bakery. Women
are also discussing the possibility of making local craft
products to sell to foreign fair trade organizations such
as Ten Thousand Villages (a fair trade organization that
markets products made by villagers and returns the
profits to the villagers).
Some economists and social policymakers claim
that grassroots organizations such as microcredits may
be the way out of poverty for millions of poor families
and that women are motivated to be small entrepreneurs to help support their families and buy education and health care for their children (KBYU-TV 2005).
Indeed, in 2006, Muhammad Yunus, who founded
Grameen Banka microcredit lender for the very
poorreceived the Nobel Prize for Peace.
Microcredit lenders build significant social capital
for their participants, but critics suggest that there is
an underresearched downside to microlending. As they
see it, despite its success, the solution is a microlevel attempt to address a macro-level problem. Macro
economists such as Linda Mayoux (2002, 2008) question whether or not the program will address the gender inequalities in the developing nations they target.
Moreover, such loans may shift relations between husbands and wives, leaving a less powerful position for
men within marriages. Most economists agree that
microlending works best alongside macro-level initiatives seeking to address similar problems.

position of leadership when it comes to gender equity in

government.
Cross-cultural analyses confirm that gender roles
either evolve over centuries or are transformed by sweeping
reform laws such as voting rights. The fact that women in
China generally work outside the home whereas women
in some Muslim societies hardly venture from their homes
is due to differences in cultural norms about gender roles
that are dictated by governments or tradition and learned
through the socialization process.

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