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International Journal of World Policy and Development Studies

Online ISSN: 2415-2331
Print ISSN: 2415-5241

Quarterly Published (4 Issues Per Year)





Archives

Volume 4 Number 2 April 2018

Promises vs. Realities of Women in Development (WID: Microcredit and Women’s Enterprising Work in Rural Bangladesh


Authors: Ishrat Jahan
Pages: 6-19
Abstract
This article deals about the relationship between rural women’s enterprising work and microcredit in two villages of south-western Bangladesh, named Char Khankhanapur and Decree Charchandpur. It tries to understand the local women’s perception of entrepreneurial work and examine whether it fits the microcredit lenders’ concept of entrepreneurship. Focusing on the case of Grameen bank, as one of the main microfinance institutions of the villages, I aim to see whether microcredit facilities universally promotes rural women’s enterprising work or only certain group of women can develop their entrepreneurship capacity through microcredit’s support. I also enquire whether the promise of Women in Development (WID) paradigm, which boldly claims that women’s participation in paid work will empower them, is valid in my study villages. Drawing multiple cases of rural women’s work (around 40 women were interviewed), this article attempts to reveal the politics of microcredit and development in rural Bangladesh. It finds that not all women in rural areas of Bangladesh possess entrepreneurship capacities, and microcredit has varied effect on women depending on their individual standpoints.