Gender Issues In Microfinance: Policy Analysis And Possible Interventions

Women constitute not only half of the world’s population, but also sway the growth of the other half. They produce half of the world’s food supply and account for 60% of the work force, but comprise 10% of the world’s economy and surprisingly own less than 1% of the real estate. They have little access to productive resources and negligible control over family income. This discrimination is the consequence of gender bias which forms an inherent part of the global society. Examples from survey will validate the statement. The index ranking of 151 countries on gender inequality in addressing poverty, education, basic health, employment (income), violence and political participation, contained in various Human Development Report prepared by the United Nations Development Program since 1995 till 2003, shows that “no country treat women as well as men.” Despite such investments in time and labour by women, why is there so much discrimination, inequality and why are women termed as “poorest of the poor”? The main objective of this paper is to focus on women in enterprise development in Bangladesh. However, before going into the main area, the paper tries to analyze the need and reasons for micro-enterprise development of women. The paper is divided into three main sections. The first section deals with a brief discussion on the status of women and poverty in Bangladesh. The second section focuses on women and micro- enterprise development. The third section discusses the problems faced by women in enterprise development. The fourth section focuses on the interventions required to enhance women entrepreneurship development. The last section deals with the future provisions. The paper is prepared mainly on the basis of secondary information, review of previous research work, the author’s own experience and knowledge on women enterprise on some case studies of the positive and negative effects of microenterprise of women.