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Women's empowerment is not
a Northern concept. Women
all over the world, including countries in the South,
have been challenging and changing
gender inequalities since the
beginnings of history. These struggles have also been supported by many men who have
been outraged at injustices
against women and the consequences
for society. It would be yet
another instance of imperialism
to say all these women and
men did not have minds of their
own!
The word empowerment, although
it gained widespread usage
in the context of the US
Civil Rights and Women's Movements
is an extension of earlier concepts of equality,
justice and freedom which were
expressed in many anti-imperialist
and political struggles. These
are also enshrined in international
agreements and also underlie
the precepts of many religious
traditions, including Islam.
International Women's Rights
Agreements
Women's rights
are well-established by international agreements, notably
the
international Convention on
Eradication of Discrimination
Against Women (CEDAW), which
explicitly include women within
the definition of 'human' and
hence in all International
Human Rights Conventions. CEDAW
has been ratified by most governments
and underpins official gender
policies of all major development
agencies.
Women's
rights in Islam
It is often argued, by some
women as well as men, that
these International Rights
agreements are somehow 'unislamic'.
This justification of inequality
in terms of religious precepts,
'culture' or tradition is
by no means confined to Islam.
Powerful interests in most
religions and cultures have
refered to 'tradition' to justify
maintaining gender and other
inequality. Islam grants many
rights to women which are currently
ignored. To argue that Muslim
women should not be granted
their human rights is to wrongly
argue that under Islam women
are less than equal. This is
totally against the most fundamental
teachings of Islam.
Implications
for micro-finance: A new
empowerment vision
The focus on women's empowerment
and micro-finance is not
new, nor is it a Northern
imposition. It dates back
to the 1970s and the beginnings
of the international women's
movement. Many women's
organizations worldwide
set up credit and savings
components as a way of
both enabling women to
increase their incomes
and come together to
address wider gender issues.
All donor agencies in CGAP
have a gender policy. Not
only 'reaching women' but
'empowering' them is the
second official goal of
the MicroCredit Summit
Campaign.
However with increasing
dominance of the 'financial
sustainability paradigm' as donors have required micro-finance institutions to rapdily become financially sustainable, definitions
of empowerment have become
diluted to mean insignificant
increases in individual income
and 'self-confidence'.
The current concern with
poverty targeting conflates
women's empowerment with household
wellbeing. This is despite
the overwhelming evidence of
both women's own demands for
gender equality and the need
to overcome constraints to
achieving them.
What is needed is a new empowerment
vision for micro-finance which
places the empowerment vision
firmly in the context of micro-
and macro-level strategies
to attain gender equality in
rights, power and resources.
This will enable financial
service providers of different
types to assess precisely what
contribution their programme
can make, what the gaps are
and how these gaps can be addressed
either through changes within
the programme itself or collaboration
with other agencies.
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