1. Why gender perspective in MFIs is important?
Ranjani.K.Murthy

2. Objectives Concepts Poverty reduction Empowerment Sustainability
Why gender perspective is important for

3. Dimensions of Poverty Dimensions Vulnerability Food
Shelter
Clothing
Water and
sanitation
Health and education
Vulnerability

4. Causes of poverty: Entitlement failure (Sen 1981, Murthy and Rao, 1997)
entitlements
Ownership
Exchange entitlements
Production possibilities
Caste
Ethnicity
Class
Gender

5. Gender and poverty There are more number of poor women than men
Women slip into poverty in gender specific ways
There are gender specific causes of women’s poverty
There are gender specific causes of household’s poverty
There are adverse coping strategies that poor women adopt

6. Empowerment Power within Attitudes on gender, caste etc Power with
Markets, PRIs, Services, traditional councils
Power to
Work, Resources, Body, Decision making

7. Is not power to dominate others
Empowerment
Is not power to dominate others

8. Sustainability
Able to be maintained

9. Different types of sustainability
Financial sustainability of operations and MFIs
Financial sustainability of clients and their HHs
Social sustainability
Inter-generation sustainability
Environmental sustainability

10. Gender perspective in Operations
Sustainability
Poverty Reduction
Women’s Empowerment
A poor woman does not join JLG because husband does not agree *
A woman dropped out as meetings are held in the evening –cooking time
A woman dropped out due to cost of breast cancer treatment
Loans not available for education, health, toilets and food consumption
Women in a dalit HH cuts down on her consumption of food /clothes to repay during lean season
Mayoux, 2008, Kidd, 2009, ILO, 2009, IFAD, 2009, Ranadive, n.d

11. Gender perspective in operations
Sustainability
Poverty reduction
Women’s empowerment
Her husband did not help in house work; she pulled daughter out of school to expand her enterprise *
Men get larger number and quantum of loan than women; and put in larger amount in pension schemes
Land purchased through loans taken by women registered on men’s name
Pressure from husbands and in laws to get loans, but they only partially help repay
Women outlive men but less women than men had joined pension scheme ?
A male member nominated his son to receive pension, but son did not look after his wife
? Fertility and witch. Pensions which depend on last earning harmful for women

12. Gender perspective in operations
Sustainability
Poverty reduction
Women’s Empowerment
She took life insurance ; her drunken husband killed her to get benefits *
In the floods a member of JLG lost her animals and jewels. Only cattle and house were insured.
She took a loan from money lender to contest PRI election; she is now indebted and cannot repay her loan with MFI
Due to dowry for her daughter she sold her animals and not could not pay her loan
The FL/LL training was held 25 km away with no child care; half the members did not come

13. Gender perspective in organization
Mission
Governance
Structure
Staff
Systems
Gender neutral integration
Gender audit
Gender indicators weak
Nobody with gender and MFI lens
No gender and diversity task force
Sensitivity
Few women: top, branch off
No committee for sexual harassment
No child care
Turnover
Less promotion