Missing Women: The Crowding Out of Gender Equality Norms in Ugandan Microfinance

Ben Jones

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-15512-4_8

Missing Women: The Crowding Out of Gender Equality Norms in Ugandan Microfinance

Ben Jones

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter

Abstract

Microfinance relies on a normative set of claims around gender equality and women’s economic empowerment. As such, it would seem to be an ideal place to study gender norms in action. A case study from Uganda looks at the offices of the country’s largest microfinance NGO, BRAC and the lives of microfinance beneficiaries in the field. In both situations discussions of gender were largely absent. The chapter explores the reasons for this absence showing the ways in which gender concerns lost out to other agendas. In the office there was a language of efficiency, scale and growth. In the field there was a concern with fraud and inequality. What links both situations were a set of questions about the legitimacy of microfinance as an approach to development.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Rethinking Gender Equality in Global Governance
Subtitle of host publication	The Delusion of Norm Diffusion
Editors	Lars Engberg-Pedersen, Adam Fejerskov, Signe Marie Cold-Ravnkilde
Publisher	Springer
Chapter	8
Pages	191-212
Number of pages	22
ISBN (Electronic)	978-3-030-15512-4
ISBN (Print)	978-3-030-15511-7
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15512-4_8
Publication status	Published - 27 Apr 2019

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 1 No Poverty
SDG 5 Gender Equality
SDG 8 Decent Work and Economic Growth
SDG 10 Reduced Inequalities

Access to Document

10.1007/978-3-030-15512-4_8

Cite this

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