Phd proposal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Phd proposal - Essay Example Additionally, the proliferation of group-based delivery schemes has supported the view that positive impacts have redounded in the lives of women individually as well as collectively, as a result of the availability of micro-credit facilities. In this regard, empowerment was more commonly measured in terms of eight indicators: women’s economic contribution to the household income; mobility, or the ability of women to travel without escort; ability to make small purchases; ability to make large purchases; ownership of productive assets; involvement in the formulation of major decisions; freedom from family domination; and political awareness (Hashemi, et al., 1996). On the matter of impacts, Chen (1997) was among the first to use this framework to arrive at three pathways to empowerment that micro-credit programmes are found to produce among its clientele. The three pathways are identified as the cognitive, the perceptual, and the relational impacts. The cognitive impact determ ines the distance by which the participants’ skills and knowledge have improved due to their participation in the programme. Among these are the knowledge of how to save, to plan for the future, and to take greater control of personal and household finances. Also included are learning how to bank money, learning of the virtues of industry and hard work, discipline and strong-mindedness; money management and bank rolling profits; and small business dynamics of learning how to take advantage of seasonality, of diversification, and quick inventory turnover. The second is perceptual impact, which revolves around how women see themselves. Included here are women’s self-confidence, self-reliance, and self-esteem, as well as their changing vision of their future as a result thereof. Finally, the third pathway is the relational impact, or the manner the programme has changed the participants with regard to their family relationships (Johnson, 2005). Primary among these relatio nships is the participants’ relationship with their husbands. There are two divergent pathways. One is the husband’s initial suspicion about the wife’s comings and goings, which is later replaced by an appreciative acknowledgement of her new abilities, a higher level of respect accorded her, and their appreciation for the woman’s contribution to the household income. There have been cases, however, depending on the culture in which the couple are embedded, of husbands expressing resentment against their wives for spending too much time away from their household duties (Johnson, 2005). Criticisms The claim that micro credit provides economic empowerment has been criticized for the narrow construction it ascribes to â€Å"empowerment.† The focus on micro credit programs tends to misleadingly circumscribe women’s empowerment to their economic adequacy; this tends to simplify the issue of transformational empowerment, and relegating womenâ€℠¢s subordinate role to a matter of economic mainstreaming. For instance, Stephen Lewis decried the â€Å"mainstreaming† of gender issues in the UN system, because of fragmentation and dispersal of efforts among several agencies which are under funded and maligned (Goetz & Sandler, 2007). Mainstreaming indicates that integration is being intended, rather than the creation of entities specifically advocating solutions to the plight of women. It tends to