Micro Credit-Women Empowerment Nexus Explored: A Study on the Women of Selected Rural Areas in Natore District, Bangladesh

Abstract

The literatures on the ‘micro credit –women empowerment’ linkage reveal that there is a causal relationship between micro credit and women empowerment. The findings of this study affirmed that relationships exist between micro credit and women empowerment indeed vis-à-vis studying a selected sample of three hundred and eighty one rural women in Natore district, Bangladesh. This study reveals that a significant number of rural women (72%) attributed their empowerment after receiving micro credit while 33% of the respondents answered negatively. In this regard, this study also reveals that a significant number of respondents can participate in decision making regarding the issues such as cultivation (75%), use of contraceptive methods (76%), political interest (32%) and voting behavior (79%). This study found that receiving micro credit by rural women are significantly associated with their  empowerment through participation in decision making regarding conjugal life, child care, loan taking(p<0.01), use of money received from micro credit (p<0.05), interest in politics(p<0.05),voting behavior, determination  of voting and purchasing or selling of materials. The findings of the study have been explained vis-à-vis sociological theories in the South Asian context.

Keywords: Micro credit, Women empowerment, Bangladesh, BRAC.