Microcredit in South Asia: Privileging women’s perceptions and voices

Abstract

This paper reviews feminist critiques, both on conceptual and empirical grounds, of the contention that microcredit empowers women. It also reviews other critiques of microcredit as being pushed by a neo-liberal agenda to extend the domain of the market or as a development panacea while not really representing authentic development. It makes a case for privileging women’s perception and voice and adds to the literature that does this using a case study from Pakistan.