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Gender, Microcredit and Poverty Alleviation in a Developing Country: The Case of Women Entrepreneurs in Pakistan
Author(s) -
Hussain Javed,
Mahmood Samia,
Scott Jonathan
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
journal of international development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.533
H-Index - 66
eISSN - 1099-1328
pISSN - 0954-1748
DOI - 10.1002/jid.3403
Subject(s) - poverty , women entrepreneurs , microfinance , developing country , business , development economics , economic growth , economics , entrepreneurship , finance
The paper explores the impact of financial exclusion on financial and human poverty amongst women in Pakistan. The findings suggest that persistent financial exclusion, gender discrimination and conservative religious values adversely impact women's empowerment. There is an inverse correlation between the size of microcredit and women's financial poverty, which is not the case for human poverty. Larger families experienced higher rates of poverty reduction than smaller families. The study offers evidence and supports theories on the impact of microcredit upon poverty alleviation. These findings inform policy makers, women entrepreneurs and microfinance institutions. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.