Gender, Microcredit and Poverty Alleviation in a Developing Country: The Case of Women Entrepreneurs in Pakistan

Abstract

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.

The Impact Of Microcredit In Malaysia – A Systematic Review

“…Our findings also revealed that microcredit programme in Malaysia are able to reach positive impact to a large extent towards reaching the hardcore poor (Al-Mamun, Wahab, Hossain, & Malarvizhi, 2010). This result is consistent with a study by Hussain, Mahmood, and Scott (2018) which shown that that microcredit contributes significantly in improving socio-economic status of the poorest.…”

Factors Affecting Women Entrepreneurs’ Success; A study of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in Emerging Market of Pakistan

“…In addition, according to the Hussain, Mahmood, & Scott, (2019), total out 97 small business in Pakistan, only 5% women entrepreneurs, so, we suggest to policymakers and government to give the education about the business and incentive to starts his own business because SMEs have 40% contribution in Pakistani GDP.…”

Introduction to the Research Handbook on Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economies

“…Welter et al (2017) suggest that we take into account the context of entrepreneurship but also seek to look beyond the economic outcomes of wealth and the creation of jobs as the primary goal. Welter et al (2017) further argue that we often overlook the issues involved in the course and context of particular entrepreneurs (such as women) and they call for more focus to be given to the increasing economic and social inequalities at play across economies (Baker and Powell, 2016), for example poverty alleviation (Hussain et al, 2019;Kimmitt et al, 2019). We hope that this Handbook goes some way towards addressing these gaps in the literature.…”

“…An additional important aspect of entrepreneurship in emerging economies lies much more in how the phenomenon can help to alleviate poverty, and yet with some exceptions (e.g. Hussain et al, 2019;Kimmitt et al, 2019) it remains relatively unexplored and in need of considerable further research beyond the limited consideration of how entrepreneurship contributes to economic development.…”

“…Whilst the links between entrepreneurship and economic development are apparent (Acs and Szerb, 2007), there remain significant research gaps outside of the developed core, as confirmed in various studies (Bruton et al, 2008; and in terms of gender specifically: Cooper, 2012 andKobeissi, 2010); in addition the role of poverty alleviation is neglected (except, for example, Hussain et al, 2019;Kimmitt et al, 2019). Much research has examined what is perhaps one of entrepreneurship's greatest 'red herrings' -OE and NE.…”