The Development of Psychological Capacity for Action: The Empowering Effect of a Microfinance Programme on Women in Sri Lanka

Hansen, Nina

doi:10.1111/josi.12130

Cited by 48 publications

(73 citation statements)

References 31 publications

(39 reference statements)

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“…Training has the potential to contribute to a real sense of independence among recipients, by strengthening human capabilities and promoting actions that can change recipients’ future status. Although the results of training need to be interpreted with some caution due to the small sample size of people having received training in our research, several studies have shown the numerous benefits of having received some form of training (e.g., Eden & Aviram, ; Frese et al ., ; Hansen, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Empowering the poor: A field study of the social psychological consequences of receiving autonomy or dependency aid in Panama

Alvarez

Leeuwen

Montenegro-Montenegro

et al. 2018

British J Social Psychol

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This field study investigated the consequences of receiving poverty aid through conditional transfer programmes in the form of autonomy‐oriented help (i.e., cash) or dependency‐oriented help (i.e., vouchers) in impoverished rural communities in Panama. The empowering effects of autonomy‐ (vs. dependency‐) help have so far only been studied in laboratory settings, or in settings where help could easily be refused. Little is known about the reactions of people who rely on help for extended periods of time. This study provides insights into how aid recipients are influenced by the type of aid they receive. Results showed that, as expected, recipients of cash reported more autonomy, empowerment, and life improvements than recipients of vouchers. Training, another type of autonomy‐oriented help, was positively related to empowerment, personal, and family change beliefs. These findings illustrate the benefits of autonomy‐oriented help programmes in empowering people from extremely poor communities around the world, who rely on aid for extended periods of time.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Empowering the poor: A field study of the social psychological consequences of receiving autonomy or dependency aid in Panama

Alvarez

Leeuwen

Montenegro-Montenegro

et al. 2018

British J Social Psychol

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“…Several studies have been conducted on the gender of beneficiaries of a microcredit and the results showed that microfinance does improve the empowerment of women and reduced gender discrimination (Bernstein, 2009;Hansen, 2015;Bayai and Khide, 2016). Other studies have been conducted by several types of research on the impact of microfinance on the socio-economic policies of developing countries, to know: Hulme and Mosley (1996); Wright (2000); Morduch and Haley (2002); Khandker (2003); Mosley and Steel (2004); Gué rin and Doligez (2006); Duflos et al (2009) (cited by Smahi et al, 2012, p. 2) and Feuilherade (2013) and Marku and Balili (2016).…”

Section: Microfinance In the Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

“…These data show the need for an economic growth, especially through micro-loans granted by MFIs to people excluded from the banking system. It should be noted that women, deprived of funding (Hansen, 2015) according to the literature, must be targeted by MFIs (they presented only 24% of the labor force in 2014 in Lebanon -World Bank Report, 2015) because their needs are enormous.…”

Section: The Lebanese Socio-economic Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To penetrate the economy, microfinance can be seen as a starting point for people living in low-income countries (Hansen, 2015), especially those located in rural areas. Beneficiaries are more or less excluded from the banking system, which requires bonds or guarantees from family members or solvent friends, administrative fees and insurance.…”

Section: The Lebanese Socio-economic Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To our knowledge, no study exists in Lebanon on the gender, the level of education, age, marital status and degree of poverty of beneficiaries of microcredit, and on their sectors of activity that preceded and/or following the obtaining of the loan. In terms of the type of beneficiaries, microfinance programs target women especially (Hansen, 2015).…”

Section: An Overview Of the Granting Of Microcredits By Microfinance mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Microcredit in Lebanon: First Data on Its Beneficiaries

Wahidi¹

2017

IBR

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In Lebanon, microfinance is not specially developed. Financial institutions that allocate microcredits are NGOs that are mildly supported by the government. The activity of these institutions affects only 11.5% of the population (IFC, 2008, cited by Mayoukou et al., 2013. These authors note the lack of empirical data related to microcredit granted by microfinance institutions in Lebanon, particularly regarding the characteristics of their beneficiaries. Our study emphasizes the characteristics of beneficiaries of microcredit allocated by MFIs (microfinance institutions) in Lebanon. As a result of data obtained from MFI heads, the results seem to show that NGOs MFIs give more credit to men than to women, and a low percentage of credit goes to startups. In addition, beneficiaries have a low level of education, poor or moderately poor, and are located in rural areas. Gender discrimination in the allocation of micro-credits was highlighted on the basis of the first data processed in this work. The results of the interviews with MFI's administrative officials seem to show that the men loan officers may distinguish between male and female beneficiaries and prefer to grant microcredit to a man. Women beneficiaries may have less information about the credits offered by them, or do not take initiative because they live in a patriarchal society. Moreover, men go through their wives to get another microcredit.

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The impact of husbands' involvement in goal‐setting training on women's empowerment: First evidence from an intervention among female microfinance borrowers in Sri Lanka

Huis

Hansen

Otten

et al. 2019

Community & Applied Soc Psy

Self Cite

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Offering women access to microcredit and business training is a prominent approach to stimulate women's empowerment. Whereas men seem to profit from business training, women do not. We adjusted a goal‐setting training session on the basis of women's needs in collaboration with a women organization in Sri Lanka. We invited female microfinance borrowers and their husbands to the training as both parties should be involved to change existing gender roles with respect to their income‐generating activity. We investigated the impact of the training on goal‐setting skills, self‐esteem, and the couples' interaction in a subsequent task. In two field experiments, female borrowers and their husbands (nstudy1 = 68; nstudy2 = 76) were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: (a) goal‐setting training and setting goals as couple, (b) goal‐setting training and setting goals individually, or (c) no training (control condition). Participation in the training increased women's SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, time bound) goal‐setting skills. We coded couples' interactions in a subsequent decision‐making task to assess signs of women's empowerment. Descriptively, we found some initial evidence of increased women's empowerment in the interaction (Study 2). We critically discuss results and how gendered power imbalances may need to be addressed to stimulate social change towards gender equity.

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The Development of Psychological Capacity for Action: The Empowering Effect of a Microfinance Programme on Women in Sri Lanka

Abstract: This work examines the effect of a microfinance intervention on psychological empowerment among women in the

Cited by 48 publications

References 31 publications

Empowering the poor: A field study of the social psychological consequences of receiving autonomy or dependency aid in Panama

Empowering the poor: A field study of the social psychological consequences of receiving autonomy or dependency aid in Panama

Microcredit in Lebanon: First Data on Its Beneficiaries

The impact of husbands' involvement in goal‐setting training on women's empowerment: First evidence from an intervention among female microfinance borrowers in Sri Lanka

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