Women's Empowerment through Microfinance: A case study on Burma

Using data cross-sectional data from the UNDP/PACT Myanmar’s “Outcome/Impact Assessment fro Microfinance Project 2011”, the purpose of this study is to see if women who are members of a microfinance program are more empowered than non-members. The study also attempts to find what factors that are important for women’s empowerment. To create a measurement of empowerment, and index-based approach is used. The index consists of six question related to a women’s household decision-making power. The explanatory variables are of demographic, economic, activity and geographic characteristics. It is also controlled for if length of participation in the microfinance program has an effect on women’s empowerment. The key findings of the study indicate that women that are members of the microfinance program are more empowered than non-members. Also being the head of household has a positive effect on empowerment. Further, age seemingly have a positive effect on the empowerment of women. However, eventually, this age-effect on empowerment is diminishing. The results of the study contradict previous research that claim amount of loan to have a positive effect on empowerment. The only significant relation that was found between loan amount and empowerment instead pointed on a negative relation. The absence of the expected positive correlation between loan amount and empowerment, might be an indicator of that the possibility to access credit is the important factor. It is also suggested that other aspects of the microfinance program, such as the social networking effects, might be empowering. Moreover, the results of study make it difficult to draw any conclusion on whether length of membership in the microfinance is of importance for empowerment.