Microcredit: The Rhetoric of Empowerment, the Reality of "Development as Usual"

Abstract

This essay provides a critical analysis of some of the ideological assumptions underlying microcredit and considers the implications it has on the lives of women it is supposed to empower. Such an analysis explores the disjuncture between rhetoric and reality as it reveals the ideological commitments reinforced by neoliberal notions of development. The data presented come from a variety of sources: a critical analysis of some of the current writing on microcredit; interviews conducted between 1998-1999 with development workers who have been engaged in microcredit programs in developing countries; and fieldwork I conducted at the Microcredit Summit in New York City in 1998. (excerpt)