Gender inequalities in the Middle East - Essay Example

? On addressing the impact of poverty and microfinance on gender/power relations and women’s empowerment, this study engraves itself into broader discourses and debates on gendered inequalities in the Middle East. Introducing the context that Saudi Arabia is an undisguised, self-evident patriarchal state, this study aims at investigating the positive and negative implications on female clients. By studying the microfinance initiatives and examining the underlying principles of Bab Rizq Jameel (BRJ), the positive and negative implication on female clients are analyzed, particularly in terms of its effects on their decision-making and bargaining power in the household. This case study on microfinance in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia aspires to unfold an important and lacking dimension to the current debates surrounding gender and development in developing countries. Keywords: Microfinance, Saudi Arabia, Bab Rizq Jameel (BRJ), gender relations, women’s economic/social empowerment, bargaining power, decision-making and household. Introduction Microfinance institutions vary in terms of their goals, agenda’s and assumptions. There have been continual debates on whether microfinance can be considered as a savior to poverty-stricken women from oppression and gendered inequalities or whether having access to micro-financial resources can empower women economically. There are studies which argue that microcredit helps to empower women thus promoting gender-equality and improving household well-being while microfinance ‘does not directly challenge any official views that subjugate women’ (Aminul et al., 2011). Women are treated as second-class citizens and are chiefly oppressed by the laws and constraints imposed on them through patriarchal states such as Sharee’a law in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. There are also the traditions and customs that give rise to inequalities and gendered division of roles that are produced and reinforced from ‘relationships that are intrinsically gendered’ within the household (Khateeb, 2011). This study being the vanguard of research on gender and development through microfinance, it felt natural that the appropriate start should be from the grass root’s level, the household. Gender-related rigidity in the intra-household is the core institution where the microfinance women clients spend most of their time. This study primarily deals with investigating the impact of microfinance on gender relations in the household. Professor M. Khateeb (Khateeb, 2011) in her lecture about gender, household and domestic domain points out that there is an explicit focus on the household because ‘it is the site of the earliest socialisation processes and gender identity formation. Secondly, it is central to the analysis of the organisation of production and reproduction in different societies. The gender division of roles, responsibilities and resources within the household play an important role in shaping what men and women are able to do beyond the household. And finally a great deal of policy, both economic and social, is premised on assumptions about how gender relations are organised within households’. This study ultimately aims at assisting and enabling the policy makers of BRJ Microfinance programme to create policies that prioritise the impact of microfinance on gender relations in intra-household. On having a wider examination of BRJ’s assumptions, rationale and process coupled with gender power relations within household, policy makers would be able to arrive at a more accurate representation of the graving issue of unemployment and would also travel at a more effective outcome. Aims 1. How does microfinance impact gender relations in Saudi Arabia? 2. Effects of micro-financial resources in Saudi Arabia on women empowerment both in household and in society?1 3. How do micro-financial resources effect on the well-being of the families in Saudi Arabia in terms of survival, security, financial self-reliance and autonomy on various levels (Kabeer, 1994:304)? Objectives This study aspires to analyze: 1. The microfinance scheme in Saudi Arabia (BRJ) and its rationale, assumptions, agenda and implications on the following: a. Gender relations of women clients in the household. b. Women’s empowerment in both rural and urban areas in the kingdom. c. Evaluation of whether women clients have become economically and socially empowered due to the support from the microfinance organisation. 2. The pros and cons of microfinance in Saudi Arabia. 3. How effective microfinance can be in tackling the issue of high unemployment rates for women? 4. The characteristics of BRJ microfinance beneficiaries and the impact of microfinance on the well-being of the client’s family. 5. Finally to analyze the factors that effect or produce gendered inequalities and/or women’s empowerment through microfinance, especially focusing on the role of the agency versus structure (in the household) in the context of Saudi Arabia. Hypothesis 1. Access to micro-financial resources from BRJ will not necessarily lead the impoverished women clients to become self-reliant and economically independent due to the neglected effects of gendered inequalities in the household and due to triple burden that these women have to endure in their daily lives. 2. Control over economic resources and decision-making is essential in order to challenge the gendered inequalities that women face and to facilitate women empowerment in Saudi Arabia.2 To further elucidate, even though women are given the opportunity to work, the restrictions on how and where the generated income should be spent will not allow them to exploit the opportunity completely. It will thus not empower them. Besides, women in Saudi Arabia are all the more deprived due to the lack of opportunity to acquire means because of institutionalised gender inequalities and sexual division in labour-force and in domestic sphere. Guiding Questions: BRJ3 1. What does it ‘mean’ to establish a microfinance programme for women in Saudi Arabia? What does it mean for both the borrowers and the lenders (on a discursive level)? What does it signify? What are the gender assumptions? The implications? The expectations of such a programme? 2. Is BRJ just wanting to focus on income generation or would they consider adopting their vision and policies to take into account women’s practical and strategic gender needs than facilitate their socio-economic empowerment? Power within Household 1. Does accessing the informal economy give women power to renegotiate domestic roles in the context of Saudi Arabia? 2. How is the women’s access to the informal economy and how is informal labour market through microfinance affecting the power relations and the bargaining power within the family/household? 3. What are the factors that promote/hinder bargaining/decision-making power in the household? 4. How does human agency, being a financial contributor, affect women’s ability to exercise their mobility, decision-making and bargaining power? 5. How does women’s access (if any) to the market for productive purposes impact on their mobility and bargaining power in light of the societal structural framework? 6. Do these women recipients take part in the microfinance programme to secure an exit option or ‘fall back position’ (Kabeer, 1994) or as an act of resistance to the gendered inequalities they are challenged within their everyday lives? Empowerment What does ‘empowerment’ mean to the borrowers and the lenders? Does access to economic resources lead to women’s socio/economic empowerment in Saudi Arabia? Are there structural impediments that hinder the empowerment of women? Results Critical analysis and examination of initiatives and effectiveness of microfinance.4 Comparison between BRJ initiatives in Saudi Arabia and other neighbouring countries.5 Creating an awareness about microfinance in Saudi Arabia Examining factors hindering women’s empowerment. Providing recommendations as a way to move forward, both theoretically and practically. To propose a series of social protection6 measures that can help reduce the vulnerability of female clients and maximise the value of micro-loans for both borrowers and lenders. Conclusion There have been no studies on the implications of microfinance thus far, but most research and studies have been conducted focusing on the differences between Islamic and conventional microfinance. This research will contribute to existing literature and theoretical debates surrounding issues such as impact of microfinance on gendered inequalities, intra household power relations and women’s empowerment and ‘necessity of bargaining models and their connection to transforming power relations through individual action or agency’ (Kabeer, 1994; Moser, 1993; Rowlands, 1997) within the cultural context of Saudi Arabia. This study will fill the gap in the knowledge highlighting financial independence. Bibliography Aminul Faraizi, Taskinur Rahman, and Jum McAllister (2011) Microcredit and Women’s Empowerment: A Case Study of Bangladesh, Routledge, New York, p. 118. M. Khateeb (2001) Gender, Household, and Domestic Domains, Class Gender and Development [Lecture Notes]. University College, London, 20th July. Kabeer (1994) Reversed Realities: Gender Hierarchies in Development Thought, Verso, New York, p. 110. Rowlands J (1997) Questioning Empowerment: Working with Women in Honduras, Oxford, Oxfam. Moser (1993) Gender Planning and Development: Theory, Practice and Training, London, Routledge. Read More