Literature review 8 Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 8000 words

8 - Literature review Example By addressing issues such as of poverty, microfinance and its impact on and gender/power relations and women's empowerment, this study will attempt to inscribe itself into broader discourses and debates concerning equity and equality, gendered inequalities, power relations, women's economic and social empowerment as they are impacted by microfinance. Saudi Arabia is an undisguised, self-evident patriarchal state; this study aims at investigating the positive and negative implications microfinance bears on the Saudi female clients. By studying the initiative Bab Rizq Jameel (BRJ)1, and examining its underlying principles, rational accomplishments and goals, this study aims to examine its effects on power relations, decision-making and bargaining power in the household. This case study of 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 particularly in relat ion to debates surrounding gender equality2 vs. ... 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 and socially. ‘Studies generally suggest the poorest seldom benefit from microcredit, while the middle and upper poor benefit the most (Maclsaac, 1997). This doesn’t apply to the case in Saudi Arabia because the BRJ scheme is a charity-based approach that is Shari’aa compliant (offering interest-free loans). There is a debate between whether microfinance can help promote gender-equality vs. gender equity. (See footnotes 2 & 3 for the difference) In the case of Saudi Arabia, gender equality would be an ideological scenario, given the religious, cultural and traditional framework in which there impoverished women operate. Gender equity is more of an attainable goal in this context. Furthermore, there are heated debates surroundin g the issue of microfinance being regarded a tool to facilitate women’s empowerment. A recent study in Bangladesh concluded that microfinance politically, ‘does not directly challenge any official views that subjugate women, nor that any hard evidence was found to prove that microcredit credit promotes empowerment or supports women’s liberation ’ (Faraizi et al., 2011). This study is particularly useful to this research because in many ways Saudi Arabia shares commonalities with the religious framework in Bangladesh; where Islamists in high positions of power officially subscribe to unequal rights for women. Whereby, any contrasting, disparate voices against the patriarchal dominant voice are silenced. (Faraizi et al., 2011) In the kingdom of