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n default (Morduch, 1999). They tend to take out smaller loans than men, and invest the money in safe business ventures, usually close to home (Cheston and Kuhn, 2002). Women's businesses are typically smaller than men's, have fewer, if any, employees, and are more likely to rely on family members for support (Grasmuck and Espinal, 2000)

One of the often articulated rationales for supporting microfinance and the targeting of women by microfinance programs is that microfinance is an effective means for empowering women. By putting financial resources in the hands of women, microfinance institutions help level the playing field and promote gender equality.

Empowerment is defined as the processes by which women take control and ownership of their lives through expansion of their choices. Thus, it is the process of acquiring the ability to make strategic life choices in a context where this ability has previously been denied. The core elements of empowerment have been defined as agency (the ability to define one's

goals and act upon them), awareness of gendered power structures, self-esteem and self-confidence (Kabeer 2001).

Hashemi, Schuler, and Riley created a composite empowerment indicator based on eight

components: mobility, economic security, ability to make small purchases, ability to make larger purchases, involvement in major household decisions, relative freedom from domination within the family, political and legal awareness, and involvement in political campaigning and protests.

Problem statement 问题陈述

Microfinance institutions around the world have been quite creative in developing products and services that avoid barriers that have traditionally kept women from accessing formal financial services such as collateral requirements, male or salaried guarantor requirements, documentation requirements, cultural barriers, limited mobility, and literacy. Nevertheless, there are many criticisms or problems to the microfinance approach focused on women.

The first criticism is that microfinance creates a large debt for some poor women who are unable to repay the loans (Buss, 1999). Small businesses in Third World countries are subject to a great number of obstacles; for example, lack of adequate infrastructure, inability to access supplies needed for a business, flooded markets if enterprises are too similar, difficulties with money management due to improper schooling and lack of training or skill, and a special vulnerability to crises such as a death in the family or a medical emergency. Borrowing money is always a risk, but particularly so for the poor who are already extremely vulnerable to economic shock. Sometimes all it takes is a business failure or medical emergency to plunge a poor person into severe debt and even greater poverty.

Again, a challenge that women face with microfinance is that they have a double workload of running a business and childcare (Cheston and Kuhn, 2002). Traditionally, women have taken care of children and household work while the men earn income for the family. More and more women are now entering the public workforce, but they are still expected to assume responsibility for all domestic tasks (Grasmuck and Espinal, 2000). This creates an enormous double burden on many women.

1.3 Research question
It is in light of these problems that this particula