Wright, Jan E. Prof.

<p>Women’s empowerment is a key policy objective of microfinance, the provision of small loans to poor people mainly in developing countries,and accounting has an important role to play in this process. Notwithstanding highly publicised success stories, microfinance initiatives have been controversial.As feminist and development scholars highlight, those promoting microfinance too often gloss over its ‘dark side’ – lenders, for example, often put intense pressure on borrowers to recover loans, leading to new forms of dominance over women. Although a rich academic and policy literature exists, challenging questions remain. What, specifically, is meant by women’s empowerment, how should it be pursued and on whose terms? How can accounting, traditionally (though questionably) seen as an apolitical, managerial toolcontribute to the empowerment of women?</p><p>The microfinance NGO in Bangladesh [Integrated Social Development Effort (ISDE)] I worked with for my PhD (funded by a Marsden grant) conveyed a complex understanding of women’s empowerment in its policy documents, but its accounting practices were dominated by narrow economic logics. For example, internal accounting systems for client selection and loan collection were designed with the aim of ensuring 100% repayment rates, and fieldworkers focused on collecting loans rather than ways of addressing structural barriers in women’s lives (e.g. dowry and domestic violence). Our challenge in this project is to explore how ‘dialogic’ accountings, which provide multi-dimensional (not merely monetary) accounts and engage contested values and assumptions, can lead to the re-evaluation of taken-for-granted norms and institutional practices and thus offer possibilities for transformative change.</p><p>My PhD research was limited to a single organisation and constrained in terms of engagement with the broader institutional context. Our aim now is to considerably broaden the focus. We critically interrogate and advance understanding of the relations between (i) competing conceptualisations of women’s empowerment adopted – explicitly or implicitly – by those promoting or evaluating microfinance initiatives, (ii) broader political-economic discourses and theories of microfinance, and (iii) accounting and accountability systems. We compare neoliberal understandings of microfinance and empowerment promoted by the World Bank with the analyses of feminist and development scholars. We explore how neoliberal and feminist theories compete to shape microfinance thought and practice, how and why neoliberal policy discourses prevail, and how this might be changed.Lastly, We examine ways of transforming traditional accounting tools and neoliberal criteria for monitoring, evaluating and reporting on microfinance initiatives, drawing on insights from feminist and development studies.  </p><p>Working with poor women and feminist activists within ISDE’s broader NGO network in projects such as ‘gender mainstreaming’ and ‘non-formal education’, we are developing a set of dialogic accounts of women's diverse experiences with microfinance that seek to increase their political agency. Through dialogic accounting, we are making the negative impacts of microfinance more visible to dominant elites (e.g. ISDE’s senior management and donor authorities such as the Bangladesh Bank and Microcredit Regulatory Authority) and attempting to bring women’s lived experiences into official accounts. Methods include photo-voice, story-telling and group interviews combined with political-economy analysis of the processes and social relations that perpetuate women’s disempowerment.</p><p>The research is designed to provide theoretical, empirical, methodological and policy contributions.  Theoretically, it  shows how feminist concepts can inform politicised understandings of accounting. Empirically, it  develops accounting and accountability practices that help us understand the socio-political relations (e.g. gender, class and ethnicity) that produce disempowerment and poverty.  Methodologically, it advances understanding of how to put dialogic accounting into practice. In terms of policy design, it stimulates discussions among academics, civil society groups, and policymakers regarding the potential roles of accounting in poverty reduction, good governance, and participatory development.</p>

<p>Women’s empowerment is a key policy objective of microfinance, the provision of small loans to poor people mainly in developing countries,and accounting has an important role to play in this process. Notwithstanding highly publicised success stories, microfinance initiatives have been controversial.As feminist and development scholars highlight, those promoting microfinance too often gloss over its ‘dark side’ – lenders, for example, often put intense pressure on borrowers to recover loans, leading to new forms of dominance over women. Although a rich academic and policy literature exists, challenging questions remain. What, specifically, is meant by women’s empowerment, how should it be pursued and on whose terms? How can accounting, traditionally (though questionably) seen as an apolitical, managerial toolcontribute to the empowerment of women?</p><p>The microfinance NGO in Bangladesh [Integrated Social Development Effort (ISDE)] I worked with for my PhD (funded by a Marsden grant) conveyed a complex understanding of women’s empowerment in its policy documents, but its accounting practices were dominated by narrow economic logics. For example, internal accounting systems for client selection and loan collection were designed with the aim of ensuring 100% repayment rates, and fieldworkers focused on collecting loans rather than ways of addressing structural barriers in women’s lives (e.g. dowry and domestic violence). Our challenge in this project is to explore how ‘dialogic’ accountings, which provide multi-dimensional (not merely monetary) accounts and engage contested values and assumptions, can lead to the re-evaluation of taken-for-granted norms and institutional practices and thus offer possibilities for transformative change.</p><p>My PhD research was limited to a single organisation and constrained in terms of engagement with the broader institutional context. Our aim now is to considerably broaden the focus. We critically interrogate and advance understanding of the relations between (i) competing conceptualisations of women’s empowerment adopted – explicitly or implicitly – by those promoting or evaluating microfinance initiatives, (ii) broader political-economic discourses and theories of microfinance, and (iii) accounting and accountability systems. We compare neoliberal understandings of microfinance and empowerment promoted by the World Bank with the analyses of feminist and development scholars. We explore how neoliberal and feminist theories compete to shape microfinance thought and practice, how and why neoliberal policy discourses prevail, and how this might be changed.Lastly, We examine ways of transforming traditional accounting tools and neoliberal criteria for monitoring, evaluating and reporting on microfinance initiatives, drawing on insights from feminist and development studies.  </p><p>Working with poor women and feminist activists within ISDE’s broader NGO network in projects such as ‘gender mainstreaming’ and ‘non-formal education’, we are developing a set of dialogic accounts of women's diverse experiences with microfinance that seek to increase their political agency. Through dialogic accounting, we are making the negative impacts of microfinance more visible to dominant elites (e.g. ISDE’s senior management and donor authorities such as the Bangladesh Bank and Microcredit Regulatory Authority) and attempting to bring women’s lived experiences into official accounts. Methods include photo-voice, story-telling and group interviews combined with political-economy analysis of the processes and social relations that perpetuate women’s disempowerment.</p><p>The research is designed to provide theoretical, empirical, methodological and policy contributions.  Theoretically, it  shows how feminist concepts can inform politicised understandings of accounting. Empirically, it  develops accounting and accountability practices that help us understand the socio-political relations (e.g. gender, class and ethnicity) that produce disempowerment and poverty.  Methodologically, it advances understanding of how to put dialogic accounting into practice. In terms of policy design, it stimulates discussions among academics, civil society groups, and policymakers regarding the potential roles of accounting in poverty reduction, good governance, and participatory development.</p>