The effect of microfinance factors, social capital and vulnerability on women-empowerment in Southern Punjab, Pakistan

Women-empowerment is one of the crucial issues worldwide. In Pakistan, women are bound to customs, norms, beliefs which are unique. These issues are found to promote social problems and hinder the economic contribution by Pakistani women. Due to these cultural issues, women are not allowed to take p...

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Main Author:	Hameed, Waseem Ul
Format:	Thesis
Language:	eng eng eng
Published:	2019
Subjects:	HG Finance
Online Access:	https://etd.uum.edu.my/8586/1/depositpermission_s901699.pdf https://etd.uum.edu.my/8586/2/s901699_01.pdf https://etd.uum.edu.my/8586/3/s901699_references.docx
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id	my-uum-etd.8586
record_format	uketd_dc
spelling	my-uum-etd.85862021-08-24T05:03:03Z The effect of microfinance factors, social capital and vulnerability on women-empowerment in Southern Punjab, Pakistan 2019 Hameed, Waseem Ul Mohammad, Hisham Kadir @ Shahar, Hanita School of Economics, Finance & Banking School of Economics, Finance & Banking HG Finance Women-empowerment is one of the crucial issues worldwide. In Pakistan, women are bound to customs, norms, beliefs which are unique. These issues are found to promote social problems and hinder the economic contribution by Pakistani women. Due to these cultural issues, women are not allowed to take part in income generating activities like micro-enterprises and because of these issues, gender discrimination is increasing which increases the poverty level among women and decreases the women-empowerment. Consequently, the employment-to-population ratio of women is only 22.1% in Pakistan which is quite low. To address these issues, the current study highlighted microfinance as an effective medium with the support of three forms of capital (financial capital, human capital, social capital). These capitals are the key to the success of Pakistani women. The current study also examined the moderating role of vulnerabilities (social, economic, environmental, political) between microfinance factors and women-empowerment. Data was collected from female clients of microfinance institutes. By using area cluster sampling technique, Southern Punjab was divided into five various clusters and respondents were selected through random sampling technique. A survey was carried out, and 500 questionnaires were distributed in selected clusters. Partial Least Square (PLS)-Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used to analyze the data. The results of PLS analysis shows that microfinance factors namely micro-credit, micro-saving, microinsurance and micro-training/skill development have significant positive contribution to women-empowerment. Moreover, it is found that social capital is also important to enhance women-empowerment. Vulnerabilities aspects such as social vulnerability, economic vulnerability, environmental vulnerability and political vulnerability have adverse effects on women-empowerment. Finally, this study could be beneficial for microfinance institutes, state bank of Pakistan and government in making the strategies to enhance women-empowerment by mitigating vulnerability issues. 2019 Thesis https://etd.uum.edu.my/8586/ https://etd.uum.edu.my/8586/1/depositpermission_s901699.pdf text eng staffonly https://etd.uum.edu.my/8586/2/s901699_01.pdf text eng public https://etd.uum.edu.my/8586/3/s901699_references.docx text eng public other doctoral Universiti Utara Malaysia
institution	Universiti Utara Malaysia
collection	UUM ETD
language	eng eng eng
advisor	Mohammad, Hisham Kadir @ Shahar, Hanita
topic	HG Finance
spellingShingle	HG Finance Hameed, Waseem Ul The effect of microfinance factors, social capital and vulnerability on women-empowerment in Southern Punjab, Pakistan
description	Women-empowerment is one of the crucial issues worldwide. In Pakistan, women are bound to customs, norms, beliefs which are unique. These issues are found to promote social problems and hinder the economic contribution by Pakistani women. Due to these cultural issues, women are not allowed to take part in income generating activities like micro-enterprises and because of these issues, gender discrimination is increasing which increases the poverty level among women and decreases the women-empowerment. Consequently, the employment-to-population ratio of women is only 22.1% in Pakistan which is quite low. To address these issues, the current study highlighted microfinance as an effective medium with the support of three forms of capital (financial capital, human capital, social capital). These capitals are the key to the success of Pakistani women. The current study also examined the moderating role of vulnerabilities (social, economic, environmental, political) between microfinance factors and women-empowerment. Data was collected from female clients of microfinance institutes. By using area cluster sampling technique, Southern Punjab was divided into five various clusters and respondents were selected through random sampling technique. A survey was carried out, and 500 questionnaires were distributed in selected clusters. Partial Least Square (PLS)-Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used to analyze the data. The results of PLS analysis shows that microfinance factors namely micro-credit, micro-saving, microinsurance and micro-training/skill development have significant positive contribution to women-empowerment. Moreover, it is found that social capital is also important to enhance women-empowerment. Vulnerabilities aspects such as social vulnerability, economic vulnerability, environmental vulnerability and political vulnerability have adverse effects on women-empowerment. Finally, this study could be beneficial for microfinance institutes, state bank of Pakistan and government in making the strategies to enhance women-empowerment by mitigating vulnerability issues.
format	Thesis
qualification_name	other
qualification_level	Doctorate
author	Hameed, Waseem Ul
author_facet	Hameed, Waseem Ul
author_sort	Hameed, Waseem Ul
title	The effect of microfinance factors, social capital and vulnerability on women-empowerment in Southern Punjab, Pakistan
title_short	The effect of microfinance factors, social capital and vulnerability on women-empowerment in Southern Punjab, Pakistan
title_full	The effect of microfinance factors, social capital and vulnerability on women-empowerment in Southern Punjab, Pakistan
title_fullStr	The effect of microfinance factors, social capital and vulnerability on women-empowerment in Southern Punjab, Pakistan
title_full_unstemmed	The effect of microfinance factors, social capital and vulnerability on women-empowerment in Southern Punjab, Pakistan
title_sort	effect of microfinance factors, social capital and vulnerability on women-empowerment in southern punjab, pakistan
granting_institution	Universiti Utara Malaysia
granting_department	School of Economics, Finance & Banking
publishDate	2019
url	https://etd.uum.edu.my/8586/1/depositpermission_s901699.pdf https://etd.uum.edu.my/8586/2/s901699_01.pdf https://etd.uum.edu.my/8586/3/s901699_references.docx
_version_	1747828418054979584

The effect of microfinance factors, social capital and vulnerability on women-empowerment in Southern Punjab, Pakistan

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