Microfinance's Business Breakthrough for Women Empowerment

Abstract

We analyzed the vital role microfinance initiatives are playing towards their confidence and growth in undertaking business reducing the violence against women (VAW), resultantly women empowerment. We utilized data from the Women Economic & Social Well-being Survey of Punjab, with a specific focus on women aged 15 to 64 years. Our study employed the logit and probit modeling technique to find out the intricate interplay between microfinance and various socio-economic factors especially with regard to VAW. We explored the connections between microfinance, women’s economic empowerment through female employment and their wealth status, age, education, marital status, area of residence, elucidating their combined influence on the likelihood of occurrence of violence against women in Pakistan, with particular analysis of urban and population. The conclusions arrived at from this investigation not only add to the scholarly debate on gender economics and VAW but also equip the policymakers with considerable fresh insights, development strategies, and identification of organizations for advocating and steering enhancement in female employment, microfinance initiatives for women, financial assistance, and education for transformative initiatives of gender equality and reduction in VAW.