With: Dr. Linda Mayoux Global Consultant, WEMAN, Oxfam Novib & Janiece Green Director, Women's Market, Women's World Banking This exciting discussion presents an overview of the current trends of gender issues in microfinance, particularly as they relate to rural microfinance. Specific attention will be paid to women's empowerment and how access to credit can lead not only to economic empowerment, but also to household well-being and social and political empowerment. The challenges that exist in ensuring that women have equal access to financial services will also be discussed. The presentation will be followed by a participatory roundtable allowing for discussion on the topic and questions from the audience. Date: Monday, October 26th Time: 6:30-8:00 p.m. (registration starts at 6pm) Location: National Federation of Community Development Credit Unions 116 John Street (Between Pearl and Gold Streets) 33rd Floor Cost: Free for WAM-NY members $10 for non-members RSVP to wamnewyork@yahoo.com by Sun., October 25th Space is limited to 25 participants.

Speaker Bios:

Dr. Linda Mayoux, Global Consultant for WEMAN programme, Oxfam Novib Dr. Mayoux is an international consultant who has worked on gender mainstreaming and women's empowerment in micro-finance since 1997 for DFID, UNIFEM, ILO, Aga Khan Foundation, Asian Development Bank, World Bank, IFAD, USAID, SDC and many NGOs in South Asia, Africa and Latin America. She is author of the Rural Finance component of the World Bank's Gender and Livelihoods Source Book and a Reader on Gender and Rural Finance for IFAD. She is a Global Consultant for Women's Economic Empowerment Mainstreaming and Networking (WEMAN) spearheaded by Oxfam Novib to remove gender discrimination in access to livelihood development in Latin America, South Asia, and Africa. As part of the WEMAN process she manages the genfinance website and Yahoo Discussion Group: http://www.genfinance.info Janiece Green, Director, Women's Market, Women's World Banking As Director of the Women's Market team, Janiece Greene is responsible for building the marketing and brand strategy practice within WWB, defining the research agenda and developing the marketing capacity for the WWB network affiliates, and building the women's leadership program. Janiece began her career in 1996 as a management consultant with firms Andersen Consulting (now Accenture) and PricewaterhouseCoopers where she managed cross-functional teams in the design, implementation, and marketing of software product solutions for global financial services organizations such as Credit Suisse First Boston. For the past eight years, the focus of Janiece's career has been on designing, managing, and implementing cross-platform integrated marketing plans, quantitative and qualitative consumer research studies, and performance measurement strategies for a broad range of clients within the CPG-retail and financial services industries while working for such firms as Avenue A/Razorfish and BlackRock. Janiece received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Government and Political Science from the University of Texas at Austin.