Author: Inez Murray, 2006

Beginning in May 2002, Women’s World Banking (WWB) conducted a study of the effects of gender-related household dynamics on the ability of poor women to grow their businesses. The population chosen for the study was drawn from the Santo Domingo-based clients of ADOPEM, the Dominican Association for the Development of Women.

The objective of the ADOPEM study is to enable WWB to mainstream gender analysis in product design and customer care in financial services for the poor – to enable the realities of household dynamics, decision-making roles and the actual needs of poor women to inform the products offered to clients by NGOs and banks such as ADOPEM. The goal was to gather information that would enable WWB’s affiliates and associates in a variety of markets, not only in the Dominican Republic, to more specifically tailor the design and delivery of financial products to meet the needs of low-income women. If microfinance is to continue to grow, WWB believes that it is essential that MFIs develop a deeper understanding of their clients’ lives and of how they can best serve their needs.

Interspersed throughout the report are four case studies of ADOPEM clients: three women and a man. They serve to highlight key points made in the report, such as the possibility of rising out of poverty with optimism and hard work; the importance of family support to a woman’s business; the larger income and flexibility afforded by one’s own business as compared to a factory job; the benefits of business diversification; the rewards of planning for retirement; the potential for using money to make money; and the satisfaction women can derive from turning their gender-based skills into a profitable business. These four ADOPEM clients may not be seeking to grow their businesses per se; yet they each demonstrate a knack for, and even an enjoyment of, using money to make more money.

As these cases clearly illustrate, when financial services for poor women are targeted to address gender inequities, the ability of these women to lift their families out of poverty is unstoppable.