Money is the milk of tiger: domesticating patriarchy, microcredit, and the moral economy of women disempowerment in rural Bangladesh

This research explores how the distribution of money through microcredit, hailed as a critical empowerment tool but steeped in a gendered moral economy, inadvertently results in the dispossession of women in rural Bangladesh. Employing a qualitative approach, this study utilized in-depth interviews (IDIs) through snowball sampling, conducted between June 2022 and July 2022 among microcredit recipients in the rural locations of Chuadanga, Dumuria, and Batiaghata sub-districts of the Khulna division, Bangladesh. Using the lens of moral economy, this study illustrates how social norms and moralized views of money enable men to maintain their dominance over women by controlling microcredit loans. While microcredit serves as a financial lifeline for women, it also perpetuates dispossession by reinforcing patriarchal norms. We argue that this dispossession is largely unquestioned, as it is perceived as a hegemonic reality due to the prevailing moral understanding that money is an extension of men’s public domain and a tool for fulfilling their moral obligations as heads of their families. Although much scholarly work has examined microcredit in other parts of the country, few studies focus specifically on Microcredit Development Institutions (MDIs) and their role in further disenfranchising women beneficiaries in the Khulna division. This study contributes to the literature by laying the groundwork for future in-depth investigations into MDIs and their impact on gender disempowerment in the region.