A qualitative examination of microfinance and intimate partner violence in India: Understanding the role of male backlash and household bargaining models
通过对印度西孟加拉邦34场焦点小组讨论和29次一对一访谈，研究女性和男性对小额信贷如何影响亲密伴侣暴力的看法，发现男性反弹在项目初期重要，而家庭议价模型随时间推移也相关。
• Microcredit programs can result in significant violence against women, if male backlash is not adequately considered. • Male backlash and household bargaining models are both crucial to understanding the link between microcredit and IPV. • The link between microcredit and IPV needs to be understood temporally, with changes over the life of a microcredit program. • Six factors are critical in reducing IPV: norms; financial & social resources; legal & social sanctions and an escape option. The relationship between microcredit and Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) has been explored in numerous quantitative studies. These alternately claim that microcredit exacerbates, reduces or has no impact on IPV. These contrasting findings are problematic, however, particularly as hundreds of billions of dollars continue to be invested in microcredit and women’s economic empowerment programs. This article, by contrast, uses qualitative methods to examine the perceptions of both female microcredit users and their male partners in West Bengal, India, drawing on 34 focus group discussions and 29 one-to-one interviews. This study analyses women’s and men’s understanding of IPV and the impact they see that a microcredit program has had on violence. It reviews these perspectives and seeks to understand the contradictory studies on microcredit and IPV through drawing on feminist economic and sociological theories of violence. This paper illustrates the importance of male backlash models, especially at the beginning stages of a program, but indicates that after time, a household bargaining model also holds relevance. This highlights the significant temporal dimensions in the relationship between microcredit and IPV and demonstrates the importance of six key factors for a household bargaining model to hold.