Comparative Practices and Perspectives

This is a qualitative comparative case study which §investigated the values, practices, perspectives, §and strategies of Indian and American community §organizers (practitioners and volunteers of non-§profits and non-governmental organizations) who use §microfinance, including savings schemes, as an §instrument within the social intermediation process §of developing disadvantaged women's capacities for §self-sufficiency/empowerment. The focused inquiry §was conducted through in-depth interviews of §directors, staff members and volunteers/community-§based organizers of a women s business center in §Northern Virginia, a large US metropolitan area, and §a women s federation in the rural Himalayas. Katz s §framework for constructing analytical topographies, §contour lines and countertopographies was used to §structure the various levels of analysis. §Differences were explained by situating each §organization in Mayoux s theoretical paradigms §of Women s Empowerment through Microfinance. §Analyses concluded with the construction of §countertopographies on practices and§strategies aimed towards collectively empowering §women in disparate places around the world.