When the patriarchy ‘fights back’! Assessing the role of credit microfinance in the empowerment of women in Malawi

Abstract This paper examines the impact of credit access on women’s empowerment, focusing on microfinance as a tool for gender and economic empowerment in rural development. It draws on the lived experiences of 20 women in rural Malawi, exploring how credit access influences their status and roles in household and community decision-making. In a predominantly patriarchal society, where men are widely regarded as heads of households and primary decision-makers, this qualitative study investigates how women conceptualise their own empowerment and navigate these power dynamics through credit access. Grounded in the capability and intersectionality lenses, it highlights the challenges faced by rural women, marginalised due to their gender, social inequality and rurality, within patriarchal systems. The study examines whether microfinance genuinely leads to women’s empowerment or instead simply facilitates a negotiation of status and power in a context where the patriarchy ‘fights back’ empowerment interventions.