Navigating exclusion: women's access to credit and indigenous practices inside handloom family enterprises – a case study of West Bengal, India

Purpose This article critically examines the financial landscape faced by women entrepreneurs in a major handloom cluster of India, emphasizing the delicate balance between formal and informal financial systems within a sector that contributes significantly to the country's exports. It critiques Western-centric financial institutions, whose collateral-based lending practices and entrenched patriarchal biases often marginalize women and fail to account for the complexities of non-Western entrepreneurial environments. The article explores how women navigate informal networks such as local moneylenders, kinship ties and community lending circles to secure financial resources. While these informal systems offer greater flexibility, they often come with conditions. The coexistence of these systems underscores the limitations of conventional financial models and highlights the need for more inclusive approaches that address the realities of informal economies. Design/methodology/approach The research is grounded in a qualitative study undertaken over the period of 2018–2019, employing a combination of field surveys and in-depth interviews with women entrepreneurs operating within four significant handloom clusters in Nadia, West Bengal, India. The empirical evidence was meticulously collected through an extensive ethnographic investigation, encompassing 66 home-based women entrepreneurs affiliated with 26 distinct handloom family enterprises. Semi-structured, in-depth interviews were employed to delve into the intricate nature of female entrepreneurship, specifically focusing on the barriers these women encounter in securing formal credit. Narrative analysis was leveraged as a critical methodological approach to decode and interpret the complex and evolving concept of women's entrepreneurship within the handloom family enterprises, particularly in relation to women's agency in navigating access to credit. Findings The study posits that, in times of necessity, women assert their agency, reveal the complex interaction between gendered power dynamics and economic autonomy, showcasing their capacity to navigate and reshape the financial systems within which they operate. They enhance their bargaining strategies by enlisting the support of family members and friends, and discern alternative recourse for accessing credit, thereby strengthening their position within the production chain. Originality/value The study gives insights into the adaptive financial mechanisms women employ to navigate and sustain their entrepreneurial endeavours within patriarchal structures of family enterprises and wider artisanal community, demonstrating how informal financial systems can be both exploitative and supportive in contexts often overlooked by mainstream entrepreneurship theories. By underscoring the coexistence of formal and informal financial mechanisms, the article presents a unique perspective on the importance of integrating alternative credit mechanisms that acknowledge the collective, relational and context-specific economic practices prevalent in non-Western economies, thereby challenging the hegemony of Western-centric entrepreneurial paradigms.