Suchergebnisse

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to scrutinize the severe impact on the abilities of urban poor women such as education skills, entrepreneurship qualities, employment skills, creative abilities and social skills, as they face many challenges like inequitable access to work and unacceptable living conditions influenced by an underlying mind-set in the society driven by gender socialization. Though there have been changes in the way we perceive the abilities of urban poor women from being a homemaker to participating in employment and access to education, one cannot deny that discrimination and bias based on gender socialization still exists in the society.


Design/methodology/approach
This paper uses secondary data through a systematic review where the inclusion criteria were framed on the basis of relevance, credibility and heterogeneity. However, as this is a concept paper, the study is bereft of empirical data.


Findings
In most cases, the ability and potential of women, such as educational skills, entrepreneurship qualities, employment skills, creative abilities and social skills, go unnoticed or, more often, not taken into consideration. Predominantly influenced by gender roles, not all abilities and skills are associated with women; this kind of labelling process refers to gender socialization. Ongoing in society for a long time to an extent, it has been accepted consciously or subconsciously by men and women. As a result, urban poor women, in particular, are further deprived of their capabilities, directly affecting their personal growth and economic status.


Originality/value
Poverty affects men, women, boys and girls, but it is experienced differently by people of different ages, ethnicities, family roles and sex. Moreover, due to women's biology, social and cultural gender roles and culturally constructed subordination, they are labelled with specific roles dictated by various social agents; This labelling process refers to gender socialization. As a result, capable women with untapped skills, abilities and potential to learn, work, earn, play and develop are ignored or suppressed; hence, they go unnoticed, further intensifying poverty among poor urban women.

Financial support to underserve for having a better life standard through the spillover effect of microfinancing, this concept gained momentum as a movement after 1980s. Microfinance (MF) industry ultimate promise is not merely the poverty reduction but also to become the efficient and financially sustainable, so that subsequently it can maintain its market share permanently. Accomplishment of this dual mission urge has originated a debate regarding the potential and possibilities of this industry and become a hot issue. For the resolution of this double challenge, we evaluated the MF industry in Pakistan which is considered as one of the best regulated MF industries in World. We applied stochastic frontier Analysis for unbalanced panel and ranked technical efficient and sustainable Microfinance institutions in Pakistan. Non Government Organization providing micro credits seemed to be more efficient and sustainable as compared to Microfinance Banks and Rural support programmes. The average efficiency of sector was 74%, pretty high in utilizing the input resources yet the sustainability focus was stumpy as only 24 out of 148 institutions established to be sustainable.