Why women In defiance of the Bangladeshi banking system, which treats women as second class borrowers, the Grameen Bank wanted to establish a 50-50 ratio of women and men borrowers. The Bank soon discovered that the women are far more effective agents of change. It was found that when an extra income comes into the household through the woman, children's diet, family's health and nuitrition and the state of repair of the house receive the highest priority. Men, it was found, are more likely to spend some of their income on self- gratifying consumptions. It was also found that women are much better credit-risk than men and more responsible managers of meagre resources.
Women represent the most marginalised group among the poorest of the poor.
In poor societies such as Bangladesh, where family laws are not well enforced, and traditions come before the law, the incidence of men abandoning their dependent wife and children is far too common. Economic empowerment of women has had a dramatic impact on the stabilisng the family unit.