Barriers and Interventions on the way to  Empower Women through Financial Inclusion A Two Decades Systematic Review (2000-2020)

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Methodology We have used the PRISMA approach to explain various inclusions and exclusions extracted from Scopus & WOS databases and backward and forward search of important studies. Collaborative peer review selection with a qualitative synthesis of results was used to explain various barriers and interventions in financial inclusion that affected women's empowerment in the period 2000-2020. Interpretation Out of 1740 records identified, 67 studies were found eligible for detailed investigation. The pathway modulated had limitations and benefits of WOS and Scopus data. This study has identified patriarchy structures, psychological factors, low income/wages, low financial literacy, low financial accessibility and ethnicity as six prominent barriers and government & corporate programs/policies, microfinance, formal saving accounts & services, cash & asset transfer, self-help groups and digital inclusion as six leading interventions to summarize the literature and highlight its gaps. Originality The surrounding literature is vast, complex and difficult to comprehend, necessitating frequent reviews. But, due to the sheer size of the literature, such reviews are generally fragmented focusing only on the factors causing the financial exclusion of women while ignoring the interventions that have been discussed all along. Filling up this gap our study attempts to provide a bird's-view to systematically connect all the factors as well as mediations found in past studies with the present and future. Financial Inclusion Women Empowerment Barriers Interventions Systematic literature review Figures Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3 Introduction All over the world, women have been bearing an inadequate load of poverty because of social and structural hurdles. A long dated literature (Klasen 1999; Dollar and Gatti 1999 ; Klasen and Lamanna 2009 ; Seguino 2010 ) emphasizes the effect of numerous facets of gender inequality and economic growth. Females are found to be less educated, less paid, less on ownership and to be able to exercise much less economic control than their male counterparts. This discrimination especially in education hampers their financial development leading to income inequality (Gonzales et al. 2015 ). Consequently, women suffer on health, education, work opportunities, and also lack control over their own lives and selections (Kabeer 1999 ) Nevertheless, we are observing a critical drive to achieve gender equality with 193 United Nation member countries committing to achieve sustainable development goal (SDG 5) of ending gender inequality issues by 2030. To make the most of this, we need more extensive literature exploration to enable conceptually strong evidence-based solutions catalyzing women’s mobility from poverty and exploitation. Considering the vastness of literature, this can only be addressed by a scientific approach to review. Our review paper concentrates on scientifically identifying and amalgamating the related studies between 2000–2020 with the objective to identify the existing barriers, mediations and trends in research on Financial Inclusion (FI) of women to enable the community to design thoughtful interventions. Why FI matters? Since the early 2000s, FI identifies as a significant global macro- economic challenge and is explained as the use of formal financial services by different groups resulting in their well-being (Demirgüç-Kunt et al. 2013). As a global objective it aims to ease access and affordability of finance by the most vulnerable sections in society (Sahay et al. 2015). Time and again studies have proved that greater accessibility to organized finance leads to higher savings (Allen et al. 2016; Aportela 1999) less income disparity and poverty (Beck et al. 2007; Burgess and Pande 2005) increased level of employment (Angelucci et al. 2013; Karlan and Zinman 2009) and education (Flug et al. 1998), better family and household decisions (Mani et al. 2013) and encourages Entrepreneurship (Banerjee et al. 2015; Guiso et al. 2004; Klapper et al. 2006) Leading African economist SA Asongu has contributed to FI studies by numerous publications exploring different perspectives like Information communication technology (ICT), recent advances, inequality and gender economic inclusion, sustainable development, education, foreign aid, mobile phone innovations, infrastructure, Social media, income levels, refugees etc. Many of his research papers are targeted towards promotion of gender equality through measures of FI. Other notable authors are JC Munene, JM Ntayi, CB Okello, CA MAlinga from Uganda and S Ghosh from Quatar and Jayati Ghosh from India. Most of the research in FI is directed towards identifying levels and determinants of FI, evaluating the effectiveness of programs or interventions and suggesting improvements in them (Ghosh 2013; Wang and Guan 2017). As a result of the conscious effort of these programs, between 2011-2021 bank account ownership has increased from 51% to 76% reflecting a giant leap in Inclusion attainment (Global findex 2021). Economic empowerment of women was explored in various dimensions at a much greater pace after 2000 (Priya et al. 2021). This inspired us to focus on the research work and other initiatives taken in the following two decades, defining our study period 2000-2020. Many influential articles have been published in Journals dedicated to women and general development like World Development, Feminist Economics, Journal of Development Studies, Women's Studies International Forum and Gender and Development etc. However, despite tremendous progress in the global state of FI, the gap in gender has not changed much since 2011 as 6% difference still exists in access to bank accounts among men and women in developing countries (Global Findex 2021) raising the need for considerate customized mediation. Early Studies on Financial empowerment of Women Professor Irene Tinker’s work in women studies in 1960s and 70s is the founding stone for researches on women development studies. Her work was instrumental in bringing about the first United Nations International conference on Women in1975 which is also marked as International women’s year. She also founded International Centre for Research on Women in1976 which promotes empirical research to advocate evidence based ways to empower women and promote gender equality. Research in 1970s was characterized by pioneer studies which highlighted the role of women in economic development (Boserup 1970; Tinker 1976) while 1980s captured role of females in family structures (Acharya and Bennett 1981), the hardships faced by women in agriculture which was identified as the single most important employment generating sector for women (Staudt and Jaquette 1982) and advancement of land right for women (Agarwal 1988). In 1990s research gathered pace with numerous studies about; the persisting gender inequalities (Tinker 1990, 1999; Sen 1990; Buvinić and Gupta 1994; Mehra 1997) in cooperatives (Sen 1990), financial services and micro-level entrepreneurship (Mehra and Gammage 1999), discriminations in agriculture and land rights of women to bring about sustainable developmental and suggest inclusive policies and practices (Mehra 1995). Providing a much need direction and empirical advancement, Kabeer,1999 proposed measurement of women empowerment with identification of the ‘Resources’ they own, the ‘Agency’ or commanding role they have and their ‘Achievement’ which can be understood as the outcome in terms of well-being as the basic constructs to be observed. This is one of the most cited articles in context of studies about economic empowerment of women. By the end of the decade, World Bank’s research report presented a cross country comparison in impact of gender inequalities on the growth and development (Klasen 1999), thus introducing crucial insights about the geographical diversity about the issue. Research Methodology Systematic reviews must follow the preset protocol which is an advance plan of action specifying the methods to be used in the study and is generally accepted as a research design in social science studies. These rules are crucial to avoid researcher’s bias in data selection and analysis and increase the reliability of review (Xiao and Watson 2019 ). Channel used for Literature Search Literature for this review has been found using the two sources suggested by Xio and Watson in 2019. Both the extractions were made on 30 th January ’22. These sources are: Electronic Database – Scopus and Web of Science. Both these databases are regarded high in the academic world. Web of Science has been the most trusted database in research for many years, with its expansion to include social science research from the beginning of 20th century, Web of Science has a longest indexing coverage from the year 1900 to the present (Burnham et al. 2010). Scopus, which was introduced in 2004, is considered as one of the most prestigious databases (Bar-Ilan 2008) with an extensive coverage of good quality academic work (Gavel and Iselid 2008). A literature search using both the database despite the overlapping articles, is still recommended to avoid missing out high impact documents (Vieira and Gomes 2009) Backward and forward search – Cited articles in important studies were traced to identify the inspiration and important background variables that were considered for further study. Also, the articles which cited the important studies were explored to find out the direction of the flow of research. (Webster and Watson 2002; Haddaway et al. 2022). Similarly, publications by key authors (highly cited) who contributed to the pool of knowledge were explored to ensure all their important studies were included. Keywords Concepts from the search statement were extended by synomyms, abbreviations, verb forms and related terms to select keywords (Rowley and Slack 2004) as shown in the table below: Concept Related Keywords Barriers - hurdles, obstacles Interventions- mediations, experiment Financial - monetary, economic, banking Inclusion - involvement, FI, include, exclusion, accessibility Women - female, feminist, gender Empowerment - empower, empowered, empowering, power, entitle, enable, enabling, liberation, independence, advancement To capture the essence of the study's research objectives, a dive was made into the Web of Science and Scopus data extracting 751 and 983 records respectively based on identified keywords. PRISMA Approach Data pulled out was filtered using Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) which explains initial screening, determining parameters for inclusion and exclusion and outlining work limitations (Stovold et al. 2014; Selçuk 2019). Inclusions Parameter: Publications in the duration of 2000-2020. Open access articles. Research areas- “Business management, social science, economics, econometrics, accounting and finance” Exclusions Parameter: Incomplete and Non-English language publications. Conference review, book, chapter, book review, conference papers, surveys were excluded. Articles in press. Collaborative peer review based exclusion After the electronic screening of records, a double screening was done by all three authors where at first all 89 studies were reviewed by each author individually. Later, out of them 48 studies were screen out as they were not found to be measuring the population (vulnerable women) or outcomes (barriers and interventions) of our interest and 41 studies were finally selected. Additional important and relevant 26 studies including 8 working papers were identified through backward and forward search while reviewing the studies. The included working papers are listed in the table below for reference. Table 1: Working Papers included through backwards and forward search Working papers Year Affiliation Demirgüç-Kunt et al. 2008 World Bank Adoho et al. 2014 World bank Bandiera et al. 2015 International Labour Organization Honorati 2015 World Bank Chakravarty et al. 2016 World Bank Diaz et al. 2016 Inter-American Development Bank Brudevold et al. 2017 World bank Squires 2018 Department for International Development Discussion After the screening of the literature, a total of 67 articles were documented individually and classified as barrier related studies, experimental studies and studies evaluating interventions with a few studies covering more than one aspect. Due to high level of heterogeneity of quantitative data, we could not conduct a meta-analysis, so instead we have summarized studies based on their characteristics, factors, mediations and results (Bohren et al. 2015). In the Table 2 below, we have classified and connected the 67 eligible articles based on their contribution to developing different perspectives about barriers and interventions in FI based women empowerment. Table 2 Dimensions and themes of FI and women empowerment in the selected articles. DIMENSION SUB DIMENSION STUDIES (N = 67) BARRIERS Patriarchy structures Kabeer, N., & Sweetman, C. 2015 ; Ghosh and Günther 2018 ; Manta 2019 ; Roy 2015 Psychological Koellinger et al. 2008 ; Lombe et al. 2012 ; Patil and Kokate 2017 ; Kavita and Suman 2019 ; Manta 2019 Low Income/ wages Marie et al. 2017; Gonzales et al. 2020; Ghosh and Vinod 2017 Low Financial Literacy Klassen and Lamanna 2009; Gonzales et al. 2015 ; Kumari and Azam 2019; Montanari and Bergh 2019 ; Manta 2019 ; Kavita and Suman 2019 ; Kaur and Kapuria 2020 ; Doss et al. 2020 ; Ingale and Paluri 2020 Low Financial Accessibilty Bernasek 2003 ; Klasen and Lamanna 2009 ; Soumaré et al. 2016; Brudevold et al. 2017; Manta 2019 ; Kemp and Berkovitch 2020 ; Mueller et al. 2020 ; Demirgüç-Kunt et al. 2008 Ethinicity Kaur and Kapuria 2020 ; Gonzales et al. 2020 EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES Social Interventions Cho et al. 2013 ; Ibarraran et al. 2012; Maitra and Mani 2017 ; Field et al. 2015; Kim et al. 2007 Economic Interventions Dupas and Robinsion 2013; Dupas et al. 2014 ; Schaner 2017 ; Squires 2018; Lall et al. 2017 ; Gonzales et al. 2020; Prina 2015 ; Roy 2015 Social and Economic Interventions Adoho et al. 2014; Alzua et al. 2016; Bandiera et al. 2015; Stark et al. 2018 ; Honorati 2015;Valdivia 2015 ; Chakravarty et al. 2016; Diaz and Rosas 2016; Brudevold et al. 2017; Buehren et al. 2015 INTERVENTION TYPES Government/ Corporates programs and policies Swamy 2014 ; Montanari and Bergh 2019 ; Gülsoy and Ustabaş 2019 ; Kaur and Kapuria 2020 ; Gonzales et al. 2020 Microcredit/ Microfinance Swamy 2014 ; Laha and Kuri 2014 ; Zhang and Posso 2017 ; Johnson 2013 ; Gonzales et al. 2020; Khandker and Samad 2014; Buehren et al. 2015 ; Karlan et al. 2007; Kim 2007; Lall et al. 2017 Formal account / services Schaner 2017 ; Dupas and Robinsion 2013; Dupas et al. 2014 ; Prina 2015 Cash/asset transfer program Roy et al. 2015 ; Brudevold et al. 2017; Buller et al. 2018 ; Ismayilova et al. 2018 ; Squires 2018 Self-Help Groups (SHG), Philanthropy, NGOs Nagaraj and Sundaram 2017 ; Hendriks 2019 ; Kemp and Berkovitch 2020 ; Kabeer 2011 ; Maclean 2012 ; Ramachandar and Pelto 2009 ; Mehta et al. 2011; Tiwari et al. 2019 ; Deininger and Liu 2013 Digital Inclusion Klapper and Singer 2017 ; Klapper and Dutt 2015 ; Suri and Jack 2016 ; Ouma et al. 2017 ; Efobi et al. 2018 ; Humbani and Wiese 2018 ; Natile S. 2019 ; Arnold and Gammage 2019; Tiwari et al. 2019 The ideas forwarded through the above classification in the studies of FI and WE have been knit to arrive at a thematic discussion about barriers, intervention based studies and intervention types which are the three main dimensions of our study. Barriers to Financial Empowerment of Women Women have been suppressed and exploited physically, socially, mentally and economically since a long time. Developing countries particularly have a patriarchal set up where women are seen second to men (Nagindrappa and Radhika 2013). While there is a section of society that encourages women empowerment, numerous barriers continue to restrict their advances. Through our set of identified studies we have presented below a discussion about various barriers which have been found through the discussion to be interlinked and often cyclical in nature. Figure 2 below highlights the scope of our further discussion about the barriers in the way of FI of women. Patriarchy structures Patriarchy is a socio-ideological concept in which men in the family (father, brother, husband, son etc.) are considered to be superior to women. It is also described as – a social arrangement in which men (patriarchs) dominate, oppress and exploit women (Walby 1989). Delving into the subject of patriarchy, noted author, Naila Kabeer, 2015 pointed to two types of inequities against women. First, a gender mediated social class-based violence, rape and other sexual exploitation that women get subject to and second, domestic violence due to scarcity or poverty and related helplessness of male within the household. Abuse of women doesn’t stem out only of scarcity or poverty, even the affluent families exploit their daughters by denying them their land and property rights. Indian government introduced a gender –progressive inheritance law to combat this injustice, despite the reforms, parents continued to deprive their daughters of their rights based on emotions and compensation in the form of higher education and higher dowries (Roy et al. 2015). This ill treatment of woman which starts from her parental abode continues in her husband’s house where the ordered unequal power relations developed out of patriarchy further diminish her position. Her production, reproduction and sexuality get controlled by men. This biased treatment of women in the household adversely affects all levels of her social interactions depriving her access to resources, opportunities (Manta A. 2019; Ghosh and Günther 2018) and financial independence (Schaner 2017). Psychological factors For obvious reasons as discussed under the previous heading, many a time’s women lose self-confidence, self–esteem and perceive opportunities with fear of failure (Koellinger et al.,(2008)). An experimental study found that the females in the lower income group tend to be more risk averse than their male counterparts and think about the negative consequences of not being able to pay back loans. (Manta A. 2019) Thus, psychological factors must be carefully studied as crucial drivers to FI of women (Kavita and Suman, 2019). It was found that Investment pattern, group experience and age impacted women's perception about barriers to FI (Lombe et al. 2012) and attitude could be explained by personality traits, ability to cope-up, resource utilization, entrepreneurial abilities, organizational control, financial Inclusion and economic betterment (Patil and Kokate 2017). Low Income/ wages Though the concepts of income inequality and gender have been discussed separately in literature, yet they cannot be compartmentalized as they keep interacting by the way of inequality in outcomes and opportunities which are a bye-product of inequalities mainly in education, financial access, social structures and individual perspectives. With the biasness of patriarchy and her own fallen self-esteem, a woman’s negotiation and bargaining power suffers leading her to enter into the social contracts where she is able to earn low level of income and wages compared to men for the same work. This discrimination is popularly referred as “glass ceiling” and is experienced by women at all levels of hierarchy. This reminds of the much discussed US presidential elections in 2016 where former U.S. Senator and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was subject to misogynistic attacks indicating to her being too weak to serve the nation’s highest office.(Marie et al. 2017). Hence, woman being exploited at work in terms of work treatment and low wages is no exception. At lower level of education and power, gendered wage gaps are even more pronounced (Gonzales et al. 2020) and are found to further contribute to the financial exclusion (Ghosh and Vinod 2017) and further impede the economic growth of women. Low Financial Literacy With cyclical interconnections with all other barriers to financial empowerment of women, Financial literacy has been much discussed by researchers. Hung , A. et al, 2009 combined all previous definitions of Financial Literacy to express it as “knowledge of basic economic and financial concepts, as well as the ability to use that knowledge and other financial skills to manage financial resources effectively for a lifetime of financial well-being.” Successive studies have recognized Financial awareness, Financial knowledge, Financial skills, Financial attitude and Financial behavior as key factors to determine financial literacy (Kumari and Azam 2019) Financial literacy has been supported as one of the critical factors to bring about FI and has greater importance for increasing economic empowerment among women especially the rural poor (Gonzales et al. 2015; Montanari and Bergh 2019; Kumari and Azam 2019; Kaur and Kapuria 2020) who in the lack of it make wrong choices and become vulnerable to high financial risks (Manta 2019). With lack of financial knowledge and skills, women cannot access financial services and the benefits of formal financial system making them economically dependent on men and confined to the vicious circle of low investments, low income and low profits. (Manta 2019). Montanari and Bergh, 2019 found that participation of women in earnings and decision-making activities of rural cooperatives was almost non- existent. It insisted that women's role in such institutions was restricted to low-cost or free physical labor, while the ones who benefited were literate and generally educated people. Spatial diversity and related factors play an important role in effective communication of financial literacy. Gendered gaps in education were found greatly related with the general variation in educational achievement across countries signifying shortage of access to education. (Gonzales et al. 2015). A cross regional comparison showed high level gendered discrimination based on education level and economic participation in South Asia. Observations in Asian countries indicate lessening of gendered employment gap with the rise in gendered education levels while in Middle East and North Africa (MENA) gender gaps in education have reduced, yet women have not got opportunities in employment (Klassen and Lamanna 2009). This hints to the presence of interwoven barriers which are passed on locally. Overall, a high level of Financial literacy is expected to result in greater economic participation of women where she gets an opportunity to express her thoughts and receive suggestions about investment avenues and updates about new profitable products and services encouraging her towards group effort and informed financial behavior (Ingale and Paluri 2020)which in turn improve her relative wealth (Doss et al. 2020) and empower her. Low Financial Accessibility Access to bank accounts, savings instruments, and other financial amenities may result in women’s better control on their earnings, personal consumption and commercial expenditure (Bernasek 2003) and lack of it pushes her back to obscurity. This was exemplified in an experimental study in Kenya which found that credit constraint prevented women from starting a business and savings constraint further barred them from sustaining it (Brudevold et al. 2017). While trying to develop within the male dominant society, a woman is subject to biases which pull down her self-confidence hurling her into the loop of less education, low employment and low wages, denying her the benefits of access to formal finance like credit, deposits, insurance, payments and other risk management services (Demirgüç-Kunt et al. 2008). Findings in an Africa based study indicate that access to formal finance is mainly driven by individual characteristics such as education, age, income, residence area, employment status, marital status, household size and degree of trust in financial institutions (Soumaré et al. 2016). Most of the above factors have been identified as obstacles for the FI of women, thus emphasizing women’s overall lack of opportunity to access finance. Women’s lack of access to financial products and services may also happen because of absence of a bank branch in rural areas which are not commercially viable for banking. Marginalized women living in under- developed far flung areas with poor infrastructure and roads find it hard to regularly visit bank branches in other areas (Manta 2019) so they avoid banking altogether. This problem was addressed by Mueller et al. in 2020, who have worked to develop a travel time model to indicate market accessibility which is the summary travel time to the nearest state capital city in hours. Such indicators may help in planning inclusion strategies. Another major reason for women’s lack of access to finance is the lack of commercial interest of banks in disbursing small credit to poor women with no credit history or collateral. Such kind of lending may lead to building up of non – performing assets and eventually high losses for banks. Therefore they avoid giving loans to underprivileged women depriving them of economic opportunities. Moreover, the absence of collateral with women is further enhanced by the biased traditional property rights (Manta A. 2019) which deny her resources to build upon a better future. Looking at the brighter side, ambitious efforts are being made through pathways like Microfinance (Kemp and Berkovitch 2020) and digital inclusion to pull women out of these never ending and self-building barriers. Ethnicity In recent studies, ethnicity has emerged an important factor to be considered while promoting FI of women. Gonzales et al., 2020 conducted a controlled laboratory experiment in Bolivia to evaluate if credit officers in microfinance institutions rejected loan applications on the basis of the interaction of gender and ethnicity of potential buyers. Though the study supported that women were benefitting from microcredit, it indicated discrimination based on ethnicity as non-indigenous women had twice the probability of getting loan approved, whereas indigenous women had only 1.5 times the probability getting loan approved as compared to men. This idea was supported by another contemporary study Kaur and Kapuria, 2020, suggesting that households headed by females belonging to socially under privileged backgrounds had a poorer likelihood of getting finance from institutions. This suggests that important insights for FI for women can be derived from ethnic studies. Experimental studies to Financial Empowerment of Women As the researchers were identifying various variables related to the financial empowerment of women through exploratory and descriptive studies, a number of empirical and experimental studies were undertaken to understand the relationship between them. Three main types of interventions identified during our analysis were: Economic Interventions – Involving cash/ asset transfer, free bank accounts, free services, subsidies Social Interventions – Comprising family counseling, life skill training, vocational training, awareness programs Bundled Economic and Social Interventions Twenty four experimental studies during 2000-2020 have been presented in a tabular form (Table 3) for review. For the purpose of our study only the gender based findings have been listed for each study. Table 3: Tabular Synthesis of the interventions and findings of experimental studies S no. Author Intervention Place Gender based finding Only Economic Intervention 1 Dupas and Robinsion (2013) Free individual commitment savings account with high withdrawal fees for self employed vendors (Separate Male and Female groups) Rural Kenya Savings of women increased by 45% - increase in women’s private expenditure by 40 % - no effect on men – long term effects upto 3 year were observed 2 Schaner (2017) Provision of ATM cards free of charge Rural Kenya 22% accounts active in short run only 7 % used in the third year- ATM service increased transaction upto 62% in short run and 68 % in long run – married couple – security decresed as wife’s card was being used by husband – joint saving decisions -male female- increased 3 Dupas, Keats and Robinson (2014) Formal savings accounts with offer voucher to coverup cost of opening savings account Rural Kenya Male headed households used the account more often than female headed households and men saved more than women 4 Squires (2018) Cash transfer to access impact of "kinship tax"* Rural Kenya Women faced less pressure to share their income with relatives as they had an excuse that their work options were restricted 5 Prina (2015) Formal saving account paying 6% annual interest at NGO with no account opening, maintainence or withdrrawal charges for women from 19 slum areas Pokhra, Nepal High demand for small regualar saving accounts. After intervention the capability to bear shocks and perceived improvement in situation increased. 6 Roy et al. (2015) Livestock (cows and goats) and related training was provided to ultra poor women Bangladesh Perceived ownership of women increased by 9090 taka, while that of men by 942 taka, agriculture asset ownership of women increased by 173 taka, while that of men by 681 taka, land ownership of men increased by 11,292 taka without any change in woman's position. 7 Lall P. et al. (2017) Microfinance based HIV prevention for Cisgenger and transgender women sex workers ingaged in drug abuse Malaysia After intervention participants recorded high motivation to join other jobs or to start up their own enterprize Only Social Intervention 8 Cho et al. (2013) 3 months vocational training for vulnerable youth Urban Malawi 33% participants dropped out: males left to take advantage of unrelated job opportunities, while women left mainly due to external constraints.- Training was costlier for women who had less access to financing and used more personal savings – Women were treated inferior than men during apprenticeship 9 Adoho et al (2014) Adolescent girls livelihood and lifeskills training with assistance in job placement Urban Liberia Employment increased by 47%, Earnings increased by 80 %, 50% increase in likelihood of Savings, 7% increase in Control over Own Assets. Positive effects on self confidence –Access to mony and less anxiety about future 10 Bandiera et al. (2015) Vocational and life skills training for woman Uganda Increase in entrepreneurial skills – 72 % increase in likelihood of self employment – 26% lower fertility rates- 6.9 % less likely to get married after two years. 11 Honorati (2015) Private sector internship and training for vulnerable youth Urban Kenya Probability of women getting employment increased by 4.5 % and for men increased by 6.5 % - Wages for women and girls in the group increased by 132% - Probability of women opening a bank account for saving increased after intervention 12 Valdivia (2015) Intensive business training and technical assistance Peru Women who received both business training and technical assistance saw an increase of 19 percent in sales 13 Chakravarty et al. (2016 ) Youth employment programs with training from NGO Nepal Greater employment effects were observed for women, Women were more likely to be employed in non farm activities 14 Diaz and Rosas (2016 National Youth job training program Peru 50% women as compared to 42% men were formally employed in the long run follow up. 44% women as compared to 22% men were without any employment 15 Alzua, Cruces and Lopez (2016) Youth training program Urban Argentina Unlike interventions in other parts of the world, men were found to derive greater benefit than women. The intervention resulted in the ability of holding on to one job rather than switching to another. 16 Stark L. et al.(2018) 10 months mentor facilitated sessions for adolescent refugee girls Ethopia Experimental group had no more likelihood than control group in attending school, working for pay or engaging in transactional sexual exploitation Both Social and Economic Intervention 17 Ibarraran et al. (2012) National level training programme with stipend and accidental insurance for poor and uneducated youth Urban Dominican republic Treatment group women had 25% higher wages and 60% higher chances of getting formal employment than women in the control group 18 Field et al. (2015) Two days business counseling and loan assistance with a subsample invited to attend with a friend Urban India Borrowing by women increased by 10%. Women who attended alone used loan for home repair while one with a friend used it for business purposes 19 Buehren et al.(2015) business development training compared to the same training bundled with microfinance for adolescent girls Tanzania In the bundled intervention, earnings increased by 72%, consumption increased by 38%, teen pregnancy reduced by 26%, early marriage reduced by 58%, likelihood of savings increased. Takers for training increased with microfinance 20 Maitra and Mani (2017) Subsidised 6 months vocational training programme in stitching for young women Urban India Women employment increased by 6 %, Self employment increased by 4% , Monthly earnings increased by 150% - Positive effects were sustained in the medium term follow up – More than 40% trainees could not complete six months course due to distance to training center and lack of available child care support . 21 Kim et al. (2007) Microfinance for Aids and Gender Equity (IMAGE) with health related training South Africa After 2 years of intervention, the risk of physical /sexual abuse by intimate partner was reduced by more than half. 22 Brudevold- newman et al. (2017) Two experimental groups - one exposed to only CT and the other with CT along with vocational and lifeskills training - for young poor women Urban Kenya In short term - 56% growth in income of only CT group and 30% growth in income of bundled group. No income effect observed in long run. 23 Gonzales et al (2020) Timed credit disbursal activities for 70 credit officers Bolivia Women were prefered to men for loan disbursal. Non indegeneous women were prefered 2 times to men, while indegeneous women were prefered 1.5 times to men in loan allocation 24 Ismayilova, L.et al (2018) Two experimental groups - one exposed to only economic intervention and the other to economic intervention and family coaching - for ultra poor married women Burkina Faso Significant improvement in financial autonomy, marital relations with reduction in IPV was reported in both groups. - integrating psychological component was found even more effective. *Kinship tax – pressure on high productivity entrepreneurs to share income with friends and family Economic interventions were found highly effective in reducing economic vulnerability of women (Stark et al. 2018; Brudevold et al. 2017). Though, Ismayilova et al. 2018 and Buehren et al. 2015 suggested bundling up of economic and social and psychological interventions could make them more effective. Interventions implemented for Financial Empowerment of Women Intervention studies have guided various programs and policies of governments which are essential to support, promote and scale up the literacy, access and growth of financial products and services for women empowerment. Realizing the fact that women empowerment not only benefits women, but also the sustainable development of community (Vithanagama, 2016) numerous banks all over the world like Westpac in Australia, ICICI and SBI in India, Natwest in UK, UNITAR in Kenya have come up with products and services designed especially for women keeping in mind their security, accessibility and affordability. Figure 3 below defines the scope of our further discussion about six successful interventions in the way of FI of women. Interventions Government/ Corporates programs and policies The insights developed from the conclusive studies provided governments, public and private enterprises around the world to design suitable inclusive programs, schemes and policies to address the gender gap in finance. These interventions like government to people transfers and inclusion of post office financial services were evaluated by researchers to comprehend their success or failure in bringing about fairness for women. Swamy (2014) evaluated Indian government’s Inclusive plans, policies and programs including the contribution of National bank of agriculture and rural development (NABARD) and various other microfinance initiatives. The parameters which he chose for evaluation of the impact were: (a) Change in Income level (b) Change in food security (c) Change in living standards (d) Change in production levels and ( e) Change in asset creation. He found that the FI initiatives had much higher impact on women as compared to men and therefore were quite effective in targeting women. These results were cited in many successive researches and laid ground for more intensive inclusive efforts in India. While acknowledging the imperative need of women empowerment for nation building, governments and related organizations all over the world launched ambitious programs to support women. Strategies of Green Morocco Plan (GMP) were explored by Montanari and Bergh (2019) to conclude towards the persisting miserable circumstances of women despite planned efforts. Similar to the actions taken by the states, many private sector companies design schemes, products and programs to promote gender equality for the benefit of their women staff. A Turkish study (Gülsoy and Ustaba 2019) investigated diversity management strategies of companies and found that company leadership played an important role in bringing about equality programs at workplace. Though, they also pointed to the profiteering motive of corporate which could be getting served by associating with the image building activities, higher productivity and innovation capability which could result from greater employee satisfaction. However, some studies claim that many such initiatives had failed because they did not fully anticipate the importance and influence of social institutions like age, gender, ethnicity, literacy, race, background and religion towards building an enabling environment for Inclusion (Gonzales et al. 2020; Kaur and Kapuria 2020). Microcredit/ Microfinance Microfinance helps in bringing about financial independence of poor or exploited women by enabling them to participate in the economic activities, improving their status in household and society and reinforcing their power of taking decisions (Zhang and Posso 2017; Lall et al. 2017). A strong correlation was found between the level of outreach of microfinance institutions and women empowerment (Laha and Kuri 2014). Zhang and Posso, (2017) used case studies to support the constructive role of microfinance to reduce gender inequality. This idea was strengthened by the empirical diary data-based study (Elu et al. 2019) in Mozambique, Sub –Saharan Africa, which revealed that being a woman had a positive treatment effect on procuring microcredit. A longitudinal panel study (Khandker and Samad 2014) comparing effects of microcredit program in Bangladesh showed that a 10% increase in borrowing by women lowered extreme poverty by 5% and increased the willingness to work of women by 0.46%. The usefulness of microfinance, microcredit, and microenterprises to promote empowerment of women was widely studied (Karlan et al. 2007; Swamy 2014; Laha and Kuri 2014; Zhang and Posso 2017) along with the impact of bundling them up with vocational trainings, education or counseling (Kim 2007; Buehren et al. 2015; Karlan et al. 2007). It has been found that both economic and social empowerment program together were effective in reducing IPV (Kim 2007). One such intervention affirms that Life skills and livelihood training along with microfinance resulted in likelihood of higher earnings and consumption along with reduction in teen pregnancy and early marriage (Buehren et al. 2015). Likewise, it was found that health knowledge along with microcredit could help in reducing health risks (Karlan et al. 2007). On the other hand, the success of microfinance policy based on outreach was challenged with an argument that institutions & their policies had engaged in a residual rather than the relational understanding of poverty (Johnson 2013). Similarly, it was also questioned by Gonzales et al. in 2020 by highlighting the regressive attitude and biasness of credit officer against indigenous women. Formal accounts / services Formal account ownership and its use have been established as an important indicator of FI and with the support of several research experiments it has been adopted as an important policy intervention in many countries. Worldwide, 55% males have a formal account at a financial institution whereas only 47% women own or co-own such an account with a gloomier picture in developing countries where women are 28% less likely to have an account at a formal financial institution. (Global findex 2021) Bank accounts result in savings which lead to wealth creation which is an identified determinant of FI. A study in Kenya found that women made use of savings account far more than men. It observed that there was 45% increase in savings on business investments among women when commitment-saving bank accounts were opened along with a high fee on withdrawal (Dupas and Robinsion 2013). But, in their successive study (Dupas et al. 2014) where instead of a compulsive intervention, the mediation was only to facilitate account opening, it was found that men saved more than women and were more frequent in making transactions. Hence, mere opening of bank accounts in the names of women will not ensure their inclusion in the financial mainstream, their usage of the same over a long run is crucial development. An experimental study found that 22% of such mediated accounts were active in short run and only 7 % were used in the third year. Many women claim that they use the formal account of someone else in their family so they do not need an account in their own name. In many cases husband held the access to the ATM card of their wife hinting towards the family structures which deprive woman of sense of ownership making her dependent on other family members in financial matters. (Schaner 2017; Global Findex 2021) On the brighter side, it was found that with the sense of ownership on wealth, women tend to appreciate themselves by spending on their personal needs elevating their sense of self-worth. There was a 40 % increase in woman’s personal expenditure (Dupas and Robinsion 2013) and also an increase in education and health after the account opening (Prina 2015 ). Additionally, the ATM cards issued along with bank accounts were found to be quite popular among married couples as transactions increased up-to 62% in short run and 68 % in long run. It was found to enable wives to participate in joint financial decisions along with their husband (Schaner 2017). These results reflect good impact of free account opening and subsidized or free financial services on inclusion, but also emphasize on the need to ensure the benefits reach out to the targeted vulnerable women and have long term effects. Cash/asset transfer program Men get financial support from their parents to set up their career, while women are compensated with a dowry which eventually gets passed on to her husband as an economic support to deter his urge of wife beating in case of helplessness. This practice has been found to have high repercussions against woman who is used by her husband or in-laws to extract more money from her parents and it often results in fatal violence. The other popular way to compensate woman is by providing her with high education which enables her to contribute financially to the new household without being a burden. Though this enables her to earn livelihood, yet the head-start that males get with the traditional inheritance creates a major gap in their wealth ownership. Therefore interventions with direct cash/ asset transfer have been studied and implemented for betterment of women. CTs benefit women through financial wellbeing, economic security and emotional wellbeing leading to reduction in intimate partner violence and significant improvement in woman’s status and relationships in the family. (Ismayilova et al. 2018; Buller et al. 2018) Studies supported adding cognitive and emotive features like training, counseling and coaching with economic strategies in the policy interventions to empower women (Ismayilova et al. 2018; Brudevold et al. 2017). When CT intervention was compared with the one coupled with life skill training, it was found that sole cash transfers were more useful in increasing income of women in short run only whereas likelihood of employment could be increased with life skill training and CT bundled together (Brudevold et al. 2017). An interesting study to find the real beneficiaries of CT in long run found that benefits were largely retained by women as they had less pressure to share their income with their relatives on the pretext that their earning options were limited (Squires 2018). Impact of productive asset transfer (livestock) in the name of women was explored in an experimental setting in Bangladesh. It revealed that though women’s asset ownership increased significantly, yet the real beneficiaries were men as instead of women (“fly paper effect”), male sole ownership in agriculture and land increased significantly after the intervention (Roy et al. 2015). This reaffirms the earlier made point about the way dowry benefits are reaped by the male members. The usefulness of CT or asset transfer cannot be denied in the short run where lack of cash or assets averts women from starting a business but, their limitation to save prevents them in sustaining the benefits in the long run (Brudevold et al. 2017). Self-Help Groups (SHG), Philanthropy, NGOs SHGs are informal groups of rural women formed to socially and economically support each other with a sense of belongingness and responsibility among themselves. These groups foster FI along with the social empowerment of women. Members join the SHG mainly to get financial support to meet basic needs especially in case of emergency (Nagaraj and Sundaram 2017). Most SHG members in are young in age, are less educated, have less income and lack any kind of previous experience in handling money. After their SHG experience women have been found to be managing cash (Kabeer 2011; Maclean 2012; Ramachandar and Pelto 2009) though some studies have found that even after SHG training there was no impact on asset formation or income of participants (Deininger and Liu 2013), women remained unsure and pressurized about their financial decisions especially in presence of a community member (Maclean 2012; Ramachandar and Pelto 2009). It was found that when the members become old in the group they start realizing their social responsibilities which transform their social participation and build up their confidence in taking decisions (Mehta et al. 2011), enabling them to fight against exploitation at family or society level. Many philanthropist and NGOs have dedicated themselves to the cause of women’s empowerment. BOMA project in Kenya which works to achieve UN sustainable development goals of poverty reduction, reducing gender inequality and mitigating effects of climate change, has been instrumental in increasing income and savings (Tiwari et al. 2019). In 2019, Hendriks studied the logic and strategy of the functioning of one such philanthropic Bill & Melinda Gates foundation which aims to reduce the gender gap through FI while in 2020, Kemp and Berkovitch worked to study the feminist NGOs in Israel. Digital Inclusion Information and communication technology (ICT) has pulled down many hurdles in accessibility to finance so its potential role in improving female economic participation has been realized. Also, fintechs and other new digital financial services providers have partnered with banks to reap the benefits that they themselves make by targeting women centric products and are increasingly collaborating for financial empowerment of women. Gender was identified as a key variable in consumer readiness in adopting mobile payment services and strategizing market segmentation (Humbani and Wiese 2018). Digital financial services has been discussed in papers as one of the most effective FI models (Arnold and Gammage 2019, Natile 2019) promising greater privacy, confidentiality and control of women over their finances (Duflo 2012). An influential African research by Efobi et al. in 2018 found a strong positive relationship between progressions in information technology through mobile & internet penetration and the participation of women in economy. With the advent of mobile banking, many women who could not reach out to financial institutions have been linked to financial services and are more likely to save than men even with limited amounts (Ouma et al. 2017) gaining greater flexibility to spend on household expenditures and child welfare measures (Duflo 2012). In 2016, Suri and Jack found that Kenyan mobile money system M-PESA was able to lift 194,000 households which were 2% of the total households, out of poverty with a significant positive impact in female households driven by higher savings and better employment of women. Acknowledging its phenomenal reach, drawbacks and efficiencies of mobile banking were discussed further to promote FI (Humbani and Wiese 2018; Arnold and Gammage 2019). Prospects of Digitizing G2P payments were evaluated (Klapper and Singer 2017) to find that with the backing of government there could be dramatic reduction in costs, higher efficiencies, transparency and greater acceptance of technology. Deliberating the imperfections, on one hand, complex financial products and services are being launched every other day, on the other almost 80% of women in low income economies still get their wages in cash (Klapper and Dutt 2015). Inherent inequalities in financial access (Klapper and Dutt 2015), innumeracy, illiteracy and unfamiliarity with technology (Tiwari et al. 2019) are barriers in woman’s digital FI. Reiterating the above idea, exploration of inclusionary arrangements found the exploitation of the M-PESA program to identify market opportunities causing its failure to adopt the redistributive measures necessary for the benefit of society Natile 2019. This suggests that there is a need of a very well planned and systematic digital intervention with greater transparency, sensitivity and awareness. Findings And Conclusion As per the understanding drawn from previous studies, we have identified six prominent barriers: patriarchy structures, psychological factors, low income/wages, low financial literacy, low financial accessibility and ethnicity to FI of women. These barriers are found to be interconnected with cyclical impact resulting in redistribution effects which further widen the gaps between the privileged and the underprivileged. Similarly, we have recognized six main interventions which have been introduced so far: government and corporate programs/policies, microfinance, formal saving accounts/ services, cash or asset transfer, self-help groups and digital inclusion. Also, we have classified the findings from experimental studies based on their nature of being economic, social or both. Results, appreciation and constructive criticism of these interventions have been documented in the discussion to provide useful insights to improvise them for future implementation. Practical Implications Considering the vastness of the subject and need for urgent attention being the fifth sustainability goal, a quick understanding to formulate useful policies, programs and other interventions is much needed. Therefore, our classification of important studies about barriers, experiments and interventions can provide useful insights to policy makers. Government to people transfers (G2P) like pensions, conditional cash transfer, financial literacy programs, microfinance, other socio-economic transfers and products & services of public facility institutions like post offices have resulted in growth of savings and thereby higher entrepreneurship among women (Swamy 2014), but the related experiences of poor women determine their likelihood of connecting with the system in long run (Gonzales et al. 2020; Jain & Saluja 2016). This implies that mere designing the intervention is not enough, careful monitoring of such interventions must be done to achieve its objectives. Studies indicate that SHGs, NGOs and other local communities enable women to become a part of the value chain through productive activities, vocational or life skill trainings, small loans etc. Familiarity and trust of vulnerable women in such organizations gives them a comparative advantage over other formal institutions. Furthermore, our exploration has found that economic interventions are more useful than social interventions in promoting entrepreneurship, savings, consumption and general betterment of lifestyle of women (Bernasek 2003; Duflo 2012; Dupas and Robinsion 2013). Though, the most effective programs are the ones in which both economic and social components are incorporated (Buehren et al. 2015; Ismayilova et al. 2018). Digital Inclusion has been found to be the most promising intervention with widest range and prospects to connect with the left-out poor women. This calls for a sensitive customized approach keeping in mind the convenience of vulnerable and less educated women in adapting to the digital ways. Future Scope for researchers From the point of view of researchers, various gaps in literature can be exposed. A few future areas for research may be- To understand the impact of cultural institutions like women’s dress code and their expected public behavior for which important insights can be derived from ethnic studies. Exploration of behavioral irrationality of rural women towards financial products and services. Biasness at workplace in terms of income, authority and leadership should be explored further to devise suitable interventions. Usefulness of online education can be evaluated to promote financial literacy and awareness in the remote corners of countries and also across countries. Lack of discussion about insurance product to mitigate risk and encourage investments among women can be addressed. As the problem of FI of women has evidently been discussed majorly in developing nations, there is a need for exploration studies about the poor or indigenous women in developed countries. Perception, attitude, behavior of women towards finance has been evaluated in many studies but not much has been discussed to understand the supply side psychological hurdles at individual level in disbursal of finance. There is a need to discuss security, transparency and awareness in digital financial services along with thoughtfully designing simpler digital interface, tools and devices customized for women. Originality Unlike our systematic review method, previous studies like Kalaitzi, S. et al. 2017 and Holloway et al. 2017 have used thematic mapping and traditional review methods to approach similar problem. While another systematic review by Roy and Patro 2022 has focused only on the factors and the importance of FI of women giving us scope to discuss the subject at a comprehensive level by including related interventions. Sincere efforts have been put to include all the major contributors to the research topic, but due to the vastness of the subject and the limitation of our research design, some insightful studies may have been left out from discussion. Still, we believe that the current work which covers inputs from many imminent studies like Kabeer 2011, Kabeer and Sweetman 2015, Demirguc-kunt 2007, Brudevold et al. 2017, Swamy V. 2014, Efobi et al. 2018, Klapper & Dutt 2015 and Dupas & Robinsion 2013 is able to provide the readers a comprehensive, yet quick overview of the literature and its gaps and contribute to the development of useful interventions to achieve the sustainability goal of gender equality by 2030. Declarations Dr Omika Bhalla Saluja developed the idea, performed data analysis and drafted the article. All authors contributed to the collaborative peer review of articles for literature search. Later, Ms Priyanka Singh and Dr Harit Kumar critically revised the work. The authors did not receive support from any organisation for submitting their work and have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose. References Acharya, Bennett, & Lynn (1981). The rural women of Nepal: an aggregate analysis and summary of 8 village studies. In The Status of Women in Nepal, Vol. II, Part 9. Kathmandu: Center for Economic Development and Administration (CEDA) , Tribhuvan University Agarwal, B. (1988). Who sows? Who reaps? Women and land rights in India. The Journal of Peasant Studies , 15 (4), 531–581 Allen, F., Demirguc-Kunt, A., Klapper, L., & Peria, M. S. M. (2016). The foundations of financial inclusion: Understanding ownership and use of formal accounts. 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Applied Economics Letters , 24 (20), 1494–1498. doi: 10.1080/13504851.2017.1287851 Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-1931720","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":126889746,"identity":"224cf297-68fb-450e-a1ec-6eb448924011","order_by":0,"name":"Omika Bhalla Saluja","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA7ElEQVRIiWNgGAWjYFACxmYGxoYDDHzsDIwPGBiYedibDxCphY2ZgdkApIXnWAJBa5hhWtgkQByCWvjFDjcb/NxxR56NmflZdUWFtQwPGwPjh485uLVIzk5sTuw988ywjZnN7OaZM+k8QC3MkjO34dZicDux+QBv22HGNmYGs5uNbYd57OUb2Jh5CWg5+LftsH0bM/u3wsZ/h0G2ENaSDLQlsY2Zx4yxsYEILSC/GMueOZwM1FIs2XAM5BfGZrx+4ZdOfyz5dsdh23729o0fG2qs7XnYmA9++IhHCzbA2ECa+lEwCkbBKBgFGAAA8NlM4b5OMo4AAAAASUVORK5CYII=","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9831-1947","institution":"Pranveer Singh Institute of Technology","correspondingAuthor":true,"submittingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Omika","middleName":"Bhalla","lastName":"Saluja","suffix":""},{"id":126889748,"identity":"67d870c4-dd0f-4ae3-80b0-bc737925aa28","order_by":1,"name":"Priyanka Singh","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Pranveer Singh Institute of Technology","correspondingAuthor":false,"submittingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Priyanka","middleName":"","lastName":"Singh","suffix":""},{"id":126889750,"identity":"b3850be0-f223-4d21-9770-83f6a1fc5042","order_by":2,"name":"Harit Kumar","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Pranveer Singh Institute of Technology","correspondingAuthor":false,"submittingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Harit","middleName":"","lastName":"Kumar","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2022-08-05 06:19:47","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-1931720/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-1931720/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":24931526,"identity":"b358eedc-2e71-4b25-8e0b-ed853b595cf9","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2022-08-08 16:17:47","extension":"png","order_by":1,"title":"Figure 1","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":16934,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eClassification of the selected studies in different dimensions.\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eAuthor created\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"floatimage1.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-1931720/v1/21979c3e751b0196bf097f34.png"},{"id":24931525,"identity":"2fec935a-be2a-4dc5-8c01-c86005c4f628","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2022-08-08 16:17:47","extension":"png","order_by":2,"title":"Figure 2","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":7063,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eSix identified Cyclical and Interconnected Barriers to FI of women.\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eAuthor Created\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"Onlinedrawingimage11.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-1931720/v1/8c1a0d771962a9ab67967603.png"},{"id":24931527,"identity":"c9f3361a-c460-4022-acf2-a6fbebc41a34","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2022-08-08 16:17:47","extension":"png","order_by":3,"title":"Figure 3","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":10561,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eSix most important interventions in empowering Women through FI\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eAuthor Created\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"Onlinedrawingimage12.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-1931720/v1/bc512a1b064143c333ab03ff.png"},{"id":25173361,"identity":"c15fb4bc-0bb5-4bfb-8507-ae61cc44aa7f","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2022-08-13 10:28:15","extension":"pdf","order_by":0,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":604256,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"manuscript.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-1931720/v1/d26dcd8d-45c3-44a3-b940-bb9e573d3f11.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"","formattedTitle":"Barriers and Interventions on the way to Empower Women through Financial Inclusion\nA Two Decades Systematic Review (2000-2020)","fulltext":[{"header":"Introduction","content":"\u003cp\u003eAll over the world, women have been bearing an inadequate load of poverty because of social and structural hurdles. A long dated literature (Klasen 1999; Dollar and Gatti \u003cspan citationid=\"CR21\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1999\u003c/span\u003e; Klasen and Lamanna \u003cspan citationid=\"CR58\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2009\u003c/span\u003e; Seguino \u003cspan citationid=\"CR90\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2010\u003c/span\u003e) emphasizes the effect of numerous facets of gender inequality and economic growth. Females are found to be less educated, less paid, less on ownership and to be able to exercise much less economic control than their male counterparts. This discrimination especially in education hampers their financial development leading to income inequality (Gonzales et al. \u003cspan citationid=\"CR33\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2015\u003c/span\u003e). Consequently, women suffer on health, education, work opportunities, and also lack control over their own lives and selections (Kabeer \u003cspan citationid=\"CR46\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1999\u003c/span\u003e)\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eNevertheless, we are observing a critical drive to achieve gender equality with 193 United Nation member countries committing to achieve sustainable development goal (SDG 5) of ending gender inequality issues by 2030. To make the most of this, we need more extensive literature exploration to enable conceptually strong evidence-based solutions catalyzing women\u0026rsquo;s mobility from poverty and exploitation. Considering the vastness of literature, this can only be addressed by a scientific approach to review. Our review paper concentrates on scientifically identifying and amalgamating the related studies between 2000\u0026ndash;2020 with the objective to identify the existing barriers, mediations and trends in research on Financial Inclusion (FI) of women to enable the community to design thoughtful interventions.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhy FI matters?\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSince the early 2000s, FI identifies as a significant global macro- economic challenge and is explained as the use of formal financial services by different groups resulting in their well-being (Demirg\u0026uuml;\u0026ccedil;-Kunt et al. 2013). As a global objective it aims to ease access and affordability of finance by the most vulnerable sections in society (Sahay et al. 2015). Time and again studies have proved that greater accessibility to organized finance leads to higher savings (Allen et al. 2016; Aportela 1999) less income disparity and poverty (Beck et al. 2007; Burgess and Pande 2005) increased level of employment (Angelucci et al. 2013; Karlan and Zinman 2009) and education (Flug et al. 1998), better family and household decisions (Mani et al. \u0026nbsp;2013) and encourages Entrepreneurship (Banerjee et al. 2015; Guiso et al. 2004; Klapper et al. 2006)\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLeading African economist SA Asongu has contributed to FI studies by numerous publications exploring different perspectives like Information communication technology (ICT), recent advances, inequality and gender economic inclusion, sustainable development, education, foreign aid, mobile phone innovations, infrastructure, Social media, income levels, refugees etc. Many of his research papers are targeted towards promotion of gender equality through measures of FI. Other notable authors are JC Munene, JM Ntayi, CB Okello, CA MAlinga from Uganda and S Ghosh from Quatar and Jayati Ghosh from India.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMost of the research in FI is directed towards identifying levels and determinants of FI, evaluating the effectiveness of programs or interventions and suggesting improvements in them (Ghosh 2013; Wang and Guan 2017). As a result of the conscious effort of these programs, between 2011-2021 bank account ownership has increased from 51% to 76% reflecting a giant leap in Inclusion attainment (Global findex 2021).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEconomic empowerment of women was explored in various dimensions at a much greater pace after 2000 (Priya et al. 2021). This inspired us to focus on the research work and other initiatives taken in the following two decades, defining our study period 2000-2020. Many influential articles have been published in Journals dedicated to women and general development like World Development, Feminist Economics, Journal of Development Studies, Women\u0026apos;s Studies International Forum and Gender and Development etc. However, despite tremendous progress in the global state of FI, the gap in gender has not changed much since 2011 as 6% difference still exists in access to bank accounts among men and women in developing countries (Global Findex 2021) raising the need for considerate customized mediation. \u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEarly Studies on Financial empowerment of Women\u0026nbsp;\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProfessor Irene Tinker\u0026rsquo;s work in women studies in 1960s and 70s is the founding stone for researches on women development studies. Her work was instrumental in bringing about the first United Nations International conference on Women in1975 which is also marked as International women\u0026rsquo;s year. She also founded International Centre for Research on Women in1976 which promotes empirical research to advocate evidence based ways to empower women and promote gender equality.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eResearch in 1970s was characterized by pioneer studies which highlighted the role of women in economic development (Boserup 1970; Tinker 1976) while 1980s captured role of females in family structures (Acharya and Bennett 1981), the hardships faced by women in agriculture which was identified as the single most important employment generating sector for women (Staudt and Jaquette 1982) and advancement of land right for women (Agarwal 1988).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn 1990s research gathered pace with numerous studies about; the persisting gender inequalities (Tinker 1990, 1999; Sen 1990; Buvinić and Gupta 1994; Mehra 1997) in cooperatives (Sen \u0026nbsp;1990), financial services and micro-level entrepreneurship (Mehra and Gammage 1999), discriminations in agriculture and land rights of women to bring about sustainable developmental and suggest \u0026nbsp; inclusive policies and practices (Mehra 1995). Providing a much need direction and empirical advancement, Kabeer,1999 proposed measurement of women empowerment with identification of the \u0026lsquo;Resources\u0026rsquo; they own, the \u0026lsquo;Agency\u0026rsquo; or commanding role they have and their \u0026lsquo;Achievement\u0026rsquo; which can be understood as the outcome in terms of well-being as the basic constructs to be observed. This is one of the most cited articles in context of studies about economic empowerment of women. By the end of the decade, World Bank\u0026rsquo;s research report presented a cross country comparison in impact of gender inequalities on the growth and development (Klasen 1999), thus introducing crucial insights about the geographical diversity about the issue.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"Research Methodology","content":"\u003cp\u003eSystematic reviews must follow the preset protocol which is an advance plan of action specifying the methods to be used in the study and is generally accepted as a research design in social science studies. These rules are crucial to avoid researcher\u0026rsquo;s bias in data selection and analysis and increase the reliability of review (Xiao and Watson \u003cspan citationid=\"CR108\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2019\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003cstrong\u003eChannel used for Literature Search\u003c/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLiterature for this review has been found using the two sources suggested by Xio and Watson in 2019. Both the extractions were made on 30\u003csup\u003eth\u003c/sup\u003e January \u0026rsquo;22. These sources are:\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003col\u003e\n \u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eElectronic Database\u0026nbsp;\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e\u0026ndash; Scopus and Web of Science. Both these databases are regarded high in the academic world. Web of Science has been the most trusted database in research for many years, with its expansion to include social science research from the beginning of 20th century, Web of Science has a longest indexing coverage from the year 1900 to the present (Burnham et al. 2010). Scopus, which was introduced in 2004, is considered as one of the most prestigious databases (Bar-Ilan 2008) with an extensive coverage of good quality academic work (Gavel and Iselid 2008). A literature search using both the database despite the overlapping articles, is still recommended to avoid missing out high impact documents (Vieira and Gomes 2009)\u0026nbsp;\u003c/li\u003e\n \u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eBackward and forward search\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e \u0026ndash; Cited articles in important studies were traced to identify the inspiration and important background variables that were considered for further study. Also, the articles which cited the important studies were explored to find out the direction of the flow of research. (Webster and Watson 2002; Haddaway et al. 2022). Similarly, publications by key authors (highly cited) who contributed to the pool of knowledge were explored to ensure all their important studies were included.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ol\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eKeywords \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp;\u003c/strong\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eConcepts from the search statement were extended by synomyms, abbreviations, verb forms and related terms to select keywords (Rowley and Slack 2004) as shown in the table below:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eConcept \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp;Related Keywords\u003c/em\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBarriers - \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp;hurdles, obstacles\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eInterventions- \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; mediations, experiment\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFinancial - \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; monetary, economic, banking\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eInclusion - \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; involvement, FI, include, exclusion, accessibility\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWomen \u0026nbsp; - \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp;female, feminist, gender\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEmpowerment - \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; empower, empowered, empowering, power, entitle, enable,\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; enabling, liberation, independence, advancement\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTo capture the essence of the study\u0026apos;s research objectives, a dive was made into the Web of Science and Scopus data extracting 751 and 983 records respectively based on identified keywords. \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePRISMA Approach\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eData pulled out was filtered using Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) which explains initial screening, determining parameters for inclusion and exclusion and outlining work limitations (Stovold et al. 2014; Sel\u0026ccedil;uk 2019).\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eInclusions Parameter:\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003col\u003e\n \u003cli\u003ePublications in the duration of 2000-2020.\u003c/li\u003e\n \u003cli\u003eOpen access articles.\u003c/li\u003e\n \u003cli\u003eResearch areas- \u0026ldquo;Business management, social science, economics, econometrics, accounting and finance\u0026rdquo;\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ol\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eExclusions Parameter:\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003col\u003e\n \u003cli\u003eIncomplete and Non-English language publications.\u003c/li\u003e\n \u003cli\u003eConference review, book, chapter, book review, conference papers, surveys were excluded.\u003c/li\u003e\n \u003cli\u003eArticles in press.\u003c/li\u003e\n \u003cli\u003eCollaborative peer review based exclusion\u0026nbsp;\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ol\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAfter the electronic screening of records, a double screening was done by all three authors where at first all 89 studies were reviewed by each author individually. Later, out of them 48 studies were screen out as they were not found to be measuring the population (vulnerable women) or outcomes (barriers and interventions) of our interest and 41 studies were finally selected. Additional important and relevant 26 studies including 8 working papers were identified through backward and forward search while reviewing the studies. The included working papers are listed in the table below for reference.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eTable 1: Working Papers included through backwards and forward search\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ctable border=\"1\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\"\u003e\n \u003ctbody\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"33.38557993730407%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWorking papers\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"10.031347962382446%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eYear\u0026nbsp;\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"56.58307210031348%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAffiliation\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"33.38557993730407%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eDemirg\u0026uuml;\u0026ccedil;-Kunt et al.\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"10.031347962382446%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e2008\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"56.58307210031348%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eWorld Bank\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"33.38557993730407%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eAdoho et al.\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"10.031347962382446%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e2014\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"56.58307210031348%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eWorld bank\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"33.38557993730407%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eBandiera et al.\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"10.031347962382446%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e2015\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"56.58307210031348%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eInternational Labour Organization\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"33.38557993730407%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eHonorati\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"10.031347962382446%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e2015\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"56.58307210031348%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eWorld Bank\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"33.38557993730407%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eChakravarty et al.\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"10.031347962382446%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e2016\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"56.58307210031348%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eWorld Bank\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"33.38557993730407%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eDiaz \u0026nbsp;et al.\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"10.031347962382446%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e2016\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"56.58307210031348%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eInter-American Development Bank\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"33.38557993730407%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eBrudevold et al.\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"10.031347962382446%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e2017\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"56.58307210031348%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eWorld bank\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"33.38557993730407%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eSquires\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"10.031347962382446%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e2018\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"56.58307210031348%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eDepartment for International Development\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003c/tbody\u003e\n\u003c/table\u003e"},{"header":"Discussion","content":"\u003cp\u003eAfter the screening of the literature, a total of 67 articles were documented individually and classified as barrier related studies, experimental studies and studies evaluating interventions with a few studies covering more than one aspect.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eDue to high level of heterogeneity of quantitative data, we could not conduct a meta-analysis, so instead we have summarized studies based on their characteristics, factors, mediations and results (Bohren et al. 2015). In the Table\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab2\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e2\u003c/span\u003e below, we have classified and connected the 67 eligible articles based on their contribution to developing different perspectives about barriers and interventions in FI based women empowerment.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"gridtable\"\u003e\u003ctable float=\"Yes\" id=\"Tab2\" border=\"1\"\u003e \u003ccaption language=\"En\"\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionNumber\"\u003eTable 2\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionContent\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eDimensions and themes of FI and women empowerment in the selected articles.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003c/caption\u003e \u003ccolgroup cols=\"3\"\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c1\" colnum=\"1\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c2\" colnum=\"2\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c3\" colnum=\"3\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cthead\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eDIMENSION\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eSUB DIMENSION\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eSTUDIES (N\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;67)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003c/thead\u003e \u003ctbody\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\" morerows=\"5\" rowspan=\"6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eBARRIERS\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003ePatriarchy structures\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eKabeer, N., \u0026amp; Sweetman, C. \u003cspan citationid=\"CR48\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2015\u003c/span\u003e; Ghosh and G\u0026uuml;nther \u003cspan citationid=\"CR30\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2018\u003c/span\u003e; Manta \u003cspan citationid=\"CR69\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2019\u003c/span\u003e; Roy 2015\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003ePsychological\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eKoellinger et al. \u003cspan citationid=\"CR60\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2008\u003c/span\u003e; Lombe et al. \u003cspan citationid=\"CR65\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2012\u003c/span\u003e; Patil and Kokate \u003cspan citationid=\"CR81\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2017\u003c/span\u003e; Kavita and Suman \u003cspan citationid=\"CR52\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2019\u003c/span\u003e; Manta \u003cspan citationid=\"CR69\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2019\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eLow Income/ wages\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eMarie et al. 2017; 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Karlan et al. 2007; Kim 2007; Lall et al. \u003cspan citationid=\"CR63\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2017\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eFormal account / services\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eSchaner \u003cspan citationid=\"CR89\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2017\u003c/span\u003e; Dupas and Robinsion 2013; Dupas et al. \u003cspan citationid=\"CR24\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2014\u003c/span\u003e; Prina \u003cspan citationid=\"CR82\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2015\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eCash/asset transfer program\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eRoy et al. \u003cspan citationid=\"CR87\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2015\u003c/span\u003e; Brudevold et al. 2017; Buller et al. \u003cspan citationid=\"CR14\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2018\u003c/span\u003e; Ismayilova et al. \u003cspan citationid=\"CR42\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2018\u003c/span\u003e; Squires 2018\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eSelf-Help Groups (SHG), Philanthropy, NGOs\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eNagaraj and Sundaram \u003cspan citationid=\"CR77\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2017\u003c/span\u003e; Hendriks \u003cspan citationid=\"CR37\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2019\u003c/span\u003e; Kemp and Berkovitch \u003cspan citationid=\"CR53\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2020\u003c/span\u003e; Kabeer \u003cspan citationid=\"CR47\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2011\u003c/span\u003e; Maclean \u003cspan citationid=\"CR66\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2012\u003c/span\u003e; Ramachandar and Pelto \u003cspan citationid=\"CR84\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2009\u003c/span\u003e; Mehta et al. 2011; Tiwari et al. \u003cspan citationid=\"CR102\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2019\u003c/span\u003e; Deininger and Liu \u003cspan citationid=\"CR18\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2013\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eDigital Inclusion\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eKlapper and Singer \u003cspan citationid=\"CR56\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2017\u003c/span\u003e; Klapper and Dutt \u003cspan citationid=\"CR55\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2015\u003c/span\u003e; Suri and Jack \u003cspan citationid=\"CR97\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2016\u003c/span\u003e; Ouma et al. \u003cspan citationid=\"CR80\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2017\u003c/span\u003e; Efobi et al. \u003cspan citationid=\"CR25\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2018\u003c/span\u003e; Humbani and Wiese \u003cspan citationid=\"CR39\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2018\u003c/span\u003e; Natile S. \u003cspan citationid=\"CR79\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2019\u003c/span\u003e; Arnold and Gammage 2019; Tiwari et al. \u003cspan citationid=\"CR102\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2019\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003c/tbody\u003e \u003c/colgroup\u003e \u003c/table\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe ideas forwarded through the above classification in the studies of FI and WE have been knit to arrive at a thematic discussion about barriers, intervention based studies and intervention types which are the three main dimensions of our study.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBarriers to Financial Empowerment of Women\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWomen have been suppressed and exploited physically, socially, mentally and economically since a long time. Developing countries particularly have a patriarchal set up where women are seen second to men (Nagindrappa and Radhika 2013). While there is a section of society that encourages women empowerment, numerous barriers continue to restrict their advances.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThrough our set of identified studies we have presented below a discussion about various barriers which have been found through the discussion to be interlinked and often cyclical in nature. Figure 2 below highlights the scope of our further discussion about the barriers in the way of FI of women.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003ePatriarchy structures\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePatriarchy is a socio-ideological concept in which men in the family (father, brother, husband, son etc.) are considered to be superior to women. It is also described as \u0026ndash; a social arrangement in which men (patriarchs) dominate, oppress and exploit women (Walby 1989).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDelving into the subject of patriarchy, noted author, Naila Kabeer, 2015 pointed to two types of inequities against women. First, a gender mediated social class-based violence, rape and other sexual exploitation that women get subject to and second, domestic violence due to scarcity or poverty and related helplessness of male within the household.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAbuse of women doesn\u0026rsquo;t stem out only of scarcity or poverty, even the affluent families exploit their daughters by denying them their land and property rights. Indian government introduced a gender \u0026ndash;progressive inheritance law to combat this injustice, despite the reforms, parents continued to deprive their daughters of their rights based on emotions and compensation in the form of higher education and higher dowries (Roy et al. 2015). This ill treatment of woman which starts from her parental abode continues in her husband\u0026rsquo;s house where the ordered unequal power relations developed out of patriarchy further diminish her position. Her production, reproduction and sexuality get controlled by men. This biased treatment of women in the household adversely affects all levels of her social interactions depriving her access to resources, opportunities (Manta A. 2019; Ghosh and G\u0026uuml;nther 2018) and financial independence (Schaner 2017). \u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003ePsychological factors\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor obvious reasons as discussed under the previous heading, many a time\u0026rsquo;s women lose self-confidence, self\u0026ndash;esteem and perceive opportunities with fear of failure (Koellinger et al.,(2008)). An experimental study found that the females in the lower income group tend to be more risk averse than their male counterparts and think about the negative consequences of not being able to pay back loans. (Manta A. 2019) Thus, psychological factors must be carefully studied as crucial drivers to FI of women (Kavita and Suman, 2019).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt was found that Investment pattern, group experience and age impacted women\u0026apos;s perception about barriers to FI (Lombe et al. 2012) and attitude could be explained by personality traits, ability to cope-up, resource utilization, entrepreneurial abilities, organizational control, financial Inclusion and economic betterment (Patil and Kokate 2017).\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eLow Income/ wages\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThough the concepts of income inequality and gender have been discussed separately in literature, yet they cannot be compartmentalized as they keep interacting by the way of inequality in outcomes and opportunities which are a bye-product of inequalities mainly in education, financial access, social structures and individual perspectives. \u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWith the biasness of patriarchy and her own fallen self-esteem, a woman\u0026rsquo;s negotiation and bargaining power suffers leading her to enter into the social contracts where she is able to earn low level of income and wages compared to men for the same work. This discrimination is popularly referred as \u0026ldquo;glass ceiling\u0026rdquo; and is experienced by women at all levels of hierarchy. This reminds of the much discussed US presidential elections in 2016 where former U.S. Senator and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was subject to misogynistic attacks indicating to her being too weak to serve the nation\u0026rsquo;s highest office.(Marie et al. 2017). Hence, woman being exploited at work in terms of work treatment and low wages is no exception. At lower level of education and power, gendered wage gaps are even more pronounced (Gonzales et al. 2020) and are found to further contribute to the financial exclusion (Ghosh and Vinod 2017) and further impede the economic growth of women.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eLow Financial Literacy\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWith cyclical interconnections with all other barriers to financial empowerment of women, Financial literacy has been much discussed by researchers. Hung , A. et al, 2009 combined all previous definitions of Financial Literacy to express it as \u0026ldquo;knowledge of basic economic and financial concepts, as well as the ability to use that knowledge and other financial skills to manage financial resources effectively for a lifetime of financial well-being.\u0026rdquo; Successive studies have recognized Financial awareness, Financial knowledge, Financial skills, Financial attitude and Financial behavior as key factors to determine financial literacy (Kumari and Azam 2019)\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFinancial literacy has been supported as one of the critical factors to bring about FI and has greater importance for increasing economic empowerment among women especially the rural poor (Gonzales et al. 2015; Montanari and Bergh 2019; Kumari and Azam 2019; Kaur and Kapuria 2020) who in the lack of it make wrong choices and become vulnerable to high financial risks (Manta 2019). With lack of financial knowledge and skills, women cannot access financial services and the benefits of formal financial system making them economically dependent on men and confined to the vicious circle of low investments, low income and low profits. (Manta 2019). Montanari and Bergh, 2019 found that participation of women in earnings and decision-making activities of rural cooperatives was almost non- existent. It insisted that women\u0026apos;s role in such institutions was restricted to low-cost or free physical labor, while the ones who benefited were literate and generally educated people.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSpatial diversity and related factors play an important role in effective communication of financial literacy. Gendered gaps in education were found greatly related with the general variation in educational achievement across countries signifying shortage of access to education. (Gonzales et al. 2015).\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA cross regional comparison showed high level gendered discrimination based on education level and economic participation in South Asia. Observations in Asian countries indicate lessening of gendered employment gap with the rise in gendered education levels while in Middle East and North Africa (MENA) gender gaps in education have reduced, yet women have not got opportunities in employment (Klassen and Lamanna 2009). This hints to the presence of interwoven barriers which are passed on locally.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOverall, a high level of Financial literacy is expected to result in greater economic participation of women where she gets an opportunity to express her thoughts and receive suggestions about investment avenues and updates about new profitable products and services encouraging her towards group effort and informed financial behavior (Ingale and Paluri 2020)which in turn improve her relative wealth (Doss et al. 2020) and empower her.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eLow Financial Accessibility\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAccess to bank accounts, savings instruments, and other financial amenities may result in women\u0026rsquo;s better control on their earnings, personal consumption and commercial expenditure (Bernasek 2003) and lack of it pushes her back to obscurity. This was exemplified in an experimental study in Kenya which found that credit constraint prevented women from starting a business and savings constraint further barred them from sustaining it (Brudevold et al. 2017).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhile trying to develop within the male dominant society, a woman is subject to biases which pull down her self-confidence hurling her into the loop of less education, low employment and low wages, denying her the benefits of access to formal finance like credit, deposits, insurance, payments and other risk management services (Demirg\u0026uuml;\u0026ccedil;-Kunt et al. 2008). Findings in an Africa based study indicate that access to formal finance is mainly driven by individual characteristics such as education, age, income, residence area, employment status, marital status, household size and degree of trust in financial institutions (Soumar\u0026eacute; et al. 2016). Most of the above factors have been identified as obstacles for the FI of women, thus emphasizing women\u0026rsquo;s overall lack of opportunity to access finance.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWomen\u0026rsquo;s lack of access to financial products and services may also happen because of absence of a bank branch in rural areas which are not commercially viable for banking. Marginalized women living in under- developed far flung areas with poor infrastructure and roads find it hard to regularly visit bank branches in other areas (Manta 2019) so they avoid banking altogether. This problem was addressed by Mueller et al. in 2020, who have worked to develop a travel time model to indicate market accessibility which is the summary travel time to the nearest state capital city in hours. Such indicators may help in planning inclusion strategies.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnother major reason for women\u0026rsquo;s lack of access to finance is the lack of commercial interest of banks in disbursing small credit to poor women with no credit history or collateral. Such kind of lending may lead to building up of non \u0026ndash; performing assets and eventually high losses for banks. Therefore they avoid giving loans to underprivileged women depriving them of economic opportunities. Moreover, the absence of collateral with women is further enhanced by the biased traditional property rights (Manta A. 2019) which deny her resources to build upon a better future.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLooking at the brighter side, ambitious efforts are being made through pathways like Microfinance (Kemp and Berkovitch 2020) and digital inclusion to pull women out of these never ending and self-building barriers. \u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eEthnicity\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn recent studies, ethnicity has emerged an important factor to be considered while promoting FI of women. Gonzales et al., 2020 conducted a controlled laboratory experiment in Bolivia to evaluate if credit officers in microfinance institutions rejected loan applications on the basis of the interaction of gender and ethnicity of potential buyers. Though the study supported that women were benefitting from microcredit, it indicated discrimination based on ethnicity as non-indigenous women had twice the probability of getting loan approved, whereas indigenous women had only 1.5 times the probability getting loan approved as compared to men. This idea was supported by another contemporary study Kaur and Kapuria, 2020, suggesting that households headed by females belonging to socially under privileged backgrounds had a poorer likelihood of getting finance from institutions. This suggests that important insights for FI for women can be derived from ethnic studies.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eExperimental studies to Financial Empowerment of Women\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs the researchers were identifying various variables related to the financial empowerment of women through exploratory and descriptive studies, a number of empirical and experimental studies were undertaken to understand the relationship between them. Three main types of interventions identified during our analysis were:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003col\u003e\n \u003cli\u003e\u003cem\u003eEconomic Interventions\u003c/em\u003e \u0026ndash; Involving cash/ asset transfer, free bank accounts, free services, subsidies\u003c/li\u003e\n \u003cli\u003e\u003cem\u003eSocial Interventions\u003c/em\u003e \u0026ndash; Comprising family counseling, life skill training, vocational training, awareness programs\u003c/li\u003e\n \u003cli\u003e\u003cem\u003eBundled Economic and Social Interventions\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ol\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTwenty four experimental studies during 2000-2020 have been presented in a tabular form (Table 3) for review. For the purpose of our study only the gender based findings have been listed for each study.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eTable 3: Tabular Synthesis of the interventions and findings of experimental studies\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ctable border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" width=\"100%\"\u003e\n \u003ctbody\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"8.16326530612245%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eS no.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"12.244897959183673%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAuthor\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"23.46938775510204%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIntervention\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"17.346938775510203%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePlace\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"38.775510204081634%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGender based finding\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd colspan=\"5\" valign=\"top\" width=\"100%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eOnly Economic Intervention\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"8.16326530612245%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e1\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"12.244897959183673%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eDupas and Robinsion (2013)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"23.46938775510204%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eFree individual commitment savings account with high withdrawal fees for self employed vendors (Separate Male and Female groups)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"17.346938775510203%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eRural Kenya\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"38.775510204081634%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eSavings of women increased by 45% - increase in women\u0026rsquo;s private expenditure by 40 % - no effect on men \u0026ndash; long term effects upto 3 year were observed\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"8.16326530612245%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e2\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"12.244897959183673%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eSchaner (2017)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"23.46938775510204%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eProvision of ATM cards free of charge\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"17.346938775510203%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eRural Kenya\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"38.775510204081634%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e22% accounts active in short run \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; only 7 % used in the third year- ATM service increased transaction upto 62% in short run and 68 % in long run \u0026ndash; married couple \u0026ndash; security decresed as wife\u0026rsquo;s card was being used by husband \u0026ndash; joint saving decisions -male female- increased\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"8.16326530612245%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e3\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"12.244897959183673%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eDupas, Keats and Robinson (2014)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"23.46938775510204%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eFormal savings accounts with offer voucher to coverup cost of opening savings account\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"17.346938775510203%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eRural Kenya\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"38.775510204081634%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eMale headed households used the account more often than female headed households and men saved more than women\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"8.16326530612245%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e4\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"12.244897959183673%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eSquires (2018)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"23.46938775510204%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eCash transfer to access impact of \u0026quot;kinship tax\u0026quot;*\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"17.346938775510203%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eRural Kenya\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"38.775510204081634%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eWomen faced less pressure to share their income with relatives as they had an excuse that their work options were restricted\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"8.16326530612245%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e5\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"12.244897959183673%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003ePrina (2015)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"23.46938775510204%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eFormal saving account paying 6% annual interest at NGO with no account opening, maintainence or withdrrawal charges for women from 19 slum areas\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"17.346938775510203%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003ePokhra, Nepal\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"38.775510204081634%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eHigh demand for small regualar saving accounts. After intervention the capability to bear shocks and perceived improvement in situation increased.\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"8.16326530612245%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e6\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"12.244897959183673%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eRoy et al. (2015)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"23.46938775510204%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eLivestock (cows and goats) and related training was provided to ultra poor women\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"17.346938775510203%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eBangladesh\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"38.775510204081634%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003ePerceived ownership of women increased by 9090 taka, while that of men by 942 taka, agriculture asset ownership of women increased by 173 taka, while that of men by 681 taka, land ownership of men increased by 11,292 taka without any change in woman\u0026apos;s position.\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"8.16326530612245%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e7\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"12.244897959183673%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eLall P. et al. (2017)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"23.46938775510204%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eMicrofinance based HIV prevention for Cisgenger and transgender women sex workers ingaged in drug abuse\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"17.346938775510203%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eMalaysia\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"38.775510204081634%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eAfter intervention participants recorded high motivation to join other jobs or to start up their own enterprize\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd colspan=\"5\" valign=\"top\" width=\"100%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eOnly Social Intervention\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"8.16326530612245%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e8\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"12.244897959183673%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eCho et al. (2013)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"23.46938775510204%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e3 months vocational training for vulnerable youth\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"17.346938775510203%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eUrban Malawi\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"38.775510204081634%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e33% participants dropped out: males left to take advantage of unrelated job opportunities, while women left mainly due to external constraints.- Training was costlier for women who had less access to financing and used more personal savings \u0026ndash; Women were treated inferior than men during apprenticeship\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"8.16326530612245%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e9\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"12.244897959183673%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eAdoho et al (2014)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"23.46938775510204%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eAdolescent girls livelihood and lifeskills training with assistance in job placement\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"17.346938775510203%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eUrban Liberia\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"38.775510204081634%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eEmployment increased by 47%, Earnings increased by 80 %, 50% increase in likelihood of Savings, 7% increase in Control over Own Assets. Positive effects on self confidence \u0026ndash;Access to mony and less anxiety about future\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"8.16326530612245%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e10\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"12.244897959183673%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eBandiera et al. (2015)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"23.46938775510204%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eVocational and life skills training for woman\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"17.346938775510203%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eUganda\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"38.775510204081634%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eIncrease in entrepreneurial skills \u0026ndash; 72 % increase in likelihood of self employment \u0026ndash; 26% lower fertility rates- 6.9 % less likely to get married after two years.\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"8.16326530612245%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e11\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"12.244897959183673%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eHonorati (2015)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"23.46938775510204%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003ePrivate sector internship and training for vulnerable youth\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"17.346938775510203%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eUrban Kenya\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"38.775510204081634%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eProbability of women getting employment increased by 4.5 % and for men increased by 6.5 % - Wages for women and girls in the group increased by 132% - Probability of women opening a \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; bank account for saving increased \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; after intervention\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"8.16326530612245%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e12\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"12.244897959183673%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eValdivia (2015)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"23.46938775510204%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eIntensive business training and technical assistance\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"17.346938775510203%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003ePeru\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"38.775510204081634%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eWomen who received both business training and technical assistance saw an increase of 19 percent in sales\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"8.16326530612245%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e13\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"12.244897959183673%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eChakravarty et al. (2016 )\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"23.46938775510204%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eYouth employment programs with training from NGO\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"17.346938775510203%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eNepal\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"38.775510204081634%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eGreater employment effects were observed for women,\u003cbr\u003e\u0026nbsp;Women were more likely to be employed\u003cbr\u003e\u0026nbsp; in non farm activities\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"8.16326530612245%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e14\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"12.244897959183673%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eDiaz and Rosas (2016\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"23.46938775510204%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eNational Youth job training program\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"17.346938775510203%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003ePeru\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"38.775510204081634%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e50% women as compared to 42% men were formally employed in the long run follow up.\u003cbr\u003e\u0026nbsp;44% women as compared to 22% men were without any employment\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"8.16326530612245%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e15\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"12.244897959183673%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eAlzua, Cruces and Lopez (2016)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"23.46938775510204%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eYouth training program\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"17.346938775510203%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eUrban Argentina\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"38.775510204081634%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eUnlike interventions in other parts of the world, men were found to derive greater benefit than women. \u0026nbsp;The intervention resulted in the ability of holding on to one job rather than switching to another.\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"8.16326530612245%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e16\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"12.244897959183673%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eStark L. et al.(2018)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"23.46938775510204%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e10 months mentor facilitated sessions for adolescent refugee girls\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"17.346938775510203%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eEthopia\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"38.775510204081634%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eExperimental group had no more likelihood than control group in attending school, working for pay or engaging in transactional sexual exploitation\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd colspan=\"5\" valign=\"top\" width=\"100%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eBoth Social and Economic Intervention\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"8.16326530612245%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e17\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"12.244897959183673%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eIbarraran et al. (2012)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"23.46938775510204%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eNational level training programme with stipend and accidental insurance for poor and uneducated youth\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"17.346938775510203%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eUrban Dominican republic\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"38.775510204081634%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u0026nbsp;Treatment group women had 25% higher wages and 60% higher chances of getting formal employment than women in the control group\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"8.16326530612245%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e18\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"12.244897959183673%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eField et al. (2015)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"23.46938775510204%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eTwo days business counseling and loan assistance with a subsample invited to attend with a friend\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"17.346938775510203%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eUrban India\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"38.775510204081634%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eBorrowing by women increased by 10%.\u003cbr\u003e\u0026nbsp;Women who attended alone used loan for home repair while one with a friend used it for business purposes\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"8.16326530612245%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e19\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"12.244897959183673%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eBuehren et al.(2015)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"23.46938775510204%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003ebusiness development training compared to the same training bundled with microfinance for adolescent girls\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"17.346938775510203%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eTanzania\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"38.775510204081634%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eIn the bundled intervention, earnings increased by 72%, consumption increased by 38%, teen pregnancy reduced by 26%, early marriage reduced by 58%, likelihood of savings increased. Takers for training \u0026nbsp;increased with microfinance\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"8.16326530612245%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e20\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"12.244897959183673%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eMaitra and Mani (2017)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"23.46938775510204%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eSubsidised 6 months vocational training programme in stitching for young women\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"17.346938775510203%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eUrban India\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"38.775510204081634%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eWomen employment increased by 6 %,\u0026nbsp;\u003cbr\u003e\u0026nbsp;Self employment increased by 4% , Monthly earnings increased by 150% \u0026nbsp;- Positive effects were sustained in the medium term follow up \u0026ndash; More than 40% trainees could not complete six months course due to distance to training center and lack of available child care support .\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"8.16326530612245%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e21\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"12.244897959183673%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u0026nbsp;Kim et al. (2007)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"23.46938775510204%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eMicrofinance for Aids and Gender Equity (IMAGE) with health related training\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"17.346938775510203%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eSouth Africa\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"38.775510204081634%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eAfter 2 years of intervention, the risk of physical /sexual abuse by intimate partner was reduced by more than half.\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"8.16326530612245%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e22\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"12.244897959183673%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eBrudevold- newman et al. (2017)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"23.46938775510204%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eTwo experimental groups - one exposed to only CT and the other with CT along with vocational and lifeskills training - for young poor women\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"17.346938775510203%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eUrban Kenya\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"38.775510204081634%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eIn short term - 56% growth in income of only CT group and 30% growth in income of bundled group. No income effect observed in long run.\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"8.16326530612245%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e23\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"12.244897959183673%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eGonzales et al (2020)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"23.46938775510204%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eTimed credit disbursal activities for 70 credit officers\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"17.346938775510203%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eBolivia\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"38.775510204081634%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eWomen were prefered to men for loan disbursal. Non indegeneous women were \u0026nbsp;prefered 2 times to men, while \u0026nbsp;indegeneous women were prefered 1.5 times to men in loan allocation\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"8.16326530612245%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e24\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"12.244897959183673%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eIsmayilova, L.et al (2018)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"23.46938775510204%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eTwo experimental groups - one exposed to only economic intervention and the other to economic intervention and family coaching - for ultra poor married women\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"17.346938775510203%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eBurkina Faso\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd valign=\"top\" width=\"38.775510204081634%\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eSignificant improvement in financial autonomy, marital relations with reduction in IPV was reported in both groups. - integrating psychological component was found even more effective.\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003c/tbody\u003e\n\u003c/table\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e*Kinship tax \u0026ndash; pressure on high productivity entrepreneurs to share income with friends and family\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEconomic interventions were found highly effective in reducing economic vulnerability of women (Stark et al. 2018; Brudevold et al. 2017). Though, Ismayilova et al. 2018 and Buehren et al. 2015 suggested bundling up of economic and social and psychological interventions could make them more effective.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eInterventions implemented for Financial Empowerment of Women\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIntervention studies have guided various programs and policies of governments which are essential to support, promote and scale up the literacy, access and growth of financial products and services for women empowerment. Realizing the fact that women empowerment not only benefits women, but also the sustainable development of community (Vithanagama, 2016) numerous banks all over the world like Westpac in Australia, ICICI and SBI in India, Natwest in UK, UNITAR in Kenya have come up with products and services designed especially for women keeping in mind their security, accessibility and affordability. Figure 3 below defines the scope of our further discussion about six successful interventions in the way of FI of women.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eInterventions\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eGovernment/ Corporates programs and policies\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe insights developed from the conclusive studies provided governments, public and private enterprises around the world to design suitable inclusive programs, schemes and policies to address the gender gap in finance. These interventions like government to people transfers and inclusion of post office financial services were evaluated by researchers to comprehend their success or failure in bringing about fairness for women. Swamy (2014) evaluated Indian government\u0026rsquo;s Inclusive plans, policies and programs including the contribution of National bank of agriculture and rural development (NABARD) and various other microfinance initiatives. The parameters which he chose for evaluation of the impact were: (a) Change in Income level (b) Change in food security (c) Change in living standards (d) Change in production levels and ( e) Change in asset creation. He found that the FI initiatives had much higher impact on women as compared to men and therefore were quite effective in targeting women. These results were cited in many successive researches and laid ground for more intensive inclusive efforts in India.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhile acknowledging the imperative need of women empowerment for nation building, governments and related organizations all over the world launched ambitious programs to support women. Strategies of Green Morocco Plan (GMP) were explored by Montanari and Bergh (2019) to conclude towards the persisting miserable circumstances of women despite planned efforts.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSimilar to the actions taken by the states, many private sector companies design schemes, products and programs to promote gender equality for the benefit of their women staff. A Turkish study (G\u0026uuml;lsoy and Ustaba 2019) investigated diversity management strategies of companies and found that company leadership played an important role in bringing about equality programs at workplace. Though, they also pointed to the profiteering motive of corporate which could be getting served by associating with the image building activities, higher productivity and innovation capability which could result from greater employee satisfaction.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHowever, some studies claim that many such initiatives had failed because they did not fully anticipate the importance and influence of social institutions like age, gender, ethnicity, literacy, race, background and religion towards building an enabling environment for Inclusion (Gonzales et al. 2020; Kaur and Kapuria 2020).\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eMicrocredit/ Microfinance\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMicrofinance helps in bringing about financial independence of poor or exploited women by enabling them to participate in the economic activities, improving their status in household and society and reinforcing their power of taking decisions (Zhang and Posso 2017; Lall et al. 2017). A strong correlation was found between the level of outreach of microfinance institutions and women empowerment (Laha and Kuri 2014).\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eZhang and Posso, (2017) used case studies to support the constructive role of microfinance to reduce gender inequality. This idea was strengthened by the empirical diary data-based study (Elu et al. 2019) in Mozambique, Sub \u0026ndash;Saharan Africa, which revealed that being a woman had a positive treatment effect on procuring microcredit. A longitudinal panel study (Khandker and Samad 2014) comparing effects of microcredit program in Bangladesh showed that a 10% increase in borrowing by women lowered extreme poverty by 5% and increased the willingness to work of women by 0.46%.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe usefulness of microfinance, microcredit, and microenterprises to promote empowerment of women was widely studied (Karlan et al. 2007; Swamy 2014; Laha and Kuri 2014; Zhang and Posso 2017) along with the impact of bundling them up with vocational trainings, education or counseling (Kim 2007; Buehren et al. 2015; Karlan et al. 2007). It has been found that both economic and social empowerment program together were effective in reducing IPV (Kim 2007). One such intervention affirms that Life skills and livelihood training along with microfinance resulted in likelihood of higher earnings and consumption along with reduction in teen pregnancy and early marriage (Buehren et al. 2015). Likewise, it was found that health knowledge along with microcredit could help in reducing health risks (Karlan et al. 2007).\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOn the other hand, the success of microfinance policy based on outreach was challenged with an argument that institutions \u0026amp; their policies had engaged in a residual rather than the relational understanding of poverty (Johnson 2013). Similarly, it was also questioned by Gonzales et al. in 2020 by highlighting the regressive attitude and biasness of credit officer against indigenous women.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eFormal accounts / services\u0026nbsp;\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFormal account ownership and its use have been established as an important indicator of FI and with the support of several research experiments it has been adopted as an important policy intervention in many countries. Worldwide, 55% males have a formal account at a financial institution whereas only 47% women own or co-own such an account with a gloomier picture in developing countries where women are 28% less likely to have an account at a formal financial institution. (Global findex 2021)\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBank accounts result in savings which lead to wealth creation which is an identified determinant of FI. \u0026nbsp;A study in Kenya found that women made use of savings account far more than men. It observed that there was 45% increase in savings on business investments among women when commitment-saving bank accounts were opened along with a high fee on withdrawal (Dupas and Robinsion 2013). But, in their successive study (Dupas et al. 2014) where instead of a compulsive intervention, the mediation was only to facilitate account opening, it was found that men saved more than women and were more frequent in making transactions.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHence, mere opening of bank accounts in the names of women will not ensure their inclusion in the financial mainstream, their usage of the same over a long run is crucial development. An experimental study found that 22% of such mediated accounts were active in short run and only 7 % were used in the third year. Many women claim that they use the formal account of someone else in their family so they do not need an account in their own name. In many cases husband held the access to the ATM card of their wife hinting towards the family structures which deprive woman of sense of ownership making her dependent on other family members in financial matters. (Schaner 2017; Global Findex 2021)\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOn the brighter side, it was found that with the sense of ownership on wealth, women tend to appreciate themselves by spending on their personal needs elevating their sense of self-worth. There was a 40 % increase in woman\u0026rsquo;s personal expenditure (Dupas and Robinsion 2013) and also an increase in education and health after the account opening (Prina \u003ca href=\"https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09614524.2019.1660308\"\u003e2015\u003c/a\u003e). Additionally, the ATM cards issued along with bank accounts were found to be quite popular among married couples as transactions increased up-to 62% in short run and 68 % in long run. It was found to enable wives to participate in joint financial decisions along with their husband (Schaner 2017). These results reflect good impact of free account opening and subsidized or free financial services on inclusion, but also emphasize on the need to ensure the benefits reach out to the targeted vulnerable women and have long term effects.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eCash/asset transfer program\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMen get financial support from their parents to set up their career, while women are compensated with a dowry which eventually gets passed on to her husband as an economic support to deter his urge of wife beating in case of helplessness. This practice has been found to have high repercussions against woman who is used by her husband or in-laws to extract more money from her parents and it often results in fatal violence. The other popular way to compensate woman is by providing her with high education which enables her to contribute financially to the new household without being a burden. Though this enables her to earn livelihood, yet the head-start that males get with the traditional inheritance creates a major gap in their wealth ownership. Therefore interventions with direct cash/ asset transfer have been studied and implemented for betterment of women.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCTs benefit women through financial wellbeing, economic security and emotional wellbeing leading to reduction in intimate partner violence and significant improvement in woman\u0026rsquo;s status and relationships in the family. (Ismayilova et al. 2018; Buller et al. 2018)\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStudies supported adding cognitive and emotive features like training, counseling and coaching with economic strategies in the policy interventions to empower women (Ismayilova et al. 2018; Brudevold et al. 2017). When CT intervention was compared with the one coupled with life skill training, it was found that \u0026nbsp;sole cash transfers were more useful in increasing income of women in short run only whereas likelihood of employment could be increased with life skill training and CT bundled together (Brudevold et al. 2017). An interesting study to find the real beneficiaries of CT in long run found that benefits were largely retained by women as they had less pressure to share their income with their relatives on the pretext that their earning options were limited (Squires 2018).\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eImpact of productive asset transfer (livestock) in the name of women was explored in an experimental setting in Bangladesh. It revealed that though women\u0026rsquo;s asset ownership increased significantly, yet the real beneficiaries were men as instead of women (\u0026ldquo;fly paper effect\u0026rdquo;), male sole ownership in agriculture and land increased significantly after the intervention (Roy et al. 2015). This reaffirms the earlier made point about the way dowry benefits are reaped by the male members.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe usefulness of CT or asset transfer cannot be denied in the short run where lack of cash or assets averts women from starting a business but, \u0026nbsp;their limitation to save prevents them in sustaining the benefits in the long run (Brudevold et al. 2017).\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eSelf-Help Groups (SHG), Philanthropy, NGOs\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSHGs are informal groups of rural women formed to socially and economically support each other with a sense of belongingness and responsibility among themselves. These groups foster FI along with the social empowerment of women. Members join the SHG mainly to get financial support to meet basic needs especially in case of emergency (Nagaraj and Sundaram 2017).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMost SHG members in are young in age, are less educated, have less income and lack any kind of previous experience in handling money. After their SHG experience women have been found to be managing cash (Kabeer 2011; Maclean 2012; Ramachandar and Pelto 2009) though some studies have found that even after SHG training there was no impact on asset formation or income of participants (Deininger and Liu 2013), women remained unsure and pressurized about their financial decisions especially in presence of a community member (Maclean 2012; Ramachandar and Pelto 2009). \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt was found that when the members become old in the group they start realizing their social responsibilities which transform their social participation and build up their confidence in taking decisions (Mehta et al. 2011), \u0026nbsp;enabling them to fight against exploitation at family or society level.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMany philanthropist and NGOs have dedicated themselves to the cause of women\u0026rsquo;s empowerment. BOMA project in Kenya which works to achieve UN sustainable development goals of poverty reduction, reducing gender inequality and mitigating effects of climate change, has been instrumental in increasing income and savings (Tiwari et al. 2019). \u0026nbsp;In 2019, Hendriks studied the logic and strategy of the functioning of one such philanthropic Bill \u0026amp; Melinda Gates foundation which aims to reduce the gender gap through FI while in 2020, Kemp and Berkovitch worked to study the feminist NGOs in Israel.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eDigital Inclusion\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eInformation and communication technology (ICT) has pulled down many hurdles in accessibility to finance so its potential role in improving female economic participation has been realized. Also, fintechs and other new digital financial services providers have partnered with banks to reap the benefits that they themselves make by targeting women centric products and are increasingly collaborating for financial empowerment of women.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGender was identified as a key variable in consumer readiness in adopting mobile payment services and strategizing market segmentation (Humbani and Wiese 2018). Digital financial services has been discussed in papers as one of the most effective FI models (Arnold and Gammage 2019, Natile 2019) promising greater privacy, confidentiality and control of women over their finances (Duflo 2012). An influential African research by Efobi et al. in 2018 found a strong positive relationship between progressions in information technology through mobile \u0026amp; internet penetration and the participation of women in economy.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWith the advent of mobile banking, many women who could not reach out to financial institutions have been linked to financial services and are more likely to save than men even with limited amounts (Ouma et al. 2017) gaining greater flexibility to spend on household expenditures and child welfare measures (Duflo 2012). In 2016, Suri and Jack found that Kenyan mobile money system M-PESA was able to lift 194,000 households which were 2% of the total households, out of poverty with a significant positive impact in female households driven by higher savings and better employment of women. Acknowledging its phenomenal reach, drawbacks and efficiencies of mobile banking were discussed further to promote FI (Humbani and Wiese 2018; Arnold and Gammage 2019). Prospects of Digitizing G2P payments were evaluated (Klapper and Singer \u0026nbsp;2017) to find that with the backing of government there could be dramatic reduction in costs, higher efficiencies, transparency and greater acceptance of technology.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDeliberating the imperfections, on one hand, complex financial products and services are being launched every other day, on the other almost 80% of women in low income economies still get their wages in cash (Klapper and Dutt 2015). Inherent inequalities in financial access (Klapper and Dutt 2015), innumeracy, illiteracy and unfamiliarity with technology (Tiwari et al. 2019) are barriers in woman\u0026rsquo;s digital FI. Reiterating the above idea, exploration of inclusionary arrangements found the exploitation of the M-PESA program to identify market opportunities causing its failure to adopt the redistributive measures necessary for the benefit of society Natile 2019. This suggests that there is a need of a very well planned and systematic digital intervention with greater transparency, sensitivity and awareness.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"Findings And Conclusion","content":"\u003cp\u003eAs per the understanding drawn from previous studies, we have identified six prominent barriers: patriarchy structures, psychological factors, low income/wages, low financial literacy, low financial accessibility and ethnicity to FI of women. These barriers are found to be interconnected with cyclical impact resulting in redistribution effects which further widen the gaps between the privileged and the underprivileged.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSimilarly, we have recognized six main interventions which have been introduced so far: government and corporate programs/policies, microfinance, formal saving accounts/ services, cash or asset transfer, self-help groups and digital inclusion. Also, we have classified the findings from experimental studies based on their nature of being economic, social or both. Results, appreciation and constructive criticism of these interventions have been documented in the discussion to provide useful insights to improvise them for future implementation.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePractical Implications\u003c/strong\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eConsidering the vastness of the subject and need for urgent attention being the fifth sustainability goal, a quick understanding to formulate useful policies, programs and other interventions is much needed. Therefore, our classification of important studies about barriers, experiments and interventions can provide useful insights to policy makers. \u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGovernment to people transfers (G2P) like pensions, conditional cash transfer, financial literacy programs, microfinance, other socio-economic transfers and products \u0026amp; services of public facility institutions like post offices have resulted in growth of savings and thereby higher entrepreneurship among women (Swamy 2014), but the related experiences of poor women determine their likelihood of connecting with the system in long run (Gonzales et al. 2020; Jain \u0026amp; Saluja 2016). This implies that mere designing the intervention is not enough, careful monitoring of such interventions must be done to achieve its objectives.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStudies indicate that SHGs, NGOs and other local communities enable women to become a part of the value chain through productive activities, vocational or life skill trainings, small loans etc. Familiarity and trust of vulnerable women in such organizations gives them a comparative advantage over other formal institutions.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFurthermore, our exploration has found that economic interventions are more useful than social interventions in promoting entrepreneurship, savings, consumption and general betterment of lifestyle of women (Bernasek 2003; Duflo 2012; Dupas and Robinsion 2013). Though, the most effective programs are the ones in which both economic and social components are incorporated (Buehren et al. 2015; Ismayilova et al. 2018).\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDigital Inclusion has been found to be the most promising intervention with widest range and prospects to connect with the left-out poor women. This calls for a sensitive customized approach keeping in mind the convenience of vulnerable and less educated women in adapting to the digital ways.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFuture Scope for researchers\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFrom the point of view of researchers, various gaps in literature can be exposed. A few future areas for research may be-\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003col\u003e\n \u003cli\u003eTo understand the impact of cultural institutions like women\u0026rsquo;s dress code and their expected public behavior for which important insights can be derived from ethnic studies.\u003c/li\u003e\n \u003cli\u003eExploration of behavioral irrationality of rural women towards financial products and services.\u003c/li\u003e\n \u003cli\u003eBiasness at workplace in terms of income, authority and leadership should be explored further to devise suitable interventions.\u003c/li\u003e\n \u003cli\u003eUsefulness of online education can be evaluated to promote financial literacy and awareness in the remote corners of countries and also across countries.\u003c/li\u003e\n \u003cli\u003eLack of discussion about insurance product to mitigate risk and encourage investments among women can be addressed.\u003c/li\u003e\n \u003cli\u003eAs the problem of FI of women has evidently been discussed majorly in developing nations, there is a need for exploration studies about the poor or indigenous women in developed countries.\u003c/li\u003e\n \u003cli\u003ePerception, attitude, behavior of women towards finance has been evaluated in many studies but not much has been discussed to understand the supply side psychological hurdles at individual level in disbursal of finance.\u003c/li\u003e\n \u003cli\u003eThere is a need to discuss security, transparency and awareness in digital financial services along with thoughtfully designing simpler digital interface, tools and devices customized for women.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ol\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eOriginality\u003c/strong\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eUnlike our systematic review method, previous studies like Kalaitzi, S. et al. 2017 and Holloway et al. 2017 have used thematic mapping and traditional review methods to approach similar problem. While another systematic review by Roy and Patro 2022 has focused only on the factors and the importance of FI of women giving us scope to discuss the subject at a comprehensive level by including related interventions.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSincere efforts have been put to include all the major contributors to the research topic, but due to the vastness of the subject and the limitation of our research design, some insightful studies may have been left out from discussion. Still, we believe that the current work which covers inputs from many imminent studies like Kabeer 2011, Kabeer and Sweetman 2015, Demirguc-kunt 2007, Brudevold et al. 2017, Swamy V. 2014, Efobi et al. 2018, Klapper \u0026amp; Dutt 2015 and Dupas \u0026amp; Robinsion 2013 is able to provide the readers a comprehensive, yet quick overview of the literature and its gaps and contribute to the development of useful interventions to achieve the sustainability goal of gender equality by 2030.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"Declarations","content":"\u003cp\u003eDr Omika Bhalla Saluja developed the idea, performed data analysis and drafted the article. All authors contributed to the collaborative peer review of articles for literature search. Later, Ms Priyanka Singh and Dr Harit Kumar critically revised the work.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe authors did not receive support from any organisation for submitting their work and have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"References","content":"\u003col\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAcharya, Bennett, \u0026amp; Lynn (1981). The rural women of Nepal: an aggregate analysis and summary of 8 village studies. In The Status of Women in Nepal, Vol.\u0026nbsp;II, Part 9. \u003cem\u003eKathmandu: Center for Economic Development and Administration (CEDA)\u003c/em\u003e, Tribhuvan University\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e \u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAgarwal, B. (1988). Who sows? Who reaps? 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Microfinance and gender inequality: Cross-country evidence. \u003cem\u003eApplied Economics Letters\u003c/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003e24\u003c/em\u003e(20), 1494\u0026ndash;1498. doi:\u003cspan class=\"ExternalRef\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"RefSource\"\u003e10.1080/13504851.2017.1287851\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan address=\"10.1080/13504851.2017.1287851\" targettype=\"DOI\" class=\"RefTarget\"\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003c/ol\u003e"}],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":true,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":false,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":false,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Financial Inclusion, Women Empowerment, Barriers, Interventions, Systematic literature review","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-1931720/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-1931720/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"Purpose\n\nThis study aims to reduce ambiguity in theoretical and empirical underpinning by synthesizing various knowledge concepts through a systematic review on barriers and interventions to promote financial inclusion of women.\n\nMethodology\n\nWe have used the PRISMA approach to explain various inclusions and exclusions extracted from Scopus \u0026amp; WOS databases and backward and forward search of important studies. Collaborative peer review selection with a qualitative synthesis of results was used to explain various barriers and interventions in financial inclusion that affected women's empowerment in the period 2000-2020. \n\nInterpretation \n\nOut of 1740 records identified, 67 studies were found eligible for detailed investigation. The pathway modulated had limitations and benefits of WOS and Scopus data. This study has identified patriarchy structures, psychological factors, low income/wages, low financial literacy, low financial accessibility and ethnicity as six prominent barriers and government \u0026amp; corporate programs/policies, microfinance, formal saving accounts \u0026amp; services, cash \u0026amp; asset transfer, self-help groups and digital inclusion as six leading interventions to summarize the literature and highlight its gaps. \n\nOriginality \n\nThe surrounding literature is vast, complex and difficult to comprehend, necessitating frequent reviews. But, due to the sheer size of the literature, such reviews are generally fragmented focusing only on the factors causing the financial exclusion of women while ignoring the interventions that have been discussed all along. Filling up this gap our study attempts to provide a bird's-view to systematically connect all the factors as well as mediations found in past studies with the present and future.","manuscriptTitle":"Barriers and Interventions on the way to Empower Women through Financial Inclusion\nA Two Decades Systematic Review (2000-2020)","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2022-08-08 16:17:45","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-1931720/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"6d373fb3-2fb1-4268-8038-8a11ad6ae76d","owner":[],"postedDate":"August 8th, 2022","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2022-08-13T10:28:06+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2022-08-08 16:17:45","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-1931720","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-1931720","identity":"rs-1931720","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"rHA-KDH7Qsr4HCuvH75dn","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}