Women and Finance in Rural andUrban Sudan: A Case Study inGreater Omdurman and Khartoum

In the paper it is inquired how Sudanese women use the financial institutions in order toorganise their lives between market, household, and the community. The results arebased on interviews and observations done in two villages in the surroundings ofOmdurman (Al Gharaza and Sanahir), displaced areas in Greater Khartoum (Ha Yusif andUmbedda) and in a lower middle-class area in Omdurman (Thawra).Within a gender ideology that enforces the role of the male provider and the femalehousekeeper, women seem to have some room of manoeuvre. Most of the interviewedwomen had access to money, could in some cases dispose of substantial savings and hadquite a considerable influence within the household financial decision making. Incomeearning can widen up the financial repertoire of female behaviour, which, in turn, has ledto a challenging of the prevailing conceptualisation of the gendering roles but at thesame time questions the male obligation to provide for his family. Within an ongoingprocess of changing gender roles and expansion of the market economy, women usefinancial institutions to defend their access to resources and gain new economic power.In this context, women are open-minded about using formal institution such as banks,however, because of high transaction costs and limited trust in the efficiency of theseinstitutions women prefer financial institutions that are embedded in their social networksand daily practices. Microcredit can be a means to enhance women’s financial room ofmanoeuvre....