Efficiency and Gender Concerns: Issues Confronting the Philippine Credit Cooperatives

This study analyzes the efficiency of the credit cooperative system in the Philippines through various factors, including the gender dimension. It examines the implications of women’s participation on the performance of credit cooperatives.

The study covers three sets of factors that affect the cost and profit efficiencies of credit cooperatives. Of these, the third set refers to women and governance participation. It includes proportion of women in the cooperative’s total membership and ratio of the number of women to total number of staff. Findings indicate that:

• Proportion of women in the cooperative’s total membership has no significant effect on cost inefficiency, but has a significant positive effect on profit efficiency;
• Ratio of the number of women to total number of staff is negatively correlated with cost inefficiency and exerts a negative influence on profit efficiency;
• Dominance of women in the staff of credit cooperatives can help achieve cost efficiency;
• New management skills would be required to shift emphasis to profit efficiency for long-run sustainability of credit cooperatives;
• Women must become partners in all aspects of decision making, at all levels, in order to appreciate their roles and contribution to the credit cooperative system.