Michaela Walsh - Founding a Movement: Womens World Banking, 1975–1990

Founding a Movement: Womens World Banking, 1975-1990 copyright 2012 by Michaela Walsh and Shamina de Gonzaga. Chapter 10, Getting There from Nowhere copyright 2012 by Lilia C. Clemente. Published by Cosimo Books in 2012.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, scanning, or by any information storage and retrieval system without written permission from the publisher.

Cover design by www.popshopstudio.com.
Interior design by Maria Torres.
The WWB logo and trademark are owned by Stichting to Promote Womens World Banking (WWB).
They are used in this book with WWBs permission and may not be reproduced or otherwise used without the prior written permission of WWB.

ISBN: 978-1-61640-717-9

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To every person who supported and continues to work toward fulfilling the dream
of women owning their own productionand reproduction
and who worked so hard to create the Womens World Banking movement.

This history could not have been written without the wisdom, professional experience, and dedication of many people who believed in and contributed to my personal efforts in creating Womens World Banking and in documenting its early years through this publication.

Special thanks to my collaboratorsmy coauthor, Shamina de Gonzaga; my chief editor, John C. Long; my contributing editor and longtime friend, Nancy Carson; and Lilia C. Clemente, my colleague and friend, who stepped up to provide a complete history of our collaboration and WWBs financial history during its first decade.

I would also like to express my appreciation to my generous sponsors, and to those who provided special guidance and advice, whose invaluable support enabled my endeavors to come to fruition.

Thanks also to numerous students and interns who worked tirelessly to transcribe the many, many hours of interviews and helped me compile endless lists and documents; to WWB staff members; and to those who took time to give me excellent feedback and encouraged me to persevere. Among them are Meg Chappell, Alex Paulenoff, Sadis Sequeria, Vanessa Singh, Elizabeth Walsh, and Katherine Wessling.

On a more personal note, certain individuals played central roles in my life by giving me a sense of freedom to dedicate myself to something I loved. Jerry, my brother, and Dorothy Lyddon, a mentor and friend, provided crucial help in the early days of WWB. Bill Bohnett has been a rock throughout the writing of this history. Three generations of my family and lifelong friends have enriched my life and have given me the inspiration to follow my dreams.

To each of you who are not mentioned by nameyou know who you areI love you and I thank you for all your support.

Michaela Walsh

JUST AS WOMENS World Banking emerged from collective efforts, this book also evolved through the continued input of interviewees, writers, editors, collaborators, and friends across generations who value the searches and insights that characterize the early days of Womens World Banking (WWB).

This effort began as my project to interview the founders of WWB and those who contributed so much in the years 1975 to 1990. Those interviews yielded vivid personal memories and a treasure trove of information on how something entirely new was developed. Telling the full story then seemed a necessity. In early 2010, a group of us who believed in the project met for three days to outline parameters for the book.

The pages that follow are not intended to support or critique what is currently known as micro-finance or inclusive finance, but rather to offer an understanding of the rich context in which these practices were developed and took form, through the prism of the organization WWB and the individuals who had a pioneering role in that field at a global scale. As WWB is a network united by a communications hub and composed of independent affiliates around the world, affiliate management is not discussed in this document, except for comments from interviewees and historical records.