Poor women are being drawn into commercial economic activities for the first time, enabling them to take advantage of new opportunities. The microfinance revolution started among rural women in Bangladesh in the 1970s. The revolution had its roots in the recognition that poor people needed credit and, more importantly, that they could use loans productively and responsibly. It showed that we were wrong in believing that poverty and a lack of collateral meant that poor people were not creditworthy. This belief was simply our own social prejudice.