The objective of this paper is to assess the links between institutions and quality of life, within Nussbaum's capability framework approach, exploring a relevant empirical issue: microfinance. Microfinance appears more and more as a tool for women's empowerment. Available results of impact studies call for circumspection; microfinance can free women from certain links of dependence. But microfinance can also forge new kinds of dependence and subordination, thereby strengthening the disparities between men and women, but also among women themselves.