Economic despair is one main source of violent conflict and threats to economic security are both of macroeconomic and microeconomic concern. Getting access to economic resources helps strengthening social relations and can facilitate reconciliation and the establishment of relations of trust and peace. This paper addresses the development of the microfinance sectors in post-conflict Timor-Leste and Cambodia and looks specifically at women as economic actors and how they are involved in various microfinance activities. The aim of the paper is to look closer at how microfinance can be used as a peacebuilding and development tool, and address its stated effects on women’s empowerment and emancipation. By describing the microfinance climate in Cambodia from the early 1990s and in Timor-Leste from 1999, what strengths and weaknesses can be identified in the development of microfinance in these two post-conflict societies? To what extent has this development acknowledged women as economic actors and beneficiaries? The paper ends with some reflections on the future of microfinance in Cambodia and Timor-Leste, emphasizing the importance of not over-stating the effects of microfinance on poverty alleviation or gender equality at large.