With money, it is customary in most Indian houses for the male members of the family to be in charge. Women have traditionally had little to no influence on how the family's wealth was managed, and they were only expected to keep track of the monthly household budget and safely deposit any extra cash left over at the end of the month.
Women's gold jewellery would be the sole assets over which they would have complete control during their wedding ceremonies. The growing tendency of young Indian women learning the ropes of the investment game could have a favourable impact on overall female investor engagement in India.
Women in the age range of 18-25 emerged as the most independent cohort, according to a recent survey performed by Groww, with nearly 60% of women in this age bracket saying they make the independent final decision on their investments.
Despite being financially independent, many Indian women struggle to invest on their own because of a lack of confidence stemming from the perception that men are naturally better at managing money than women. However, it could come as a surprise that women are generally looked up to be better with investments and saving over years. The lack of female role models and peers also contributes to the erroneous belief that money management necessitates testosterone.
In female stock market involvement, India, the world's sixth-largest equities market, is in the lowest quartile. While the investment world is overwhelmingly male-dominated, the gender divide in India is much worse, with women accounting for only 21 out of every 100 investors.
Other emerging market rivals, such as China (34%), South Africa (33%), and Malaysia (29%), are doing better.
The Philippines has the highest female involvement rate in the world, at 44%.
This puts in risk the authenticity of the world of investment with respect to women investors. Women investors specifically in the Indian market are kept aloof from the volatility and the nuances involved in mastering the art of investments.
While traditionally, men had the last word in household finances, the rise in the number of independent, employed women means that women now have a greater influence in financial decisions. With greater responsibility in making those decisions, women have struck as intelligent investors with diverse options.
Gone are the days when women were too shy or insecure to talk about money, avoided financial jargon, and delegated key investment choices to males. Women are close to defeating males at this investment game, according to ClearTax's latest observations on the financial strategy and discipline of their female consumers.
Women invest more than men, and the trend is speeding up.
Financial inclusion among Indian women has improved because of reforms in the financial services industry. The increase in the number of female investors on platforms like ClearTax has also been interesting. In addition, according to ClearTax, the average woman invests 12.7 percent more than a guy. This clearly gives away the fact that women, if given the right opportunity to grow, can soar up to opportunities and save up a huge corpus.
According to a June 2021 IVCA- Bain & Co research, women made up 16 percent of PE and VC teams in India in 2020, close to the world average of 19 percent. At the senior levels, however, women made up only 5% of the teams.
Gender equity has a business case, regardless of mandates.
"The median gender-balanced fund outperformed median unbalanced peers by as much as 20% in annual returns," according to a 2019 study report based on data from over 700 PE and VC funds and 500 portfolio businesses from the International Finance Corporation (IFC).
Portfolio firms with gender-balanced leadership teams also had superior valuations, with a 64 percent increase in valuation between two funding rounds or liquidity events, nearly ten percentage points more than companies with gender-imbalanced leadership teams.
More women in investment teams leads to better investment decisions, according to the research, which is one of the first to call for gender balance in private equity. It was pointed out that male investment experts overlook and undervalue enterprises that cater predominantly to female consumers. This is the consumer group that accounts for 70 to 80 percent of all consumer purchases in residences.
Way Forward
The right way forward is to push more women in the direction of investing in the right kind of assets. With awareness and right amount of knowledge, women can grow up to the occasion of leading the investment space. The first step is to be determined and take the first step towards investing with ShePays. It is time to explore the opportunities towards financial stability.