Financial Literacy of Indian Women Professionals: A Socio Economic Study

Abstract

The knowledge of how money works in the world that equips one with the skill sets necessary to earn, save, budget and invest money collectively constitute the financial literacy of an individual.  Living in an economy marred by inflation and buying commodities off markets with sky rocketing prices, it is important that every Indian with an earning prowess is literate enough to intelligently and sensitively handle his/her personal finances. Our study is placed in this context and examines specifically the financial literacy levels of Indian Women Professionals (IWPs) who are fast becoming significant and active participants of the economy. With almost a quarter of urban India’s workforce being women (24%) [1], the amount of money that the current generations of women handle are significantly higher as also their financial autonomy. The research examines four critical dimensions of financial knowledge (save, budget, earn and invest) on the basis of how a woman professional’s social, economic and employment profiles impacted her knowledge intensity in saving, budgeting, earning and investing. The results of this research showed that from novices to experts, Indian women exhibited varying levels of confidence in each of these parameters determining ‘financial literacy’; women were most confident of their abilities to earn (43%) and least on their abilities to invest (33%). With socio economic research proving that money in the hands of women tends to bring greater benefit to their families and in turn to the country, it is important that IWPs, their employers and families divert their conscious efforts in equipping women with greater financial knowledge for the best interests of the Indian economy.

Keywords: Budgeting, Economy, Earning, Financial literacy, Indian Woman Professional (IWP), Investing, Saving.