There is no denying the fact that women have taken rapid strides in every field and profession across the board. The world of investing is, understandably, not an exception.
However, the role that women play in the world of financial markets has yet not turned substantive — although it is not insignificant any more.
As of now, just over a quarter of investors belong to the fairer sex, shows an analysis by investment platform Kuvera of its 1.6 million investors’ community.
Of the 16 lakh investors on Kuvera, 26 percent of them happen to be women. This is a significant improvement over 19 percent in March 2022, indicating various financial literacy activities undertaken by industry participants are showing results.
“We have seen a marginal improvement from last year (19 percent in 2022). While this demonstrates a growing awareness of financial planning among women, we clearly have a long way to go to achieve investing equality,” said Gaurav Rastogi, Founder and chief executive officer of Kuvera.
Financial goals and other key observations
There is a slew of observations that were made as a result of this research. These observations were made on the lines of cities they belong to, age group they fall under and investment instruments they tend to choose.
The research further analysed investors’ data to understand the investing behaviour of Indian women which showed that 25 percent of women invest for retirement, followed by 21 percent for buying home,14 percent for the education of children, another 14 percent for buying car and 11 percent for international vacation and another 10 percent for saving tax.
Women investors from the National Capital Region, Bengaluru and Mumbai made up 30% of all women investors in the country, indicating better financial literacy among women in metro cities.
However, around six in 10 women investors were from tier 1 and 2 cities, indicating that financial literacy among women is not limited just to the top tier towns.
Age group
The Kuvera analysis also discovered that the men and women investors got a little younger this year than the last year The median age of women investors is now 33 (vs 34 in 2022), an indication of younger women taking control of their finances.
However, the higher median age of women investors shows that they are likely to begin investing later in life than men.
“The higher median age among women, coupled with 20% smaller avg. portfolio size makes it clear that gender wage difference is real, and it takes longer for women to reach an age when they start feeling in charge of their finances,” Rastogi added.
Financial instruments
The research shows that tax-saving funds continue to be a favourite among women as the share of women investing in these funds has shown a consistent and significant rise over the years - from 23 percent in fiscal 2020 to 29 percent in fiscal 2023.
Incidentally, the average woman investor invests more in ELSS than the average male investor – 29 percent of women account for 32 percent of the investments.
“Greater market participation from citizens will make our financial markets stronger, drive businesses and the GDP. And women will play a massive role in driving this shift to propel India's economic transformation,” Rastogi added.
