According to the 5th Edition of #WorkingStree, an annual study of working women in India conducted by IndiaLends, two-thirds of working women viewed “financial independence” as ceasing to rely on anyone for their financial requirements, rather than having the flexibility to spend their own money. Yet, roughly 67% of people still relied on male family members to make financial decisions. IndiaLends’ #WorkingStree study, which was carried out online in February 2023 ahead of March 8’s International Women’s Day, sought to assess the sentiment of working women in India with regard to their level of financial independence and career preferences. It covered 4439 different pincodes in India and 10,000+ working women between the ages of 21 and 65 who lived in metropolises and tier 1 and tier 2 cities.
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According to the survey, nearly 40% of respondents chip in more than 50% of their income towards household expenses, representing a contribution rate of over 90%. About 70% of these women have yearly incomes of less than Rs 5 lakh, while 23% have incomes between Rs 5 and Rs 10 lakh. Although a large majority made considerable contributions towards household expenses, approximately 67% of them relied on a male family member, such as their husband, father, or brother, for financial decisions.
Nonetheless, more than 22% of the respondents said that they did not let anyone influence their financial decisions. The poll also revealed the desire of salaried women to become business owners, with nearly one-fourth wanting to launch their own company and another one-fourth seeing skill improvement as a top professional priority. The #WorkingStree poll found, among other things, that roughly half of working women only made decisions about discretionary spending on their own. Just approximately 1/4th of women were able to make investment decisions independently, with 1/3rd women \claiming it’s always been the male member of the household that makes investment decisions, and 1/4th of the responder finding investments “complex and complicated”.
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According to the survey, over half of working women learned about personal finance from social media, followed by news items (about 30%), workshops and seminars (20%), and professional experts (about 20%). Only one-third of working women felt competent enough to handle all of their financial decisions after that. Financial independence was the main reason for working for one-third of the women surveyed; other top reasons included supporting their family (26%), boosting their self-confidence (21.6%), and keeping oneself busy (6.7%). In the #WorkingStree poll from IndiaLends, respondents aged 25 to 34 made up the majority of the sample (47.7%), followed by respondents aged 35 to 44 (30.8%). The sample’s youngest age group, 21–24 years old, made up 13.7% of the population, while people over 45 made up roughly 7.8%. In terms of vocations, salaried employees made up the majority of respondents (43.6%), followed by those who were self-employed (31.3%). 12.3% of the sample was made up of housewives, while 4.4% was made up of professionals like lawyers and CPAs. When it comes to marital status, married people made up the vast majority of respondents (70.6%), followed by single people (16.4%).
