Women in Finance: How to overcome the challenges holding female participation back?

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Women with exemplary skills and resilience have achieved significant milestones, breaking barriers in various sectors. Droupadi Murmu's historic presidency, Arundhati Bhattacharya's influential role at SBI, and Falguni Nayar's ascent to self-made billionaire status exemplify these achievements. Beyond headlines, women contribute to households, societies, and corporate landscapes every day. Despite their contributions, persistent stereotypes, such as being labelled poor drivers or inefficient investors, persist. Nevertheless, women have shown remarkable progress continually.

In recent years, there's been a surge in women taking charge of their financial affairs.

According to the Global Findex 2021 report by the World Bank, there has been a significant surge, indicating that 75.4% of adult women in India had accounts with financial institutions in 2021, marking a substantial 38.3% increase since 2014. 

The AMFI annual report for 2022-2023 reveals 27.50 lakh women investors joined the mutual fund landscape in the last three years. According to a Periodic Labour Force Survey Report 2022-23, the Female Labour Force Participation Rate in the country has improved significantly by 4.2% in 2023 and now stands at 37%.

While it's encouraging to witness women asserting control over their finances, challenges persist. Limited financial literacy, awareness, and access to resources hinder many women from starting their financial journey. Lack of confidence also discourages active financial management.

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In my opinion, enhancing women's access to available resources is key to building their confidence for financial independence.