18% of single working women make own invstment decisions

Only 18% of single working women make their own investment decisions and 77% of the fairer sex depends on spouse or parents for their investment decisions, says a study.

"Only a minuscule 23% of the surveyed working women claim to be sole decision makers, when it comes to making their own investments."This figure is even lower at 18% when it comes to the proportion of single working women who take their own investment decisions," says a study by mutual fund company DSP BlackRock.

According to the study, while 92% of working women claim to be involved in the investment decision-making process, 70% of these women are actually joint decision makers and a majority of these (52%) are only informed about the investment decisions which have already been made."The main reason why women don't take investment decisions

is that they are safety oriented and reluctant to take risk," the study said.

Husbands also seem to dominate the investment decision making among working as well as non-working women, the study, based on the survey conducted across 14 cities, said.

When it comes to trusting various financial institutions, it was observed that women trust nationalised banks (88%) almost twice as much as they trust private banks (43%) and foreign banks (24%), it added.

While the proportion of sole decision makers among working women is almost similar in metros at 24% and non-metros at 20%, in case of non-working women, sole decision makers are confined mostly to metros, it said.

The study titled 'Understanding Women's Usage and attitude towards financial products' covered working and non-working women between 21-60 years of age, and included divorcees and widows.

While analysing women's main reasons to invest, it said future security and child's education form the key reasons for investments, especially amongst women in non-metros.

The desire to invest with an objective to become rich is higher among women in metros, it said, adding, tax does not feature as a primary reason for investments among many of the women surveyed.