Less than 1/4th of working women make own investment decisions: Study

Report by DSP BlackRock says about 77% depend on spouses or parents for investment decisions

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About 23% of working women take their own investment decisions, said a study by DSP BlackRock conducted by research agency Nielsen. The rest, about 77%, depend on their spouse and/or their parents for investment decision.  

Of the 23%, around 18% are single working women. 

“Most women are only informed of investment decisions, already taken; or at best are joint decision makers… Women are inclined towards safety and believe in long term investing,” the report noted.

According to the survey, 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, at 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 survey noted. 

Among working women, sole decision makers in the urban areas stood at 24% while in the rural areas it stood at 20%. Among non-working women, sole decision making power was mainly with women in the metros.

Proportion of sole decision makers among working as well as non-working women is significantly high among divorced and widowed women, the survey said.

Securing their future and their children’s education were among the primary compulsions for investments among women, especially in the non-metro areas. Getting richer as a primary investment motive was seen only among women in the
metros, the survey said. 

“Women are inclined towards safety while investing and hence put more money in instruments that yield fixed returns. Most of the surveyed women also feel that they are controlled and disciplined about their spending,” said the survey.

Tax was not seen as a primary motive for investments by women.

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

The survey was conducted among 4,750 women spread across 14 cities to understand the women usage and attitudes towards financial products. The women surveyed were in the age group between 21 and 60 years and included both widows and divorcees.