Axis MF ? Head HR on woman and financial responsibility

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Axis MF – Head HR on woman and financial responsibility
Round the world, women are making significant strides in education and financial independence. With increased education and awareness, women are running households shoulder to shoulder with their male counterparts and in fact deftly multitasking between home and work. However, when it comes to investing, women who even earn a sizeable income seem to be taking a backseat and the area of investments and money-management, continues to be a male-dominated bastion. Meghna Gupta Head - Human Resources of Axis Mutual Fund unravels why there is an apparent lack of interest among women in active investing.
Please comment on the role of women in India when it comes to financial planning and investing?
Since times unknown, women have been known to be the more responsible gender with regards to money matters. Most of us have grown up seeing our grandmothers even in modest income households, stash a bit of cash every month among food supplies to suffice on a rainy day! Our mothers and aunts continued with the same traditions managing home budgets, saving on groceries and using home grown formats such as kitties to build a corpus. These ladies have also played the role of influencers in the investment decisions made by their husbands, mostly with a goal of securing the future of their children. Besides, the famed love for gold of Indian women deserves a mention in this context. The legendary love for the yellow metal in Indian households is not ornamental alone. Indian women have grown up with the mindset of gold being their “streedhan”, a corpus to fall back on in times of emergency. Thus, Indian women have traditionally displayed skills in financial management despite being in the backdrop.
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Do you believe that women can be more responsible even as investors?
Yes. There are a lot of studies conducted worldwide that suggest that women make superior investors compared to men. Repeated findings from these studies suggest that women are less competitive than men, display a lower risk tolerance and remained focussed on long term goals such as the future of their children. As a result, they tend to have a more conservative, patient and disciplined style of investing and prefer moderate but consistent returns over a longer period of time as compared to skewed performances in the short term that involves timing the market. All of these factors show that women make more responsible investors than men.
If women are the more responsible gender why do you think they have taken a backseat in active investing?
The apparent lack of interest in investing especially among Indian women is rooted in societal conditioning. Even in 21st century urban households in the Indian society, the division of labour highlights the role of a man as a “provider” and a woman as a “nurturer”. Thus, even though she may be a working woman contributing equally and even more than her spouse financially, she shies away from playing an active role in making investments. She believes that matters of investment should be left to the men of the house. Besides, Indian men are traditionally not very forthcoming in sharing their decisions with their spouses. So even if there are questions or opinions that she may have occasionally, they are dismissed or nipped at the bud. A combination of these factors in varying degrees in different Indian households can be deemed responsible for women taking a backseat in active investing.
Do you see this trend changing in the coming years and why?
Yes. It is heartening to note that winds of change are upon us. With education, higher participation in work force and self-belief driven by changing societal norms, young Indian women are increasingly becoming financially aware. As more and more young women join the workforce, they are more prone to taking financial decisions on their own rather than depending on their father, brother or husband. The proof lies in the pudding. An analysis of our website shows that the number of women visiting our website to know more about our mutual fund schemes has jumped over 140% in the last 2 years between FY 17 and FY 19. These numbers are certainly encouraging and will help us develop a deeper understanding of the goals and priorities of our female investors’ over the years.

Mutual Fund Investments are subject to market risks, read all scheme related documents carefully.