Moving past the archetype – Can women truly be financially independent?

Ensuring true financial independence for Indian women has till recently posed a challenge for a variety of reasons.

Since time immemorial, there has been a direct nexus between financial independence and gender inclusion. Unquestionably, financial independence has a positive impact on women’s control over resources by increasing and perhaps controlling savings, which in turn has the inherent ability to break the vicious cycle of poverty and inequality for all.

Nonetheless, ensuring true financial independence for Indian women has till recently posed a challenge for a variety of reasons, the resolution of which is not an overnight process—it demands awareness, reorganisational initiatives and, more importantly, self-awareness at the women’s end.

Akin to the stages of the Industrial Revolution, of which India missed at least two, the world is undergoing a fourth wave, albeit debatably, of feminism. Moderating the discussion away from ‘feminism’ to an equal space for women, we need to first of all accept that in this social media-infested world of ours, the terms ‘women empowerment,’ ‘feminism’ and ‘financial independence’ have become misnomers in a sense since there is a spirit of lip service in all of these ‘hashtags,’ thereby making them lose their true essence.

Workforce Presence

Regrettably, therefore, India missed the advantage of empowerment in the early stage of its history as an independent nation despite the grant of equal rights to women, and subsequently, several legislative reforms. This safely leads to the hypothesised conclusion that genuine reform was not possible without multi-pronged changes in society.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the presence of Indian women in the workforce. Female employability in India hovers around a low of 25 percent and therefore begets the pressing question: How does one drive economic independence to be the change that women are seeking, making them more independent and mainstream?

Here, perhaps the fundamental challenge is the grassroot level issue of role play in households, which can only be resolved with the collective change and education of society. As a result, appropriate education of children during their formative years, stemming away from the stereotypical notions of all genders, is the likely way to move ahead. Even today, on a pan-India basis, schools do not emphasise the importance of topics such as menstruation and financial management.

The other challenge is the glass ceiling that hinders educated women from fulfilling their career aspirations. It is commonplace to see the huge gap between education and workforce participation.

The causes of this glass ceiling include but are not limited to time spent on household work such as cooking, cleaning, and childcare, men not sharing the domestic load, imposter syndrome, sexual harassment and gender pay parity. Women lose out on pay parity despite equal education when they take time off to nurture children or take care of the elderly.

Recruiters reluctantly view women who plan to get married or have children, despite the professional education and training they may have.

Census data from 2011 depicts overall female literacy in India at about 65 percent, an increase over the previous census. Similar data for female workforce participation is, unfortunately, poorer.

The World Bank reported that in 2019, the percentage of working women in India was 20 percent; in 2020, that number dropped to 18 percent. However, it is pertinent to point out that in the same year, the global gender gap margin—estimated by the Global Gender Gap Report to take 131 years to close fully—narrowed to about 69 percent, demonstrating progress but not quickly enough.

On the issue of financial independence, the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, launched in 2014, was a government initiative aimed at promoting financial inclusion. Its target was to “bank the unbanked and secure the unsecured.”

Digital Divide

Despite the efficacy of this scheme by transitioning millions of unbanked citizens into formal banking institutions, almost 32 percent of women-owned bank accounts are inactive, according to the Findex Survey, 2021. The financial revolution that India is witnessing is on the back of fintech growth and in this context, data from the National Family Health Survey 2019-21 reveals that the gender digital divide remains pervasive.

Yet, the pressing question is: Why aren’t women still not given enough weightage to handle household finances on their own, at the behest of unchanging societal norms?

Moving past the archetype requires holistic initiatives from all stakeholders of society. Re-writing the narrative is a creative, however, unyielding pursuit if the issue of financial inclusion is not addressed from its very grassroots. To break the aforementioned glass ceilings, it is imperative to make financial management a compulsory and encouraged part of the school curriculum right from a young age.

Further, more financial autonomy needs to be given to women from all walks of life with increased awareness and education. Preconceived notions about gender roles need to be eliminated to achieve true financial independence, autonomy, and inclusion for women, and all. The time is ripe for change.

Dakshita Das is a policy expert and former civil servant. Ninupta Srinath is a policy researcher and law student. Views are personal and do not represent the stand of this publication.