INVESTMENT AWARENESS AMONG INDIAN WORKING

WOMEN WITH REFERENCE TO CHENNAI CITY

C.Kavitha, Assistant Professor of Commerce, Bhaktavatsalam Memorial College for
Women

Abstract
From ancient times, women have been managing homes. Hence they are called Home
makers. But since the last 10 to 15 years, this situation has been changing. These days, in all
sorts of fields, women are working efficiently and enthusiastically along with men or if it is said
that women work more efficiently than their male colleagues, it wouldnt be an exaggeration. In
the metro cities, the percentage of working women is more and Chennai is getting transformed
into metros. The present research has been done to know the investment awareness among Indian
working women with reference to Chennai. Now- a- days, women want to be financially
independent & secure their future with enough funds. This research is based on the study of
investment behavior & patterns followed by working women in various sectors in Chennai.
Key words:
Indian working women, investment avenues, Investment awareness
Introduction
In the ancient times, women were not allowed to even get education. Their role was
purely to look after home. Their world was limited to their families. But then, the people slowly
started recognizing the importance of education for women. And today, we find many highly
educated women. They are progressing in real sense because in almost all sectors we find women
working successfully. And of course, while doing so, they havent forgotten their job of
homemaker. On both the fronts i. e. home & job, they are doing just fine. They know how to
manage work life balance. Now-a-days, we find more and more women who are financially
independent. As a woman & an investor, shaping of financial future is as the many other roles
they play in life. Women today, have more earning potential & more influence over financial
decisions than ever before. Women represent almost half of the workforce & many businesses

are owned or managed by women. Many women influence or control the majority of all
consumer decisions. As a result, it becomes important for women to focus on finances now more
than ever. Throughout their lives, as a woman, they face different financial challenges than their
male counterparts. If women are going to take control of their financial future, its important that
they recognize those differences & empower themselves. Earning money is only half the
equation for achieving financial independence. Effectively putting your money to work for you is
equally important. In addition, circumstances are frequently different for women, and whatever
choices you make will be better as a result of greater knowledge of the underlying issues & your
options.
Financial Planning Process
Financial planning is an ongoing process to help you make sensible decisions about money that
can help you achieve your goals in life. A sound financial plan must include the following steps:
1. Establishing the goals in life: short, medium & long term
2. Working out what assets & liabilities we have
3. Evaluating our current financial position
4. Developing our plan
5. Implementing the plan
6. Monitoring & reviewing the plan at least yearly & making adjustments when needed.
Research Objectives:
1. To find out the investment habits of the Indian working women.
2. To know the role of Indian working women in making investment decisions.
3. To know the investment avenues that the Indian working women usually prefer.
Literature Review:
Rakesh Dr. K and Shrinivas V.S.M (2013) with his study on individual investment behavior in
mutual funds on 400 investors covering the categories of Executive & Non-Executives and

observed that 185 investors are interested in investing in bank sponsored mutual funds because
of security and 126 investors are interested in investing in institutions because of their returns,
remaining 89 investors are interested in investing in private sector & joint venture to maximize
their returns and to hedge against risk.
Shaik Pasha Majeeb Abdul, Murty Dr. T. N., R.Vamsee Krishna, Gopi Kiran V.Hemantha
(2012), the study examines that the level of importance assumed by the retail equity women
investors on various investment objectives based on the socio economic variables and selective
investment profile factors. With the help of average score analysis with the help of Kruskal
Wallis H-Test found out that the investors attach/attract more importance to liquidity, quick gain,
capital appreciation and safety in equity investments compared to others
Das Kanti Sanjay (2012) studied the middleclass women investment behavior and found that
the trends of investment by women are not similar in nature and they vary between several
financial instruments. The study reveals that amongst other avenues the bank deposits remain the
most popular instrument of investment followed by insurance and small saving scheme with
maximum number of respondents investing in fixed income bearing option.
Research Methodology:
The research work was carried out in Chennai & its outskirts. Working women in different
industry sectors were interviewed for this purpose. Working professionals were from banks,
corporate, LICs and other small firms. Structured questionnaire was provided to them & their
responses were noted.

Primary Data- A questionnaire was prepared and the primary data was collected through
survey method.

Secondary Data- Companies websites, books and internet Customer database.

Sample Size- The population being large the survey was carried among 526 respondents,
they will be considered adequate to represent the characteristics of the entire population.

Sampling Procedure- The sampling procedure followed in this study is non- probability
convenient sampling. Simple random procedures are used to select the respondent
from the available database.

Sampling Technique: Simple random sampling

Data analysis:
TABLE 1: RANKING OF INVESTMENT AVENUES BASED ON LEVEL

OF

AWARENESS OF WORKING WOMEN INVESTORS

Sl.No.

Investment Avenues

Bank deposits

Real Estate

3
4

Small Saving
Life insurance
scheme

Bullions

Commercial

Corporate

Mutual funds

Equity

10

Preference

High
419
(79.6)
415
(78.9)
395
(75.1)
398
(73.1)
367
(69.8)
188
(35.8)
157
(29.8)
147
(27.5)
139
(26.4)
137
(25.7)

Low

No
Awareness

Rank

77 (14.6)

30 (5.7)

87 (16.5)

24 (4.6)

99 (18.8)

32 (6.1)

90 (17.1)

38 (7.2)

122 (23.2) 37 (7.0)

133 (25.2) 205 (39.0)

162 (30.8) 207 (39.4)

151 (28.7) 228 (43.3)

140 (26.6) 247 (47.0)

143 (27.2) 246 (46.8)

10

The following information has been drawn from the information furnished in table1.

Majority of the respondent (79.6%) stated that they had a high degree of awareness about
bank deposits as investment avenues.

As regards real estate, as an investment channel, 78.9% of the working women respondents
showed a high level of awareness

The other investment avenues, which follow bank deposits after real estate are: Small saving
scheme (75.1% respondent high awareness), Life insurance scheme (73.7%) and Bullions
(69.8%)

The working women investment avenues which are not very popular amongst the investor
are: Preference Share (47%), Equity share (47%), mutual funds (43%), corporate bonds
and deposits (39%) After having assessed the awareness level of the female investors

about the various avenues, it is necessary to identify the factors that contribute to women
investor awareness.
AGE AND INVESTOR AWARENESS
The relation between age and awareness of women investors, the age-wise distribution of
investment avenues with high awareness and also with low awareness amongst the investors is
analyzed hereunder.
TABLE 2: AGE-WISE DISTRIBUTION OF INVESTMENT AVENUES WITH HIGH
LEVEL OF AWARENESS AMONG WORKING WOMEN

Age in Years Bank inReal Estate

SSS LIC Bullion
Deposits
Below 30
74.6
32.1
65.1 63.5 77.8
31-40
78.4
83
72.1 70.5 69.3
41-50
82.8
74.5
85.5 83.5 65.5
51-60
78.8
76
68.5 69.9 69.9
Above 60
81
77.4
78.5 86.9 71.4
(Source: Data Collected through Questionnaire)
It may be seen from table 2 that the respondents are almost equally distributed among the
different age group while claiming their high level of awareness about these avenues. Therefore,
the age of women investor cannot be taken to influence their level of awareness
TABLE 3: AGE-WISE DISTRIBUTION OF INVESTMENT AVENUES WITH LOW
LEVEL OF AWARENESS AMONG WORKING WOMEN
Corporate Corporate Mutual
Equity
Preference
Deposits
Bond
Fund
Share
Share
44.4
31.7
38.1
39.7
31.7
42
39.8
31.8
25
34.1
39.3
29
29
28.3
26.2
26.7
28.1
17.8
19.2
17.1
32.1
22.6
32.1
27.4
28.6
(Source: Data Collected through Questionnaire)
INVESTOR PREFERENCES OF INVESTMENT AVENUES
Table 4 and 5 provide the information about the preference of sample investor towards
various investment products.

The following observation may be made from the data provided in table 4.
Most investor preferred Bank Deposits as their first choice of investment, out of ten
investment products placed before them.
Next to bank deposits, small saving scheme constitute the second choice of investment
among the sample investors.
The small saving scheme followed by the life insurance policies as the next most
preferred vehicle for the investment by the sample investor.
TABLE 4: WORKING WOMEN INVESTMENT PREFERENCES OF INVESTMENT
AVENUES (ON THE BASIS OF NO. OF RESPONDENT)
Preference BD
1st
263

CD
12

SSS LIC MF B
97
101 13 8

RE
10

C.B ES
10
12

PS
27

TOTAL
553

2nd

113

43

188

114

19

19

14

17

12

15

554

3rd

70

49

118

178

35

19

24

10

20

10

533

4th

25

129

43

63

64

88

42

34

34

15

537

5th

12

114

37

22

121 70

58

45

17

34

530

6th

12

72

10

14

121 100 58

59

36

30

512

8th

36

33

38

49

190

89

42

501

9th

14

14

36

37

63

64

166 91

497

10th

13

20

23

63

35

23

69

Total

526

526

526

526

526 526 526 526

228 485

526 526 5260

The working women investor most likely to prefer Bank Deposit to avoid risk

The investment product ,such as company deposits, mutual funds ,bullions, real estate,
corporate securities, equity shares and preference shares received the fourth, fifth, sixth,
seventh ,eighth , ninth and tenth places respectively.

It is evident from the preference expressed by the working women investor that the
capital market securities, like corporate debt securities, equity shares, preference shares
are not popular among the working women investor.

TABLE 5: WORKING WOMEN INVESTMENT PREFERENCES OF INVESTMENT

AVENUES (FIGURES IN PERCENTAGE)
Preference BD
CD
SSS LIC MF B
RE
C.B ES
PS
1st
50
2.3
18.4 19.2 2.5
1.5
1.9
1.9
4.2
5.1
2nd
21.5 8.2
35.7 21.7 3.6
3.6
2.7
3.2
2.3
2.9
3rd
13.5 9.3
22.4 33.8 6.7
3.6
1.6
1.9
3.8
1.9
4th
4.8
24.5 8.2
12
12.2 16.7 15.6 6.5
6.5
2.9
5th
2.3
21.7 7
4.2
23
13.4 11
8.6
3.2
6.5
6th
2.3
13.7 1.9
2.7
23
19
11
11.2 6.8
5.7
8th
1.5
7
1.5
1.5
11.6 16
25.3 14.1 11.6 6.5
9th
1.3
6.8
1.5
1.7
6.3
1.2
9.3
36.1 16.9 8
10th
2.4
3.8
0.7
1.5
4.3
12
6.6
4.3
13.1 43.2
Total
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
Table 5 furnishes the information relating to the no. of investor in percentage term. The
following points may be noted from this table
About 50% of the working women investor given their first preference to Bank deposits as
the most preferred investment product.
Nearly 36% of the fe ma le investor chosen Small saving scheme as the next most
preferred instrument.
Almost 34% of the women investor has preferred life insurance policies in the third place.
Above three are followed by company deposits by 24.5%,mutual fund 23%,bullion with
19% and real estate with 25%.
And other securities are not much popular among the working women investors.
SAVING PATTERN
To analyze the effect of saving pattern on the investors, the savings pattern of the working
women investor is studied. The information showing the saving pattern of the women
investor is furnished in table 6
TABLE 6: SAVING PATTERN OF THE WORKING WOMEN INVESTOR

Saving As
Of
% Of AnnualNo.
Percentage OfIncome
Respondent
Saving
% Of Total
01-10%
11-20%
21-30%
Over 30%

138
200
121
45

26
38
23
9

No Saving
22
4
Total 526
100
526
100
(Source: Data Collected through Questionnaire)
It may be noted from the information given in the table6 that the most of the working women
respondent are able to save between 10-30% of the annual income. Only a few of the
respondent, i.e., around 4% of the women respondent were not able to save from their income. It
can be noted that 38% of the female respondent are able to save to the extent of 10-20% of their
annual income. While 23% are saving between 21-30%. And 9% are saving over the 30% of
their annual income. It is therefore, concluded that most of the working women investors are
able to save substantially out of their annual income and is in position to make investment.
Discussion:
As far as the Indian scenario is concerned, working women here have started doing
investments slowly. The percentage of working women who take their own financial decisions
for making investments is low. Many a times, they rely on their husbands or parents to make
investment decisions. There is still a class of working women who just dont bother much about
making investments out of their income. This is because their husbands are financially very
strong & these female working professionals join somewhere with the sole intension of killing
the time or they dont want to sit at home idle. The reason for not making investments on their
own might be male dominance in some cases.
No doubt, there is a class of working women who are handling their own portfolios &
getting good returns on their investments too. But the percentage of such class of women is a bit
low. Such class includes mainly single mothers, divorcees, widows, unmarried women etc. This
needs to be changed. That means more & more working women should be financially aware &
they should take their own financial or investment decisions. Then only the term Women
Empowerment will be justified in real sense.
Limitations:
1. It is assumed that all the information provided by the respondents is true & factual.

2. Time was the main constraint. As far as the depth of the research paper is concerned, it
would be unfair to assume that the sufficient amount of data has been collected within
such a limited time frame.
3. The data collection has been done from a limited geographical area. Hence the findings &
conclusion have got their own limitations.
4. The information given by the respondents might be biased because some of them might
not be interested to give correct information.
Conclusion:
Todays women are getting the best job offers with high take home pay packages. It has
become the present day need for working women in India to increase their wealth. As most of
the women are low in financial literacy, it becomes hardly possible for them to manage their
portfolios on their own. Also the risk bearing capacity of working women in India is low. This
is due to lack of sound financial knowledge. There is an explosion in the growth of middle
class families due to double income and increase in number of working women. Hence effort
should be made to attract women investors by providing right information and knowledge
about the market through advertisement
Different groups of working women investors like, professionals, entrepreneur pay less
attention while evaluating the pros and cons of investing in different securities. The need and
benefits of the systematic and analytical evaluation of different alternatives and
competitive avenues need to be explained to them. Then only it is possible to park their
surplus funds in economical viable condition.
Managerial Implications:
Despite the financial soundness that working women have got, they are still not having
the complete knowledge of portfolio management or in simple words, taking proper investment
decisions. Due to insufficient knowledge of financial instruments, women are finding it difficult
to invest in the projects where high amount of risk is involved. And those who are investing in
such avenues like stocks or equities, they do it many a times following their friends advice.
Hence, there is high risk involved of facing heavy losses.

More efforts should be taken of course, by working women themselves to increase their
financial literacy. Secondly, the government should organize investment awareness campaigns
often especially designed for women.
Suggestions:
1. It is recommended that the Government should take some efforts to increase the financial
awareness & investment awareness among the working women through organizing
campaigns for the same.
2. The employers i.e. companies should be encouraged to organize Investment & financial
awareness programmes by experts in their office premises specially for their women
employees.
3. Small debates can be organized weekly wherein the review of financial newspapers like
Economic Times & Financial Express can be taken at the workplace to increase
financial awareness.
4. Working women themselves should take efforts to become expert managers of their own
portfolios. They can do so by getting more & more knowledge related to financial matters
from every source possible like financial newspapers, TV channels like CNBC, NDTV
profit, Z Business etc. some magazines like Dalal Street. They can take help of expert
persons in the finance field.
5. Women can take help of reliable Certified Financial Planners for making the right
investment decisions & for having an ideal portfolio.
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