On Equal Footing

With women increasingly playing a more proactive role in managing household finances, they need to be a significant part of family investment decisions.

- Shyamali Basu

There has been a dramatic social change in India and across the world with respect to life of women over the last two decades. With this transformation being under way, urban women, especially, often are required to juggle between their career and household responsibilities. Women are also increasingly playing a larger role in making important family decisions, thanks to the improved education, healthcare, increased exposure through media and Internet and change in family structure.

WHY WOMEN NEED TO PLAY AN ACTIVE ROLE IN INVESTMENT DECISIONS

Many a time, we come across views that women are temperamentally more patient and prudent when it comes to managing household finances as compared to men. Various studies have shown women to be better at multi-tasking than men. While these can be debated, it is broadly accepted that men and women don’t think alike. This is actually a great situation for decision making, including investment decisions. Consider this: In a family in which all decisions are taken by the man, there are high chances that they could be more emotions-driven and biased as compared to relatively high level of objectivity that could be achieved when two brains are involved.