Bridging the Financial Gender Gap and Bringing Financial literacy to Every Household

In India, because of our cultural and societal norms, we have never seen women taking critical financial decisions of the household. Some didn’t have formal education and some thought that it’s better for the man to manage money.

And even after that, it was our traditional mothers who would still stack some cash in a small pouch and give it to us in times of need. This shows that if given more, women are equally capable of taking financial decisions. This is why even though women are nearly half of our population, they are not economically empowered. I believe that to bridge this gap, we must empower women to make their own financial decisions and how will that happen?

By spreading financial literacy.

Imagine a typical Indian household having dinner. Wife rushes to the kitchen and serves chapatis to the husband, her in-laws and children. Husband is talking about investing some money. Wife is not part of that conversation.

Husband tells her, can you bring more chapatis please? Thankyou

This is how every woman is treated when it comes to money.

What can she do?

She can learn about the basics of managing money so that she can participate in family matters. It includes savings, budgeting, investing and managing debt. It will help her in taking the important decisions like saving money for children’s education by creating monthly budgets and sticking to it.

These financial literacy sessions need to happen on a community level in rural and urban areas in both online and offline platforms. Children should be taught about these things in schools or colleges. Empower women so that they become financially independent and do not stay in abusive relationships because of that dependency. Educate them so that they can manage their own money without asking the husband and finally make them believe that they can do it.

(The writer is a Finfluencer, Founder of Financial Vines)