Seems Like Most Indian Salaried Women Aspire To Be Entrepreneurs: Survey

The recent edition of an annual survey that collects data on working women in India and their aspirations and beliefs has revealed that most of the salaried women in India aspire to become entrepreneurs in the future. The online survey collected opinions of more than 10,000 working women, including homemakers, in the age group of 21-65 years in February 2023. The survey highlighted various aspects of working women and their contribution to the household, income slab, roles, career choices, and major financial decisions as well. Here’s what the survey revealed.

The survey asked women the meaning of financial independence and while 1/3^rd of them described it as the freedom to spend their own money, a majority of 2/3^rd described it as independence on others for financial needs which is a common scenario in India as many women still depend on their husbands, fathers, and brothers when it comes to their personal expenses. When it comes to making financial decisions, almost 67% of women still depend on male family members while only 22% claimed to not be influenced by anyone when it came to making financial decisions.

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Indian Salaried Women Want To Be Entrepreneurs

The survey had about 40% of salaried women respondents, the majority of whom expressed that they plan to become entrepreneurs in the future by starting their own businesses or upgrading their skills and prioritizing their careers.

It is true that women are still not very fluent in making major financial decisions like investments as they are neither taught nor encouraged to learn about them which is why about ¼ women found financial concepts confusing. However, modern times require everyone to have basic knowledge of finances, taxes, and investments and the survey showed that a lot of women are learning about these concepts from social media, workshops, seminars, news articles, and professional educators.

The survey also revealed that almost 1/3^rd of the women were working for financial independence, about 21% are doing it to boost their self-confidence, 26% to support their families and about 6% just want to keep themselves occupied. An important observation made in the survey was that more than 90% of the working women contributed to household expenses and among them, about 40% gave more than half of their income at home.

When it comes to the age group of working women, more than 47% are of age 25-34 years while about 31% of 35-44 years. However, working women above 45 years was only about 8%. The survey revealed that the number of women working after marriage is still high with almost 70% of working women being married.