Perception of Women Towards Investment in Different Investment Alternatives

Abstract

Women are empowered to take active participation in investment activities through financial education and an inclusive investment environment. Several alternatives to investing are available, including mutual funds, real estate, precious metals, savings accounts, and stocks, which offer potential returns through regular income or capital appreciation. Investment alternatives are differentiated by their unique features, risks, returns, and ease of management. Investors, before investing, must take these features into account in relation to their risk tolerance, goals, and time horizon when considering any particular alternative. As women are recognized for making risk-averse investment decisions, their investments are impacted by numerous factors. The primary goal of this study is to understand the investment perception of women towards different investment alternatives. While the main factors influencing investment decisions are return, risk, and liquidity, several other factors specifically influence women investors, such as social and cultural norms, peers, and family members. Primary data was collected through a well-structured questionnaire consisting of Likert scale questions. SPSS software was used for data analysis. The initial results of the survey showed that 70% of the respondents had an average understanding of different investment options, whereas only 5% had high knowledge of different investment alternatives. When it comes to interest in a particular investment, mutual funds are the most preferred alternative. Additionally, 72% of women respondents show a moderate level of risk tolerance among all respondents in the study.

Received: 13 June 2024 | Revised: 19 September 2024 | Accepted: 20 September 2024

Conflicts of Interest 

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest to this work.

Data Availability Statement

The data that support this work are available upon reasonable request to the corresponding author.

Author Contribution Statement

Harshini C: Conceptualization, Methodology, Validation, Writing-original draft, Visualization, Formal analysis, and Project administration. Pooja V: Investigation, Visualization, Validation, and Writing- review & editing. Preeti S Desai: Writing- review & editing, Formatting, and Validation.