How Frequently do Women Invest? A Study of Women Investors of Punjab

“Man for the field and woman for the hearth: Man for the sword and for the needle she: Man with the head and woman with the heart: Man to command and woman to obey; All else confusion”. These lines highlight the fact that investing in India is still considered a male prerogative and women still lag behind when it comes to investing especially in the stock market. Academic literature also holds that the frequency of investing depends upon a number of factors and varies from one group of women investors to another. Therefore, the present study is an attempt to identify the frequency with which investments are made by women investors of Punjab and to explore if there is a significant difference in the frequency with which investments are made by women investors based on their demographics. For the purpose of the study, data were collected from primary sources using a pre tested, well-structured questionnaire.

Descriptive Statistics as well as Cross Tabulation Analysis have been used in order to analyze the collected data. The results of the study brought out that the frequency of investing of the respondents varies with their age, marital status and their personal monthly income. Moreover, significant differences have also been observed in the frequency of investing of women stock and non-stock investors. This shows that the securities market offers greater favourable investment opportunities as compared to the capital markets. The paper suggests that women should invest in the securities market rather than the traditional investment avenues as it offers greater favorable opportunities for substantial profits. Moreover, women who intend to make investments at regular intervals should invest in Systematic Investment Plans. Besides this, the securities market should offer more and more lucrative opportunities to suit the needs of women investors belonging to the different age groups.