The portfolio management services company in its report titled ‘Capital Her Future: Women Investors Insights Report’, highlighted five key trends shaping India’s financial landscape and signaling the rise of women as a powerful and increasingly influential investor segment.
Gender parity in education
India’s Gender Parity Index has crossed 1 across all levels of schooling, signaling that women’s enrolment in schools has equalled or surpassed that of men, the report noted, highlighting that female enrolment now exceeds male enrolment in urban higher secondary education. “This educational dividend is the foundation for all other gains. As the largest cohort of educated women in India’s history enters the workforce over the next decade, the economic consequences will be transformational,” the company said.
Growing entrepreneurship, financial independence in women
Additionally, India’s female Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) has risen to 42% in 2024, the highest level in over three decades. Between 2017-18 and 2023-24, the share of women working as own-account workers or employers increased from 20% to 31%, reflecting growing entrepreneurship and financial independence, the report said.
This implies that women’s economic participation is shifting from informal and unpaid labour to formal and self-directed enterprise, creating a new generation of financially independent women.Women are better borrowers than men
Moreover, Marcellus highlighted that urban women now are opening bank accounts and increasing deposits faster than men across rural, semi-urban and metropolitan markets. “Over FY19–FY25, the growth ratio of women’s bank accounts and deposits compared with men ranged between 1.02x and 1.07x, indicating accelerating financial inclusion among women,” it said in a press release.
This comes as women continue to reflect stronger credit behaviour than men. “The Gross Non-Performing Asset (GNPA) ratio (defined as PAR 91-180) for female borrowers stood at 1.2% compared with 1.5% for men as of Dec 2023, and 0.8% versus 1.1% for men as of Dec 2025, reflecting consistently lower default rates,” Marcellus said in its press release.
Women still underrepresented in wealth management
The report highlighted that women are now influencing investment decisions, but still remain underrepresented in wealth management. Women now make 56% of financial investment decisions independently. They now account for 25% of all investors, and hold 33% of mutual fund assets in India, Marcellus cited data from AMFI-CRISIL Factbook 2024 as saying. However, their participation in formal wealth management remains relatively low, particularly outside metro markets, suggesting a large, untapped opportunity for the financial services industry, it added.
“The wealth management industry is at an inflection point,” Marcellus said, adding that the next generation of investors in India – younger, urban, and increasingly educated – will include more women than present times. “Firms that build for this audience today will capture a disproportionate share of India’s wealth creation tomorrow,” it further said.
“There is a coherent story to tell: Indian women are better educated, increasingly employed, more financially active, and more credit-worthy than at any point in India’s modern economic history. The implications for financial services, consumer markets, and public policy are profound,” the report concluded.
(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)
