Advances in Consumer Research
Issue 5 : 522-534 doi: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20391016
Original Article
Financial Inclusion and Women’s Empowerment: Bridging the Gender Gap in Global Economy
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1
Research Scholar, Jayoti Vidyapeeth Women’s University, Rajasthan, India.
2
Assistant Professor, Institute of Applied Medicines and Research, Ghaziabad, U.P, India.
3
Assistant Professor, Institute of Professional Excellence and Management, Ghaziabad, U.P, India.
4
Assistant Professor, Institute of Professional Excellence and Management, Ghaziabad, U.P, India
Abstract

Financial inclusion is now better understood to be one of the key drivers of greater women's empowerment and economic growth. This chapter explores the interlinkage between women's empowerment and financial inclusion through an examination of key behaviors including bank account ownership, access to credit, saving, and usage of mobile money. It explores how closing the gender gap in these can enable more women to participate in the economy and elevate their social standing. While improvement in account holding is observed for men and women, there is still a remarkable gender gap, especially in more socio-economically unequal countries. South Asian countries show some improvement in gap narrowing, while others like Sub-Saharan Africa and East Asia have observed overall expansion in the use of mobile money, opening up new avenues for inclusive financial services. The chapter also examines differing saving behaviors across regions, where in some of them men continue to dominate depending on the level of trust in formal financial institutions. There is also a gap in the use of digital payments, which demands targeted efforts to involve more women in the expanding financial services ecosystem. Enhanced financial inclusion also fosters women’s entrepreneurship by improving access to startup capital, enabling business expansion, and supporting participation in formal and digital marketplaces. This, in turn, strengthens women-led enterprises as engines of inclusive and sustainable economic growth. The study concludes with policy-relevant findings to policymakers, financial institutions, and development organizations, stressing the need for gender-sensitive strategies, greater digital financial inclusion, and better data gathering. Women's financial inclusion is cemented as a strategic intervention to enable greater economic empowerment and sustainable development..

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