Financial Inclusion, Financial Literacy, Financial Wellness is a key cornerstone of Women empowerment. Many women are financially dependent because they don’t earn money. But women who earn money are often still financially dependent.
My recent research on Training Needs of over 250 women revealed that over 60% of educated and working women from all strata and levels of management, hand over their incomes to be managed by husbands/brothers/fathers. The research further revealed that these women identified Financial Literacy as their top training need. This financial dependence lays the foundation for low self-esteem and low confidence in a society that believes that money is power, and worse still, opens the door for bullying, insulting, marginalizing and actual violence (both verbal and physical) by a patriarchy that wields the money control.
Training women in Financial Literacy begins with knowledge and comprehension about Finance and that is a mandatory first step. So many initiatives are taken by AWOKE India and many other government and non-government agencies for financial inclusion of women. These do move the needle in the required direction and give a much needed boost to the skills of managing money.
But, true women empowerment comes from the inside. How do you help women tackle self-limiting beliefs that are instilled over centuries of conditioning that women are not meant to handle money matters? As a psychologist, I believe in an “Integrative Living” approach to Financial Wellness, at the mind, heart and soul level. The mind needs to be trained to be comfortable with numbers, comprehend economic situations and what it takes to make decisions on investment, savings, expenditure and credit. The heart needs to be bolstered to deal with limiting self-beliefs and creating affirmations that give courage and confidence to tackle the cultural conditioning of others, sometimes through influencing and persuasion, sometimes through rebellion, and sometimes just through sheer will power. The journey of the soul as it evolves through the empowerment process, requires mindfulness and awareness to confront the obstacles to self-liberating empowerment.
Thank You Vandana Bhatnagar Dakshita Das @Naina Lal Kidwai KS Rao Pravin Kumar Dwivedi and all at AWOKE India for the opportunity to create a small “ripple” together
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