Redseer Consulting’s report, Designing for Her: Unlocking Women’s Financial Adoption in India, highlights a critical gap in India’s financial inclusion journey. While access and digital participation have expanded rapidly, women continue to participate at lower levels in higher value financial products. This points to a shift the ecosystem must make from enabling access to driving sustained adoption.
The report shows that women remain underrepresented across major categories. Women account for 17 percent of personal loans, 13 percent of credit cards, and 34 percent of mutual fund AUM, among other indicators. At the same time, Redseer positions women as a commercially strong cohort, citing signals of higher credit quality and growing wealth potential. In other words, the challenge is not capability, but context and design.
A central insight is that women’s adoption is shaped by social trust loops. Community models such as SHGs and local groups help build awareness and early comfort, but conversion often happens after family validation. The report notes that around 4 in 5 women rely on family for financial advice, with peers acting as a secondary validation layer.
The report also flags an ecosystem skew, where financial storytelling, advisor networks, and influencer content remain largely male narrative led. Redseer’s recommendation is to unlock the next phase of growth by designing for households rather than only individuals. This includes goal led packaging, clearer framing, visible social proof, and family inclusive features, without necessarily needing entirely new products.
Key findings from the report
1) Access doesn’t equal adoption
· Women are coming online, but product usage continues to lag men.
· The report notes women are nearing half of India’s internet users, growing from 20 percent to 47 percent, and women’s digital payment participation is also growing strongly.
2) Women remain under-represented across key financial products
Women hold a materially lower share across major categories.
· Personal loans: 17 percent women and 83 percent men
· Credit cards: 13 percent women and 87 percent men
· Consumer durable loans: 22 percent women and 78 percent men
· Mutual funds: 34 percent women and 66 percent men
· EPF new subscribers: 27 percent women and 73 percent men
· Life insurance new policies: 23 percent women and 77 percent men
3) The economics are strong: women are high-quality growth cohort
Redseer positions women as a low risk, high quality, fast growing cohort.
· Higher share of prime and above borrowers among women
· Lower delinquency in the 91 to 180 DPD range for women compared to men
· Faster growth in average folio size from 2019 to 2024 by investor gender
The report also highlights the scale of the opportunity.
· Around 75 million working women represent a scalable, underpenetrated BFSI opportunity
· The unlock could span large pools across AUM of around INR 2,00,000 billion, lending of around INR 67,000 billion, and insurance of around INR 17,000 billion
4) Adoption is socially shaped
· Community builds comfort, and family validation triggers action.
· Community models such as SHGs, informal groups, and CSR led models create early awareness and comfort
· Family validation acts as the consistent decision gate, with many women delaying action until family comfort is established
· In the survey sample, around 4 in 5 women rely on family for financial advice, with peers acting as a secondary validation layer
5) The real gap is ecosystem design and misaligned framing
· The report argues the ecosystem is still structurally male shaped.
· FinTech storytelling and proof points skew male, with around 80 percent of testimonials on major platforms featuring men
· Distribution remains male heavy, with insurance agents around 71 percent men in FY24
· Awareness channels skew male, with 14 of the top 15 finance YouTubers being male
· Product market mismatch persists across life stages, where women seek flexibility and clarity but are often offered rigid, long term, lock in heavy products