Understanding the Attitude and Approach to Savings and Investments among Southern Railway Women Employees: Gender Concerns

There are a number of studies about the investment habits and patterns of working women in specific fields or geographical locations. Most of these studies find that women are risk averse, conservative (Vohra & Kaul, 2017) and lack confidence to take up investment activities (Gaur et al, 2011), financial literacy is poor in women (Venkateshraj, 2015) and they need help and guidance of friends and relatives in investments (Reddy & Narayanan 2015). This research paper seeks to determine whether working women in the Chennai area of Southern Railway are risk averse, do they need professional guidance to decide about their investment plan, are they independent in taking investment decision or do they still depend on other members of the family, whether gender is an issue in making financial decision etc. It is revealed in the study that working women, whatever their status in the hierarchy of the organization, while knowledgeable about the various investment avenues, are indeed risk averse and conservative and there is a general reluctance to take on additional burden of investments as a chore. The whole analysis has been done in a gender perspective.