In comparison to other APAC nations, India has the largest gender wealth gap (64%) according to a recent study report by WTW. The greater responsibility of caregiving is largely to blame for this.
Opportunities for women in leadership roles are also scarce, according to the 2022 WTW Global Gender Wealth Equity report, with only 3% of women in India's workforce holding senior positions.
Women also frequently take on childcare responsibilities at a young age in this area, which has a negative financial impact on them that they may find difficult to overcome. This is complicated by the fact that men typically make long-term financial decisions, and working women typically have lower financial literacy, according to the report.
Globally, it was discovered that women in senior expert and leadership positions had less than 62% of the retirement savings that their male counterparts did.
Additionally, the gap widens significantly to 89% in frontline operational roles from the global average of 69% in mid-level professional and technical roles.
“Given the variety of cultures, traditions and differences in the relative prosperity and social equality across the region, it’s unsurprising that the results are mixed. However, wealth equity for women in senior expert and leadership roles remains a particular challenge for Asia,” stated Clare Muhiudeen, head of Asia, WTW.
In terms of the gender wealth gap, South Korea has been shown to be the APAC region's top performer.
“In South Korea, the earnings limits embedded in social security benefits limit the accumulation of male relative to female wealth,” the report said.
The recent environmental, social, and governance (ESG) awakening has led to an increase in the number of actions taken by corporations to halt the trend of gender discrimination. According to the report, additional measures must be taken in order to further close the gap.
Manjit Basi, senior director, Integrated & Global Solutions, WTW, said that by concentrating on accumulated wealth at retirement, the disparity could be quantified and actions could be taken by the larger society, the government, and organisations to equalise wealth outcomes.
Women are predicted to reach 76% of men's wealth levels in the APAC region, just two points above the global average.
