1) The document describes a marketing research project conducted by students at the Indian Institute of Management on the impact of women's spending and financial independence in India. 2) Surveys were conducted of men and women on topics like financial handling, decision making independence, and purchasing independence. 3) Statistical analysis of the survey results found that while women have some participation in financial decisions, men still handle a significant portion of household finances. Women's financial independence was also correlated with their employment status.

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Indian Institute of Management
Kozhikode
Marketing Research Project on
The Women Economy
Submitted by following members of EPGP-05 (2013-2014 Batch)
Daniel Suresh - EPGP-05-170
Brijul. P - EPGP-05-109
Karthick R - EPGP-05-122
Submitted to
Prof. Joshy Joseph
Submitted on
30 - September - 2013

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Introduction:
The objective of this project is to determine the impact of Women Economy in India. Here the
Women/Female economy means that the level of influence that women have on the house hold
purchases/expenses that affects/effects certain element of the market or economy. In a broad perspective
woman (who become financially independent/dependent) are categorized in the following way:
Marital Status
Employment Status
Married Un-married
Employed Employed-Married Employed-Un married
Un-Employed Un-employed-Married Un employed-Un Married
In the 21st century, more women have started working and they have become independent financially and
socially. Though, it is not very evident in the society that the level of independence women may have, it
appears that women are playing key part in the financial aspect of decision making even though still they
don’t have much independence in choosing their partners etc. There are various household elements that
either women consume or use in their day to day life. Few of the key house hold spending that are very
prevalent is
Household (common for the family):
 Home Furnishing
 Vacation Planning
 House Purchase
 Financial Planning [Investments, Insurance etc]
 Automobiles
 Food
 Consumer Electronics (T.V, Fridge, Blender, Grinder, Washing machine, Microwave and Water
heater)
 Kid School
Household (Personal):
 Education
 Fitness
 Health
Focus Area
There are many areas that the investigation/research can span through, but this research team focused
only on the following types of the independence that is of more interest;
1) Financial Independence
2) Decision Independence
3) Purchasing Independence
The questions were formed based on the above elements and totally there were about 27 questions including
the demographic questions.

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Research Methodology
The primary mode of analysis is based on the data that is planned to be collected from the surveys from the
women and men. There are 2 elements that this research will be covering;
1) Women giving input survey based on what they experience in their real life.
2) Men giving input based on their (or their mother and/or women siblings) independence in the
decision making based on their observations/experience.
The input was collected from the questionnaire which was published in the web. The web tool that was used
for this survey was “Kwik Surveys” and the URL being the following:
http://kwiksurveys.com/s.asp?sid=zk3jfm2qvb1tvwy215799
The following are the Question set that was used in the Survey.
Women_Economy_Qu
estionaire.docx
Also this survey was published through few Social website and statistics for the same is as follows:

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Analysis methods
The collected data was consolidated, coded and scored to do the following test.
 Chi-Square test (Level of Significance will be 0.05)
o Testing Goodness
o Testing Equality of Several Proportions.
o Homogeneity Test.
o Testing Independence.
 Percentage calculations
 Degree of freedom
 Null-Hypothesis and alternative hypothesis
 Visual inspection
 Statistical Analysis
A thorough Chi-Square test was conducted using SPSS tool and find the results attached in the following
document.
Chi-square-data-v2.d
oc

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Detailed Analysis
The following section details the various element of this research, section by section. The hypothesis that the
research team wanted to prove here is that Women have more power and say in the economy though that is
not very evident to the outside world.
Demographic:
Sex: Out of 88 respondents, 29% are women and 71% are men.
Age: The predominant participants are from age group 25-34 and 35-44.
Marital Status:
In the collected data population 23% are unmarried, 75.58% are married and one who is separated from the
spouse. So from the data perspective, this is a good data for the analysis as more than 75 % of the
population.
Financial Independence
When it comes for the financial independence the following elements were collected.
1) Level of independence
2) Agreement with spouse or dependent when it comes for spending.
3) Level of savings.
4) Level of intendance with house holds purchase.
Financial Handing @ home
Analysis:
 Less than 2% women handle the money completely.
 Less than 15% women handle partially.
 5-10% of the some handle either very less or they don’t handle at all.
 A key point to note here is the significant portion of the financials is totally handled by men, where
women handle only partially.
0
10
20
30
Completely I don't handle at all! Partially Very less portion
Female
Male

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Relationship between the Financial Handing vs. Employment
Relations between Employed vs. Financial Independence
Row Labels Completely I don't handle at all! Partially Very less portion
Grand
Total
Female 1 2 15 7 25
A homemaker 2 1 1 4
Employed-Salaried 1 13 6 20
Out of work and
looking for work 1 1
Male 28 1 27 5 61
A student 1 1
Employed-Salaried 27 1 26 3 57
Self-employed 1 1 2
Un-employed 1 1
Grand Total 29 3 42 12 86
Analysis:
1) The men who are employed have more say in the overall spending. Looking at the data, ~47% of the
men has complete control over the spending and like ~53% of the men having partial control.
2) When it comes for employed women, 65% of them have partial control and 30% very less portion
and less than 5% completely handles the financials.
3) An interesting point to note here is, no home maker has complete control over the financial handling.
4) 6% of the men handle very less portion of the financials
Relationship between the % spending with the vs. Sex
% Spending Female Male
75% - 100% 8.00% 18.03%
Less than 25% 36.00% 31.15%
Less than 50% 32.00% 42.62%
Less than 75% 20.00% 8.20%
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
Ahomemaker
Employed-Salaried
Outofworkand
lookingforwork
Astudent
Employed-Salaried
Self-employed
Un-employed
Female Male
Completely
I don't handle at all!
Partially
Very less portion

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Analysis:
1) Only 8% of the women spend 100% of the entire spending and a man is more in this category.
2) Looking at the data male has more control over when it comes for the spending.
3) The interesting point to note here is there is a good normal distribution in the men’s spending in all
the slaps and women more or less distributed.
4) If we look at the following table only the employed salaried men and women have a normal
distribution on the spending on the spending slaps.
Financials Independence - Conclusion
The null hypothesis is “Women don’t have Financial Independence”. The statistical analysis based on the
relent survey data indicates that following.
 Men handle the significant portion of the Financials.
 Salaried women have some say in the financials, but data predicts that non-working women don’t
have any say in the financial element. So there is a correlations between the women employment
and the financial independence
 More than 50% of the men and women share the salary with their spouse and women more in this
category especially married ones.
Row Labels Partially I do! What!!! Are you mad? Yes, I do! Grand Total
Female 17 3 5 25
Male 31 27 3 61
Grand Total 48 30 8 86
The final conclusion from this analysis predicts that women have equal participation in the financial decision
making, but they may have greater independence so we are accepting the NULL hypothesis. The reason in
know well known that what is another subject for another research. The following are the Analysis results
(Chi-Test) in for SPSS tool with the related data for one Analysis. For reviewing all the analysis please refer the
“Analysis methods” section in a word document.
0
50
100
1 2 3 4 5 6
Series1

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Decision Independence
When it comes for the decision independence the following elements were analyzed. How well women feel
the level independence when it comes for…
1) Products for personal and household use.
2) Confidence in the decisions
3) Who is the best decision makers
4) Authority in the decision making.
Knowledge on the products (which helps in a decision):
Row Labels Agree Disagree Neutral
Strongly
Agree
Strongly
Disagree
Grand
Total
Female 14 6 5 25
A homemaker 3 1 4
Employed-Salaried 11 5 4 20
Out of work and looking for work 1 1
Male 30 4 16 10 1 61
A student 1 1
Employed-Salaried 28 4 14 10 1 57
Self-employed 2 2
Un-employed 1 1
Grand Total 44 4 22 15 1 86
Analysis:
1) Women feel that the need to consult with their spouse because they have enough knowledge.
2) Also 50% of the men feel that they need to consult with their spouse before buying some household
things.
3) Nearly 22% of the men and women are neutral about consulting the spouse for any technical details.
4) Overall when it comes for the product knowledge sharing before buy the products, there is no
discrimination and men and women take equal part in the knowledge sharing before buying the
products.
Who is the better decision maker?
Female Male Grand Total
Agree 4 19 23
Disagree 2 16 18
Neutral 18 23 41
Strongly Agree 1 1 2
Strongly Disagree 2 2
Grand Total 25 61 86

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Analysis:
This analysis brought in lot of interesting point about women by women in the decision making.
1) More than 75% women feel that they feel Neutral about the confidence they have in the decision
making and only 20% confident about their decisions.
2) But in an irony at-least the Men feel that Women make better decision at least 30% of the
population.
3) Around 17% of the men population feels that women don’t make better decisions.
4) So the conclusion on this analysis is women are not good decision makers (NULL HYPOTHESIS).
Purchase Independence
Purchasing independence means the following and this section will cover these elements in details with the
Statistical analysis reports.
1) Are the women able to buy when they wanted to buy?
2) Are they knowledgeable enough to buy the product? How confident are they in making the decision?
3) The Level of independence they feel when they make their own decision and buy the product
Technical Knowledge about the product:
Gaining Knowledge before buying the product
Row Labels Agree Disagree Neutral Strongly Agree Grand Total
Female 14 2 4 5 25
A homemaker 2 1 1 4
Employed-Salaried 13 3 4 20
Out of work and looking for work 1 1
Male 30 1 7 23 61
A student 1 1
Employed-Salaried 28 1 6 22 57
Self-employed 2 2
Un-employed 1 1
Grand Total 44 3 11 28 86
0
5
10
15
20
25
Agree Disagree Neutral Strongly
Agree
Strongly
Disagree
Female
Male

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The following report describe how well women feel about making the decision and what is the relation
between their statuses on the earnings
How product good will impact the decision?
Row Labels Agree Disagree Neutral Strongly Agree Grand Total
A homemaker 2 1 1 4
A student 1 1
Employed-Salaried 44 3 14 15 76
Out of work and looking for work 1 1
Self-employed 1 1 2
Un-employed 1 1
Grand Total 47 3 17 18 86
The following report details about how good women feel about making their own decision.
Feel Good Factor
Row Labels Agree Disagree Neutral Strongly Agree
Strongly
Disagree
Grand
Total
Female 9 3 7 6 25
A homemaker 2 1 1 4
Employed-Salaried 7 2 5 6 20
Out of work and looking for work 1 1
Male 27 9 9 13 3 61
A student 1 1
Employed-Salaried 25 9 8 13 2 57
Self-employed 2 2
Un-employed 1 1
Grand Total 36 12 16 19 3 86
Analysis:
1) Most of the Men and women (more than 80%) feel that they technically understand the product
before they buy.
2) Knowledge is one of the key part of decision making most of the women feel they get enough
knowledge before decide to buy any products.
3) If the product or Brand is good, the decision making is easy for the women as well convince the
spouse for the purchase. More than 75% of the population feels that the Brand is important for their
decision making.

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Conclusion:
This is the case where the NULL hypothesis is accepted “Women don’t have financial Independence nor
make any impact to the economy”. At the surface level though it appears that women make lot of impact
on the economy, purchasing decision, independence, but eventually the data suggest that that is not the
case. The conclusion was made after analyzing the data generated by SPSS tool on the Chi-Square test as
well as the Visual inspection. Few key interesting points that came out of this analysis was,
1) When it comes for the decision making, both men and women depend on some one.
2) Purchasing decision is decided by the knowledge that they develop and enquiry that they make on
the product.
3) Women don’t feel confident about their own decision making.
4) Through the data, it appears that, employed women have more confidence, but they make decision
after with the consensus from their spouse.