By Shruti Aggarwal
With women representing less than one-third of total employees in FinTech, much like the technology industry, the sector is suffering a lack of diversity.
Financial Technology is an emerging and revolutionary sector that uses technological innovation to improve upon the way financial services operate. At present women makeup under a third of the total employees in FinTech, much like the Tech industry.
FinTech is suffering from a lack of diversity. This is a problem that needs to be addressed sooner rather than later as the industry grows and more people join the workforce.
The emergence of this sector has paved a broader path that is shaping the future of women in India and women leaders have started outshining others at their respective workplaces. Many businesses are promoting women to lead and demonstrate their determination to prove themselves.
Throwing light on the traditional cash-driven economy in India, the FinTech industry and startups are paving their way to empower millions, leading to financial inclusion. Prevailing gender imbalance within the sector is diminishing slowly but surely.
The global fintech founder community is still dominated by men, with women making up just 7% of the total pool.
The FinTech sector is witnessing more opportunities and growth for women. However, the global fintech founder community is still dominated by men, with women making up just 7% of the total pool.
The gender gap in funding is especially notable during times of uncertainty, such as the current pandemic and its economic aftermath. This is because women founders, perhaps because of the hardships they face in accessing funds, appear to be resilient and capable of generating higher returns on investment.
Yet, in many cases, they are not provided equal access to opportunity. As with other industries, women in the fintech community are seeking opportunities to fill unmet needs. They are generating innovative ideas and creating solutions based on their own disappointing or frustrating financial services experiences.
Similar to the FinTech industry’s growth after the 2008 financial crisis, Covid-19 and its disruption to the business environment could help level the playing field and offer a host of new opportunities for women entrepreneurs.
Having a greater representation of women and support from the fintech founder community would likely unleash more successful new ideas, products, and services. Similar to how the fintech industry blossomed after the 2008 financial crisis, the effects from Covid-19 and its disruption to the business environment could help level the playing field and offer a host of new opportunities for women entrepreneurs.
Fintech is now seeing the value in onboarding women. This sector has taken significant steps in improving the gender ratio. At StashFin, we support women re-entering work and encourage women to take up leadership roles while enabling them to shape their skills.
We have seen the eagerness amongst female employees to learn about finance, data and technology and I believe encouraging upskilling at the workplace is pivotal in empowering aspiring businesswomen. For me, being a full-time leader and a part-time mother was never an option. The very drive to constantly upgrade and invest in knowledge helped me to fully commit and do justice to both the roles.
With 5x as many female-founded FinTechs as the global average, women are leading South America’s FinTech revolution.
Not just workplace empowerment, fintech has financially empowered women in a broader sense. More women now own small businesses. Digitization in the process of payment has made money more freely available to women, who a decade ago could not think of opting for loans.
When it comes to women empowering fintech, we cannot overlook Latin America. With 5x as many female-founded FinTechs as the global average, women are leading South America’s FinTech revolution.
The fintech industry has made slow but steady progress increasing the number of startups founded by women. Since the start of this decade, women-founded and co-founded FinTechs have grown at a slightly faster clip compared to startups founded only by men. However, this is limited progress indeed and there is a long way to go before this industry can be truly said to have been empowered by women.
Also Read: Indian FinTech sector adopting a plethora of changes: StashFin co-founder
(Shruti Aggarwal is the Co-Founder of StashFin, a FinTech.)
(Disclaimer: The views expressed in the article above are those of the author’s and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of Autofintechs.com. Unless otherwise noted, the author is writing in his/her personal capacity. They are not intended and should not be thought to represent official ideas, attitudes, or policies of any agency or institution.)
