Barclays report cite Asian business women as ‘richest’

Asian female-entrepreneurs including those from India and China, are generating more wealth than women in any other region of the world according to a new global survey of 600 wealthy people. The report published by Barclays Wealth, Britain's leading wealth manager, is seen to disprove the stereotypical idea that Indians and other Asian women rely on inheritance and marriage as the lead sources of their wealth. The report states, "the affluence and influence of women is growing globally and is increasingly fuelled by their own individual enterprises - highlighting that the perception of inheritance and marriage as the lead sources of female wealth is out-dated."
A vast majority of women, particularly from Asia and India are generating their wealth independently.

The survey titled 'Barclays Wealth Insight: A question of Gender' has reported that even as the amount of wealth generated by female entrepreneurship is highest in Asia, where 26 per cent cite income from business as their main source of wealth, the global figure for the same stands at 20 per cent. The study also reported that the current international situation pertaining to female wealth is largely driven by earnings and business ownership (83.9 per cent), or by personal investments (32.8 per cent), which compares favourably to marriage (24.7 per cent), divorce (2.2 per cent) and inheritance (19.9 per cent).

Barclays used wealthy female Indian entrepreneurs including Kalpana Morparia, joint MD of ICICI Bank, and Perween Warsi, the CEO of S & A foods, as case studies for their analysis, which has been carried out in partnership with the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).

The study also noted, "Women are often more thoughtful and purpose-driven when it comes to investment behaviour". Education is considered to be the single most important factor of wealth generation by women. While school education has been cited as the key for Middle Eastern and African women (55.6 per cent), the European (55.7 per cent) and North American (60 per cent) counterparts cited university education as most important.
The report also pointed out that Asian women have highest confidence for tax planning (41.5 per cent), and Middle East and African women claim greatest knowledge for retirement planning (42.3 per cent), and investing in hedge funds (42.3 per cent).