"The Next Frontier Is Women's Economic Empowerment": Mary Ellen Iskenderian on the 1.7 Trillion USD Opportunity Businesses are Missing

Financial inclusion has brought millions of women into the formal economy, but access alone does not guarantee economic power. For Mary Ellen Iskenderian, President and CEO of the global non-profit Women’s World Banking (WWB), the next challenge is helping women turn bank accounts and financial services into savings, assets, resilience and lasting wealth.

It is also an opportunity for businesses: women remain one of the world’s largest untapped markets, while women entrepreneurs continue to face significant gaps in access to capital. Iskenderian argues that closing these gaps requires financial institutions to understand how women earn, save, spend and build businesses—and to design products and systems around those realities.

In this conversation with Reader's Digest India, she discusses India’s progress through Jan Dhan, the barriers that keep women financially under-engaged, the potential of digital finance and fintech, and why moving from financial inclusion to genuine economic empowerment could unlock significant growth.

Reader's Digest India: What is the biggest misconception that still prevents governments and businesses from treating women's economic empowerment as a growth strategy?

Mary Ellen Iskenderian: Women represent one of the largest untapped growth markets in the world. The misconception is that women's economic empowerment belongs to social policy rather than economic strategy. In reality, women drive household spending, start businesses, participate in labour markets, and increasingly make financial decisions. When women have access to the right tools and capital, are resilient to financial, health and climate shocks, and have the opportunities they need, economies grow faster and businesses expand their customer base.

The opportunity is enormous. Women entrepreneurs face an estimated $1.7-1.9 trillion financing gap globally, while continuing to receive only a small fraction of venture capital and private equity funding. Financial institutions that serve women well see stronger customer loyalty, increased product uptake, and higher lifetime value. When it comes to digital payments in India, WWB has identified a potential market of approximately 200 million women who have bank accounts and own smartphones. They are ready to adopt and deepen their use of digital financial services, provided the ecosystem addresses barriers around trust, confidence, assisted onboarding and relevant use cases. At WWB, we have reached more than 118 million women and 76 million men through financial services providers, policy initiatives and investments, demonstrating that serving women is a scalable business opportunity with measurable economic returns.

India has made remarkable progress through Jan Dhan. Where has India made the most progress and where is the biggest gap today?

India has built one of the world's most powerful foundations for women's economic participation. The next opportunity is helping women turn access into assets. The Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-Mobile ecosystem has connected hundreds of millions of women to the formal economy, enabling them to receive government benefits directly, save securely and participate in digital finance. It has dramatically expanded access.

The biggest gap today is engagement with her zero-balance account. WWB's research found that while 70 per cent of women save actively, only 29 per cent use their Jan Dhan accounts for savings. Despite high account ownership, 42 per cent of women-owned accounts are inactive, compared to 30 per cent of men's accounts. Nearly 11 crore women remain under-engaged despite being formally included in the financial system. This is also where the economic opportunity lies. WWB estimates that if 100 million low-income women develop a habit of regular small-scale savings through their Jan Dhan accounts, it could unlock USD 3.2 billion (₹25,000 crore) in deposits and enable approximately USD 1.25 billion in overdrafts for 20 million women.

Our work with Bank of Baroda, Indian Bank, Union Bank of India and NABARD shows that when women become active users of financial services, outcomes improve significantly. Women who engaged with Jan Dhan Plus maintained balances 1.5 times higher and showed twice the uptake of Jan Suraksha social protection products such as insurance and pension. The broader challenge mirrors what we see globally. Women are gaining access faster than they are gaining assets. They continue to lag in enterprise ownership, larger-ticket credit, financial resilience and wealth creation.

The next chapter of India's financial inclusion story is helping women use financial services to build savings, strengthen resilience, invest in opportunities and increase their economic agency. That is when inclusion becomes economic empowerment.

Was there a particular moment that made you realize finance could change a woman's life so profoundly?

The most powerful stories were always about possibilities for 'her'. Over the years, I have met women across Asia, Africa and Latin America who used savings, credit, insurance or digital tools to pursue ambitions that had previously seemed out of reach. One woman used credit to expand her business and hire workers. Another used insurance to keep her family afloat after a health emergency. Others used savings to keep daughters in school or invest in productive assets.

These experiences reinforced a simple lesson: economic opportunity creates choices. When women gain greater control over financial resources, they often gain greater influence over household decisions, business decisions and the future they want to build. That understanding continues to shape WWB's mission today, but it is evolving from a focus on financial inclusion to a broader ambition of advancing women's economic opportunity, helping women entrepreneurs increase income, build assets, create jobs, strengthen financial decision-making power, and accumulate wealth over time.

We are also placing resilience at the center of economic empowerment by helping women better prepare for and withstand climate, health, and income shocks through financial solutions, knowledge and supportive ecosystems, ensuring that gains in income and wealth translate into lasting economic security.

What is the biggest change you've seen in the way the financial world views women?

The conversation has shifted from charity to commercial value. Twenty years ago, many institutions viewed women's financial inclusion primarily through a corporate responsibility lens. Today, banks, insurers, fintechs, asset managers and investors increasingly recognize women as a significant customer and growth segment. That shift reflects market reality. Women own businesses, control spending decisions, adopt digital financial services and represent a growing share of the global workforce.

The area where progress remains slower is capital allocation. Women entrepreneurs continue to face large financing gaps, women-led businesses secure only a small share of venture investment, and women remain underrepresented among recipients of growth capital. The greatest opportunity over the next decade lies in directing more capital toward women as business builders, innovators and investors.

Why do companies underestimate seemingly small interventions?

Many companies underestimate small interventions because women have historically been invisible to formal financial systems. Financial services were largely designed around how men earn, borrow and transact. Institutions often did not know where to find women entrepreneurs, how their businesses operate, or what support they need to succeed. Many women run businesses from their homes, operate within clusters or self-help group networks, and rely on trusted intermediaries to access information, clarify doubts and build confidence before adopting new products or services.

What appears to be a small barrier is often the difference between participation and exclusion. A loan application that is too complex, a branch that feels intimidating, an agent who cannot answer questions, or a product that does not match a woman's cash flow can discourage a customer from engaging altogether. These are system-design issues that determine whether women access, use, and benefit from financial services. Through our work in emerging markets globally, we have repeatedly seen that practical, women-centered adjustments can drive significant business results.

Institutions have improved customer acquisition, retention, portfolio quality and profitability by redesigning customer journeys, deploying trusted agents, tailoring products to women's realities, strengthening service delivery, and creating workplace policies that better support female employees and leaders. Companies often focus only on large transformation initiatives, while overlooking the everyday friction points that shape customer and employee decisions. Yet those seemingly small changes frequently unlock the greatest opportunities for growth, because they address everyday barriers and make financial systems work the way women live, earn, save, and build businesses. And what works for women works for men as well.

What has surprised you most about women entrepreneurs?

Women entrepreneurs are not hard to find. They are hiding in plain sight within some of the most concentrated and productive business ecosystems. What has surprised me most is not their resilience or ambition; it is the scale of economic activity women have built despite being underserved by formal financial systems. Across markets, women entrepreneurs are clustered in sectors, value chains, producer groups, self-help group networks and local business ecosystems. Yet lending models continue to assess them as isolated businesses rather than as part of thriving economic networks.

The real insight is that women do not have a credit problem as much as they have a visibility problem. Financial institutions often look for businesses on main streets and industrial parks, while many women operate from homes, clusters, collectives and community-based networks. As a result, their economic activity remains undervalued despite strong demand, established buyer relationships, repeat transactions, and growing enterprises. Take India's handloom, textile, apparel, and food-processing sectors. These are among the country's largest concentrations of women-owned enterprises. They generate significant demand for working capital, equipment finance, inventory finance and growth capital. Yet traditional underwriting frequently labels these entrepreneurs as high risk because many lack collateral, formal documentation, audited statements or conventional business records.

What lenders often miss is that these businesses generate rich signals of enterprise performance through order books, production cycles, procurement patterns, digital transactions, cooperative participation and repeat cash flows. This is why the future of MSME lending will not be achieved by reaching more women one entrepreneur at a time. It will come from understanding how women already do business and designing finance around those realities. A standard MSME loan evaluates an individual borrower. A cluster-based approach evaluates an economic ecosystem. It recognizes shared suppliers, common buyers, seasonal cash flows, sector dynamics, community intelligence and collective growth potential.

The most exciting opportunity is that when we shift from collateral-based lending to economic activity-based lending, many women who appear risky suddenly look highly investable. The question is no longer whether a woman owns property. The question becomes whether her business is producing, selling, growing and participating in a vibrant local economy.

What habits separate women who build lasting wealth from those who merely participate in markets?

Wealth is built through consistency and intentionality. The women who build lasting wealth tend to develop a disciplined approach to saving, investing and financial decision-making. They invest regularly, diversify risk and maintain a long-term perspective. They continue building financial skills and confidence. They connect financial decisions to goals such as home ownership, business growth, retirement security and education.

One of the most important, and often overlooked, drivers of wealth creation is asset ownership. Income supports day-to-day needs, but assets create long-term security, resilience, and economic power. This is why WWB Asset Management invested in Sitara, a housing finance company that helps ensure property titles are registered in the woman's name. A title deed in a woman's name can strengthen her bargaining power, improve her resilience to economic shocks, and create opportunities for future wealth accumulation. Research consistently shows that women often demonstrate strong investment discipline and long-term thinking. Those strengths can become powerful advantages when supported by access to information, advice and suitable financial products.

If you were speaking to the CEO of an Indian company that wants to attract and keep more women employees, what's the first change you would tell them to make?

I would say: Measure the experience of women the same way you measure business performance. The most effective leaders start with data: They examine recruitment, retention, promotion rates, pay equity, leadership representation and employee engagement. They identify where women are progressing and where they are dropping out of the pipeline. Organizations that understand these patterns are much better positioned to build stronger workplaces and capture the benefits of diverse leadership. Women represent one of the largest talent pools available to companies today. Firms that successfully attract, retain and advance women gain access to skills, perspectives and leadership capacity that directly support growth.

Are AI, digital lending and fintech likely to narrow the gender gap?

Technology can accelerate inclusion or exclusion. AI, digital lending and fintech create opportunities to serve women who have historically been invisible to formal financial systems. Alternative data can help assess creditworthiness. Digital platforms can reduce costs. AI can personalize products and advice. But the quality of outcomes depends on how these technologies are designed. Biases embedded in data, algorithms and product-development processes can replicate existing inequalities at scale. 

This is why WWB has expanded its work in ethical AI and gender-intentional innovation. As technology increasingly determines who can access capital, markets and opportunity, WWB is launching a first-of-its-kind Technology Leadership Program to equip senior leaders across financial institutions, fintechs and the broader ecosystem to shape the future of digital financial services. The programme will build leadership at the intersection of technology, AI, innovation, and women’s economic opportunity, ensuring that the systems transforming finance are designed with inclusion, trust, and women’s realities at their core. Technology works best when women are represented in the data, design processes and decision-making structures behind it.

Looking ahead to helping one billion women achieve meaningful economic opportunity, what gives you the greatest optimism?

I am optimistic that for the first time, scale and intention are coming together. WWB and its partners have already reached 118 million women and 76 million men over the past eight years, demonstrating what is possible when institutions align around a shared goal. We have digital infrastructure reaching millions of women, policymakers increasingly recognizing the economic value of women’s participation, and financial institutions, fintechs, insurers, and investors actively looking for ways to serve women better. But the opportunity ahead is not only to reach more women; it is to go deeper. For too long, success has been measured by access alone. The next frontier should be economic empowerment. That means helping women increase incomes, build assets and wealth, strengthen resilience to climate, health, and economic shocks, and exercise greater financial decision-making power in their households, businesses and communities.

Achieving that requires institutional and systemic change. It requires financial institutions, policymakers, investors, employers and community organisations working together to remove barriers across financial systems, markets and value chains. The encouraging news is that these gaps are increasingly visible, measurable and solvable. The institutions and countries that help women build wealth, strengthen resilience and translate opportunity into lasting economic security will unlock one of the greatest economic growth opportunities of our time.

Mary Ellen Iskenderian CEO of Women's World Banking the world's largest network of microfinance institutions and banks.

About: Mary Ellen Iskenderian is President and CEO of Women’s World Banking, a global non-profit working to expand financial access and economic opportunity for low-income women. She leads its global team, while serving on the Investment Committee of its impact investment funds. Previously, she spent 17 years at the International Finance Corporation and worked at Lehman Brothers. She serves on the board of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council. She holds an MBA from Yale and a BS in International Economics from Georgetown. Her book, There’s Nothing Micro About a Billion Women, was published by MIT Press in 2022.

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