Digital Financial Inclusion and Digital Financial Literacy as a Digital Roadmap to Women's Economic Empowerment
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.66635/8rj4bj92Keywords:
Digital Financial Inclusion, Digital Financial Literacy, Women's Economic Empowerment, FinTech, Digital FinanceAbstract
Digital financial inclusion is increasingly recognized as an important mechanism for improving women's participation in formal financial systems and strengthening their economic empowerment. This study examines the effects of digital financial inclusion and digital financial literacy on women's economic empowerment. A quantitative, cross-sectional research design was adopted, and primary data were collected from 100 women through a structured questionnaire using a five-point Likert scale. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics, reliability analysis, Pearson correlation, and multiple linear regression in SPSS. The findings indicate strong positive relationships between women's economic empowerment and digital financial inclusion (r = .938, p < .001) and digital financial literacy (r = .928, p < .001). The regression model was statistically significant (F = 572.379, p < .001) and explained 92.2% of the variance in women's economic empowerment. Digital financial inclusion (β = .539, p < .001) and digital financial literacy (β = .448, p < .001) both had significant positive effects. The study concludes that expanding access to digital financial services alongside strengthening women's digital financial capabilities can contribute substantially to their economic empowerment.
References
1.Cohen, J., Cohen, P., West, S. G., & Aiken, L. S. (2003). Applied multiple regression/correlation analysis for the behavioral sciences (3rd ed.). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
2.Demirgüç-Kunt, A., Klapper, L., Singer, D., Ansar, S., & Hess, J. (2022). The Global Findex Database 2021: Financial inclusion, digital payments, and resilience in the age of COVID-19. World Bank.
3.Field, A. (2018). Discovering statistics using IBM SPSS statistics (5th ed.). SAGE Publications.
4.Garz, S., Heath, R., Kipchumba, E. K., & Sulaiman, M. (2020). Evidence of digital financial services impacting women's economic empowerment: What explains the impacts and what is left to learn?
5.Gayathri, R. (2026). Digital financial inclusion and women economic empowerment: A review of emerging trends, challenges and research gaps. International Journal of Innovative Research in Technology, 13(1), 2244–2248.
6.Hair, J. F., Black, W. C., Babin, B. J., & Anderson, R. E. (2019). Multivariate data analysis (8th ed.). Cengage.
7.Holloway, K., Niazi, Z., & Rouse, R. (2017). Women's economic empowerment through financial inclusion: A review of existing evidence and remaining knowledge gaps. Innovations for Poverty Action.
8.Lakum, A. C. (2023). Literature review on digital financial inclusion and women empowerment in India. Surabhi International Peer Reviewed Journal.
9.Llaftiu, A., & Golemi, E. (2026). Women's financial inclusion: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Multidisciplinary Reviews, 9(12).
10.Nunnally, J. C., & Bernstein, I. H. (1994). Psychometric theory (3rd ed.). McGraw-Hill.
11.Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. (2021). Development co-operation report 2021: Shaping a just digital transformation. OECD Publishing.
12.Pallant, J. (2020). SPSS survival manual: A step-by-step guide to data analysis using IBM SPSS (7th ed.). McGraw-Hill Education.
13.Saluja, O. B., Singh, P., & Kumar, H. (2023). Barriers and interventions on the way to empower women through financial inclusion: A two decades systematic review (2000–2020). Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 10, 148.
14.Tabachnick, B. G., & Fidell, L. S. (2019). Using multivariate statistics (7th ed.). Pearson.
15.United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. (2024). Women's economic empowerment strategy. UN Women.
16.World Bank. (2024a). Digital finance inclusion: Gender. World Bank.
17.World Bank. (2024b). Empowering women through digital financial inclusion. World Bank.
18.World Bank. (2024c). Fintech: Overview. World Bank.
