However, studies have shown that it is the woman who is the wiser of the two when it comes to spending it.

Wives are more likely than husbands to invest a large proportion of the household income in education and healthcare for the children, according to Simraatraj Kaur, who heads social policy and human rights at research institute Bait Al Amanah.

This creates powerful and measurable benefits to society, she tells FMT Business.

The positive impact of women’s spending habits has never been more prominent than today given that they now control up to US$31.8 trillion (RM150.1 trillion) in global spending money.

When it comes to earning and handling money, there is a huge contrast between men and women, as recent studies show.

A global analysis by audit, consulting and financial advisory services provider Deloitte shows that while men splurge as frequently as women, they tend to spend up to 40% more.

Another study, commissioned by Starling Bank of the UK, shows that while women come across as excessive spenders, men seem to focus more on wealth creation.

However, the statistics also show that women spend for the benefit of the family while men do it for self-interest, underlining Simraatraj’s view.

Economic impact

This trait among women has an immense implication for the economy, and happily for Nandini Joshi, COO at investment platform StashAway, it is a positive one.

“This power is transformative. It can reshape business, industries and even society,” she says.

With the level of economic empowerment that women have achieved today, they can boost productivity and diversify the economy, leading to positive outcomes, Simraatraj adds.

“Empowering women economically can lift entire families and communities out of poverty and this is especially true for the lower-income group in Malaysia,” she says.

Data from the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DoSM) shows that women make up 44.5% of the 6.47 million individuals in the workforce. That means there are 2.87 million of them with a job that comes with financial compensation, unlike that of a homemaker.

But women still trail men in earning capacity. In Malaysia they earned an average of RM2,545 per month in the first quarter of 2023, compared with RM2,664 for men.

Nonetheless, that has not stopped them from making a big impact. On occasions when they spend on themselves, women have reshaped the market.

For instance, when it comes to their personal care and beauty needs, the willingness to try Asian products over Western alternatives today has turned marketing strategies on their heads.

A 2022 consumer survey shows that women are now more willing to go for local as well as Japanese, Chinese and South Korean brands, according to Sharifah Muhairah Shahabudin, senior lecturer at Universiti Malaya’s faculty of business.

Women’s spending power has not gone unnoticed in other markets, either. As far back as 2019, carmakers in the US began to focus on ways to get more women into the showroom by offering vehicles with more safety features, ergonomic controls in the cockpit and higher fuel efficiency.

In a February 2023 online market survey across Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia, car trading platform Carsome found that the number of women purchasers rose 308% year-on-year last year.

The same trend is also obvious in other markets such as property where the government’s home ownership programme has already led to more women considering the option of buying a house of their own.

More avenues to increase spending

Women’s spending habits, to a large extent, have been influenced by social media, Sharifah Muhairah says.

This medium promotes faster decision-making and for people with busy schedules, it has a deep impact, she adds.

As their numbers grow in the workforce, women also have higher disposable incomes compared with their mothers and grandmothers.

The banking sector is also actively addressing women’s financial needs. For instance, credit card spending by women has risen 125% over the past five years. In the same period, spending by men has risen only 71%.

Giving women what they deserve

Despite their growing financial power, women remain undervalued in the employment market and they are often subjected to systematic denial of higher paying jobs, Bait Al Amanah’s Simraatraj says.

Moving forward, she suggests that the government and civil society collaborate on efforts to introduce comprehensive gender-neutral policies to address the gender pay gap and poverty among women.

Still, women are holding their own. Being more educated than their forebears, the women of today are also more financially literate.

With knowledge and greater awareness, women will be able to make better decisions on household expenditure and financial planning, Sharifah Muhairah says.