DECODING DRAUPADIDear Marketer,
You know women matter to your business. But how well do you know them?
She is earning, spending and making decisions that brands still don't fully understand. Here is our case for paying closer attention.
With curiosity, and a few uncomfortable questions,
Decoding Draupadi
#1
Mid-market firms and listed boards
Senior leadership, mid-market firms
34%
of senior leadership roles are held by women.
18.3%
of board seats at listed companies.
Grant Thornton Bharat, 2024 · 2026, surveyed mid-market firms · Deloitte, Women in the Boardroom, 2018–23. Different studies, so the two levels aren't directly comparable.
Listed companies and mutual funds
Her mutual-fund wealth
₹11.3 lakh cr
held by women in mutual funds: 37% of the money individuals hold.
Growth in a year
CAMS Women Investor Report 2026. Measured across CAMS-serviced mutual funds only, not all wealth held by Indian women.
Also: her pay at the top
₹71 lakh
a year: the median pay of a woman executive director at an NSE-listed company.
Prime Database via Business Standard, Mar 2025, 2,133 NSE-listed companies
She builds
Women are founding companies, raising capital and making India's lists of top business leaders.
Founders, funding and leaders
From the board to the cap table
DPIIT-recognised startups
48%
up from about 1 in 3 in 2017
have at least one woman director.
Women-founded startups, 2025
$1.65bn
raised in funding, up from $1.43bn in 2024.
Hurun India Women Leaders 2026
84%
of the 117 women on the list are self-made.
DPIIT via IANS, Dec 2025 · Factly · DealStreetAsia, 2025 · Hurun India Women Leaders 2026, via Business Today. Three different groups, so the figures aren't directly comparable.
Marriage
She marries later.
Urban women's average age at marriage rose from 23.1 in 2017 to 23.9 in 2020.
What it means for your brand
Family size
She has fewer children.
Urban fertility fell from 1.8 children per woman in 2016 to 1.5 in 2023.
What it means for your brand
Money decisions
She decides on her own.
56% of urban women investors make investment decisions on their own, up from 44% in 2022.
What it means for your brand
Property
She buys the home herself.
Homes bought by women alone rose from 1.14 lakh to 1.29 lakh in a year in nine big cities. That is 22% of registrations, growing faster than men's (14% against 11%).
What it means for your brand
Her income may contribute to the household. But that doesn't make her a secondary decision-maker. Brands that still treat her money as someone else's are missing the customer in front of them.
So far
She's leading more teams, building companies, earning more at the top and making more decisions about her own life and money.
Next
So where is all that money going? ↓
#2
She's buying for herself. And she's buying premium.
Here is what that greater disposable income turns into - swankier cars, homes worth lakhs and crores, the fancier upgrade on a trip she planned, higher health covers, a diamond to celebrate milestones. More of these luxuries are now bought by her, not just for her.
15%
of Mercedes-Benz India's buyers are women.
Up from 6–7% earlier. Its average buyer is now 38, down from 44.
64%
of natural diamond jewellery bought outside weddings is bought by women for themselves.
At weddings, 79% is credited to brides buying their own.
61%
of women homebuyers surveyed want a home above ₹90 lakh.
1 in 10 is looking above ₹2.5 crore.
She insures herself, and buys more cover.
+43%
more women bought health cover for themselves on Policybazaar in FY24 than in FY23.
Share choosing cover above ₹25 lakh.
She invests like she means it.
72.8%
up from 61.9% a year earlier
of women worth ₹5 crore or more hold Indian equities.
She plans the holiday. And she upgrades it.
72%
of leisure trips are designed or influenced by women, and women choose 28% more premium upgrades.
41%
of urban women investors now put travel ahead of buying a home. DSP Winvestor Pulse, 2026
She trains, she races, she pays for it.
18,862
women ran the Tata Mumbai Marathon 2026, up 11.6% on 2025: 27% of the field.
32%
of the first 5,000+ people to sign up for HYROX Bengaluru 2026 were women.
Market context, all genders: India's commercial fitness market is projected to grow from ₹16,200 crore in 2024 to ₹37,700 crore by 2030.
She isn't buying premium to make a point. She buys it like any premium customer, and judges you like one: were you worth it?
So far
She's buying cars, diamonds and homes in her own name, and investing, insuring herself, travelling and training on her own terms.
Next
If she's ready to spend, what's stopping brands from winning her business? ↓
#3
The buyer, in one line
She reads the fine print, asks her circle and compares everything.
What she needs is information she can use, someone she can trust, and a way to find what she is looking for.
1Research
She plans further ahead.
9 days
earlier than men, on average, women book their trips.
Thrillophilia via Outlook Money, Nov 2025. One platform.
2Evaluate
Trust is her first spec.
30%
of the weight in a woman's car decision rests on trust, ahead of mileage.
Maruti Suzuki via afaqs, Mar 2024. Company research.
3Decide
She decides. She wants backup.
24%
of urban women investors decide on their own with an adviser beside them, up from 17% in 2022.
DSP Winvestor Pulse 2025–26, YouGov, urban investors
Research, evaluate, decide is our way of organising three different studies. It isn't a proven journey that every woman follows.
Here is where she doesn't get it.
Financial services
The safer borrower still gets the smaller card.
Her wealth is growing faster than men's, and fewer of her card balances run overdue. Yet women hold only a small slice of India's card balances.
Her money
+13%
growth in women's mutual-fund wealth last year. Men's: 11%.
Her credit
14%
of India's credit card balances are women's.
What's missing
She's buying the home. She isn't getting the loan.
More women now buy homes in their own name, and most women homebuyers surveyed want homes above ₹90 lakh. Yet only about 1 in 9 home loans approved last year went to a woman.
- Homes bought:
- share of registrations in 9 big cities by women buying alone.
- Loans approved:
- share of home loans approved in 13 markets in 2025 that went to women.
What's missing
She wants an adviser. She can't find one she trusts.
The wealthiest women are asking for advice built around them. Few of them are looking, and many still turn to family first.
8 in 10
women worth ₹10 crore+ want wealth management designed for women.
Only 21% of them actively look for a wealth manager.
What's missing
Mobility and safety
She plans every detail. Safety is still in the fine print.
Safety is the first thing she filters for when she plans. 61% of women surveyed say a women-only butler option could change which hotel they book.
9 in 10
women travellers put safety first when choosing where to go.
Women planning trips use 3× as many safety filters.
What's missing
Healthcare
Midlife changes her needs. Most brands say nothing.
Menopause arrives while most of these women are still working, and their health needs shift sharply. Among women Apollo screened, diabetes jumps from 14% before menopause to 40% after.
46
average age of menopause in India
of working women aged 40 to 55 say menopause affected their work
What's missing
Early detection saves lives. Too few women get it.
Breast cancer caught early is very survivable in India. Once it spreads, the odds collapse. Most eligible women in Apollo's data still hadn't had a mammogram.
Five-year survival
4 in 10 eligible women over 40 had a mammogram.
What's missing
In her words
First-person experiences from our community, named only with permission. Qualitative examples, not statistical proof.
From the Decoding Draupadi community
[Awaiting verified Decoding Draupadi community quote]
Wanted: how long she researched her last big purchase, and what finally made her trust the brand she chose.Name · City · context, with permission
From the Decoding Draupadi community
[Awaiting verified Decoding Draupadi community quote]
Wanted: a time she had the money and the intent, and still couldn't find what she was looking for.Name · City · context, with permission
None of these was a Women's Day film. Each one changed what she could learn, who she could trust, or what was built for her.
Tell her story before you sell her the car.
Commissioned four short films by women directors about women's own journeys, released as stories, not sales pitches. Its research had found trust carries nearly 30% of the weight in women's car decisions.
12%
of Arena buyers are women, against an industry average of 7 to 8%. Over 9 lakh cars sold to women in six years.
Design for how she lives.
Built a top with a bra inside: wireless and comfort-first, instead of another version of the underwired bra.
No. 1
seller of women's intimate wear in Japan by 2020, overtaking Wacoal. It sold over 3 million in its first year.
Teach first. Sell later.
Ran women-only Garage Parties at about 680 dealers: hands-on bike basics, riding classes and a guide for new women riders, with no sales pressure.
No. 1
seller of new street motorcycles to US women by 2012, ahead of all other brands combined. A link, not proof of cause.
View all six case studiesShow fewer
Fix the fit, and she comes back.
Put women's products first and rebuilt its sports bra range around fit, including extended sizes.
No. 1
in sports bra market share in North America for the first time. Its women's business grew by double digits in FY19.
Treat her as a market, not a cause.
Set up a dedicated women's banking programme, with products, advisers and training designed for women customers, as a business line.
18%+
of the bank's profits came from the women's programme within two years.
Build the safety in. Don't print it in the terms.
Let women drivers choose to be matched with women passengers, as a feature in the app rather than a promise in an ad.
1 in 2
women drivers in the region tried it within six months. Matches between women drivers and women passengers rose 49%.
Having options isn't the same as having options built for her. Every gap she runs into is a chance for another brand to earn her business. The question is who's paying attention.
So far
Across credit, property, wealth advice, travel and health, women encounter gaps between what they need and what brands offer. A few brands, in India and abroad, have closed them, and won her for it.
Next
If brands have misread what she needs, how well do they know who she is? ↓
#4
Your ads show who she used to be.
An ad is a brand telling a woman who it thinks she is. Indian advertising has learned to include her. It hasn't learned to take her seriously: she appears as often as men, but is rarely shown earning, leading or deciding. To the woman holding the budget, that says only one thing: this brand isn't talking to her.
Seen
48.7%
of characters in India's most-watched ads of 2024 were women.
Geena Davis Institute, UNICEF India, IAA, 2026. 3,917 characters in 996 ads.
Taken seriously
3×
Men were three times as likely as women to be shown as authoritative.
ASCI, Kantar, Unstereotype Alliance. 261 new Indian TV ads, Oct 2023.
She's rarely in charge.
Only 3.5% of women in these ads were shown as leaders. Off screen, women hold about a third of senior leadership roles in India's mid-market firms.
Geena Davis Institute, 2026 · Grant Thornton Bharat, 2026. Different studies, set side by side, not calculated.
What advertising shows
She's on screen. She's rarely shown earning.
Scale 0 to 30%.
What marketers say
Most see her rise. Few think they lead.
14%
of senior Indian marketers called their brand a leader at marketing to women. 79% said women's buying influence had grown in two years.
Does it pay? Global evidence
Progressive ads are linked to higher sales.
+16%
long-term sales for more progressive ads than less progressive ones. A global correlation, observed across 392 brands in 58 countries with data from Unilever, Mars, Diageo, Mondelēz, Bayer and Kantar. In Kantar's analysis, Unilever's own inclusive campaigns, including Dove and Rexona, showed 103% stronger brand power.
Brands that get it, and brands that don't
Decoding Draupadi editorial reads of how well each campaign understands her. Not performance ratings.
- Representation that works
- Portrays her with agency or relevance.
- A useful lesson
- Suggests what marketers should question in their own work.
- A missed opportunity
- A stereotype or narrow assumption limits the message.
Mia by Tanishq · 2026
Representation that worksPrecious, Every Day
The takeaway
Find the thing that used to be given to her, and sell it to her.
Read our critiqueHide critique
The campaign
A friend sees a diamond ring on Aneet Padda's hand and assumes she's engaged. She bought it herself. "The proposal is for someday. This is for today."
Our take
It takes the most loaded object in Indian jewellery, the engagement ring, and hands it back to her as her own purchase. That is where the money already is: De Beers finds 64% of diamond jewellery bought outside weddings is self-purchased, and Mia's business head calls self-purchase one of its fastest-growing lines. The ad simply follows the customer.
Axis Bank · 2025
Representation that worksARISE: made by listening to women
The takeaway
You can mock the tokenism only if your product isn't tokenism.
Read our critiqueHide critique
The campaign
Shefali Shah plays herself and an alter ego who mocks hollow, pink Women's Day gestures. The bank ties the film to a women's account it says was built from what women asked for.
Our take
Banking rarely laughs at itself, and this does, while pointing to a real product rather than a sentiment. It earns credibility by naming the tokenism its own category is guilty of. The irony is the timing: it still launched on Women's Day, and there is no published outcome yet.
HDFC Mutual Fund · 2026
A useful lessonInvest Like A Woman
The takeaway
Respect her as an investor for her money, not her multitasking.
Read our critiqueHide critique
The campaign
Patience, discipline and foresight, shown through balancing home and work and planning for family, are presented as investing skills. "There is no better natural investor than a woman."
Our take
The instinct is right: treat her as a capable investor. But it roots her skill in managing the household, not in her income, ambition or goals. Compare Edelweiss, which made the same case with numbers. A woman worth crores doesn't need her investing justified by her multitasking.
BOBCARD (Bank of Baroda) · 2025
A missed opportunityTIARA, the card for the "modern day queen"
The takeaway
Your perks tell her who you think she is.
Read our critiqueHide critique
The campaign
A ₹2,499 women's credit card whose perks lead with salon vouchers, fashion and beauty discounts, alongside lounge access and lower forex fees. Launched with a Women's Day film.
Our take
The film is a well-meant inclusion story. The product is the problem: it defines an affluent woman by pampering, not by wealth, travel or credit-building. That is a strange choice when women are the lower-risk card customers and hold only 14% of card balances. The verdict is on the product and its positioning.
View all 10 campaignsShow fewer
Edelweiss Mutual Fund · 2026
Representation that worksWomen, the fastest-growing force in finance
The takeaway
Talk to her as a customer you are competing for, not a cause you are supporting.
Read our critiqueHide critique
The campaign
The fund house's CEO, Radhika Gupta, is asked what the fastest-growing thing in finance is. Her answer: women. The film ends with an invitation to invest.
Our take
It speaks to women as a market that is already investing, and the data backs it: women's mutual-fund wealth grew 13% last year, faster than men's. It leads with her money, not her empathy. The weakness is the date: it is a Women's Day film.
Tanishq · 2024 to 2025
Representation that worksCelebrate Your Sparkle
The takeaway
Sell her the reason she buys, not the occasion you assume.
Read our critiqueHide critique
The campaign
Manisha Koirala fronts a diamond campaign that puts a woman's own confidence, not an occasion or a gift, at the centre. It ran as Tanishq's first campaign of 2025, nowhere near Women's Day.
Our take
Tanishq's CMO describes diamonds as "a confident expression of individuality", against gold's family and wedding meaning, and names women aged 30 to 40 as the core buyer. That is a brand reading its own customer correctly. What's missing is evidence: no results have been published.
House of Abhinandan Lodha · 2025
A useful lessonKahaaniyaan Jo Riwaaz Badlein
The takeaway
Make her the investor in her own story.
Read our critiqueHide critique
The campaign
Based on a true story: three daughters pool their money to buy land and fulfil their father's dream. Women investors were offered a 2% benefit and two years of zero maintenance.
Our take
It puts women in the frame as land buyers in a category where, by the developer's own figure, about 80% of investment comes from men. That matters. But the purchase completes a father's wish, and the hook is a Women's Day discount. Women homebuyers are telling surveys they buy for returns.
Royal Enfield · 2018 to 2026
A useful lessonWomen riders, men's content
The takeaway
If the barrier is the product and the showroom, the fix isn't a film.
Read our critiqueHide critique
The campaign
Women-only Himalayan rides since 2016 and a women's riding-gear range since 2020. Its flagship 2026 streaming series follows two men, and 84% of the series' audience is male.
Our take
Royal Enfield said in 2020 that women riders were under-served, and it built rides and gear for them. But it doesn't publish how many of its buyers are women, and what keeps ordinary women off the bike is weight, seat height, the dealership and gear fit. A film about exceptional riders doesn't fix those.
Zurich Kotak General Insurance · 2026
A useful lesson#DriveLikeALady
The takeaway
Calling out a stereotype is a start. Pricing and serving her differently is the business.
Read our critiqueHide critique
The campaign
A badly parked, damaged car in Mumbai. Passers-by assume a woman parked it. The driver was a man. The insurer's 2025 edition noted that fewer than 15% of its motor claims came from women.
Our take
It takes on a bias women drivers hear every day, and backs it with the insurer's own claims data, which is more than most do. But it offers her nothing as a customer: no price, cover or service built around how she drives. And it arrives on Women's Day.
South Indian Bank · 2023
A missed opportunityTrust meets Tech since 1929
The takeaway
Leaving her out is also a message.
Read our critiqueHide critique
The campaign
A brand film for young customers: a man races a sports car, remembering his father cheering his toy-car race as a child. No women appear.
Our take
A film about trust and legacy in which wealth passes from father to son, aimed at a generation where women are investing and borrowing faster than ever. A gender-lens review in Campaign India scored it 2.5 out of 5 for being male-centric and ignoring young women in the workforce.
Campaign India, Mar 2023 · Campaign India gender-lens critique
The HerKey and Havas study of Indian marketers has a name for it: the occasion trap.
But she doesn't meet your brand on 8 March. She meets it in the hundred small decisions inside every ad, every pack and every product, all year:
That is where she decides whether a brand sees her. Not in a once-a-year film, but in every frame of every other one.
- Who is cast as the expert, and who asks the question
- Who serves dinner, and who sits down to eat it
- Who wakes up first, and who gives the medicine
- Who teaches the child to ride a bicycle
- What she does for a living, and whether we see it
- What she wears, and what she is doing in each frame
- What the ad says, and who it is really selling to
- Whose research shaped the brief
- Whose needs shaped the product before the ad was made
Who does the caring
She's still cast as the carer.
5×
as many women as men are shown as sole caregivers in new Indian TV ads: 17.5% against 3.5%.
Who does the housework
She's still shown in the kitchen.
4×
as likely to be shown cooking: women characters 2.4%, men 0.6%. Cleaning: 3.9% against 1.6%.
What marketers admit
Brands know they do it.
1 in 3
brands still portray women primarily as caregivers.
In their words
“While the presence of women and their depiction matters, the absence also tells a story.”
In their words
“An over-glorified image of the mother as a tireless, selfless superhuman doesn't help.”
In their words
“Women are not just an audience segment anymore; they are a decisive force shaping how categories evolve.”
Representation isn't a CSR exercise. It's a test of how well you know your customer. If your advertising still shows a woman she no longer recognises, what else have you misunderstood about her?
So far
She's on screen in plenty of ads, but shown earning or leading far less often than men, and too often only around weddings and festivals.
Next
So what changes, starting Monday? ↓
#5
01
02
03
04
05
Your next step
Take these questions into your next brief.
A one-page checklist of all five, to copy or download.
And finally
Dear Marketer, this is a story of hope.
She isn't a new consumer you have to go out and find. She is already in your data. The pages are stuck together, and most of us have only skimmed them.
She doesn't need another campaign telling her who she can be. She needs brands that know who she already is.
That is the work we believe in. We've got this. So do you.With hope, and a lot of faith in you, Decoding Draupadi
Add your voiceAdd your voice
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In their words
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Methodology
How we built this
Every card names its source and links to it, so any card can be screenshotted and shared on its own. Here is how we chose what went in, and what we left out.
Scope
- Who
- Affluent, urban women in India with premium spending power: leaders, founders, investors, and buyers of cars, homes, diamonds and travel.
- When
- Indian data from 2023 to 2026 first. Older or global figures appear only as labelled context, with their year.
- What's out
- Mass-market measures, all-gender figures presented as hers, and popular claims that don't show how they were measured for India.
How we chose and used the evidence
Her, specifically.
Every number is about women. Where only an all-gender figure exists, the card says so.
India first, recent first.
Indian data from 2023 to 2026 leads. Global studies and case studies from Japan, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and the US appear as labelled context, with their year.
The woman with premium spending power.
We chose numbers that picture the affluent urban woman: senior leaders, founders, investors, and buyers of cars, homes, diamonds and travel. National figures appear only where they explain a shift behind her.
Who each number describes.
Each card says whether a figure covers all of India, listed companies, urban investors, survey respondents or one company's customers. Company and platform data describe that company's customers only.
Numbers as the source states them.
We report each figure with its period. Arrows show the change over that period. We don't project, estimate or combine figures. Where two figures from different studies sit side by side, the contrast is ours, not a calculation. A hypothesis is labelled as one.
Data and our read, kept apart.
The evidence cards carry the data. Text marked with a red rule, and the red Our read cards, are Decoding Draupadi's interpretation of it, and are written to be argued with.
What we left out.
We don't use the popular claims that women drive 80% of purchases or 70 to 85% of buying influence, because neither shows how it was measured for India. During checking, we also dropped figures whose source didn't support how they were being used.
Campaigns.
The ten campaigns are released work by Indian brands, played from each brand's official channel. Gets it right, part of it right and misses the point are our editorial verdicts on how well each understands her. They are not measures of commercial performance.
What has worked.
The six case studies draw on company statements and trade and business press. Results are as reported, not audited by us. Some are a few years old. We kept them because the solution still holds.
Voices.
Practitioner quotes come from published interviews and articles, linked to where they first appeared. Decoding Draupadi community quotes are used only with permission and are attributed. Our community gives us insight and access, not a representative sample.
Photos.
Image slots are reserved for Decoding Draupadi's own photography. We don't use stock images of women.
Every source in one list (63)
- Grant Thornton Bharat, Women in Business 2024. Senior management roles held by women in surveyed Indian mid-market firms, 2004 to 2024.
- Grant Thornton Bharat, Women in Business 2026. Surveyed Indian mid-market firms; nearly 34% of senior leadership roles held by women.
- Deloitte, Women in the Boardroom (India). Listed companies covered by Deloitte, 2018 to 2023.
- Prime Database, via Business Standard. Mar 2025. 2,133 NSE-listed companies. Median pay of executive directors.
- DPIIT, via IANS. Jun 2026. DPIIT-recognised startups with at least one woman director, Dec 2025.
- Factly, DPIIT data. Earlier years of the same series.
- Hurun India Women Leaders List 2026, via Business Today. Jul 2026. 117 women; 84% self-made.
- DealStreetAsia, Women Founders in India 2025. Funding raised by women-founded startups, 2024 and 2025.
- MoSPI, Women and Men in India 2023 (SRS data). Urban fertility rate and mean age at marriage.
- Square Yards, via Outlook Money. 2024. Property registrations by sole women buyers, 9 cities.
- DSP Mutual Fund Winvestor Pulse 2025–26, by YouGov. Mar 2026. 5,050 urban investors, 13 cities. Company-commissioned.
- Mercedes-Benz India, via Storyboard18. Mar 2024. Company's own customer data.
- ANAROCK H2 2025 Consumer Sentiment Survey, via Business Standard. Mar 2026. Women homebuyers surveyed; price preferences 2019 and 2025. Sample size not published.
- CRIF High Mark, The Credit Goes to Her. Mar 2026. Credit bureau data, Dec 2025: women's share of portfolio outstanding by product; 31–180 days overdue.
- De Beers Group, Diamond Acquisition Study 2025, via GJEPC. India natural diamond jewellery; self-purchase share outside bridal.
- CAMS, Women Investor Report 2026. Mar 2026. CAMS-serviced mutual funds, 41.5 million investors; women as first holder.
- Waterfield Advisors, Women of Wealth Report 2026, via AltPort Funds. May 2026. 169 women with net worth above ₹5 crore.
- Tata Mumbai Marathon 2026 Socio-Economic and Health Impact Report (Procam, IISM), via Business Standard. Sep 2026. 69,100 participants.
- HYROX India, via EventFAQs. Dec 2025. First-week registrations for Bengaluru 2026.
- Deloitte and HFA, India Fitness Market 2025. All genders; projection to 2030.
- Apollo Hospitals, Health of the Nation 2026. Apr 2026. 3 million+ assessments, 580,847 women's; not nationally representative.
- Apollo Hospitals, Health of the Nation 2025. Apr 2025. 2.5 million+ screened.
- ICMR breast cancer survival study (Cancer), via Morung Express. Jan 2024. 17,331 patients, 11 registries.
- Indian Menopause Society survey, Journal of Mid-Life Health. 2016. 2,108 women; average age of menopause 46.2.
- Inc42, Nua Series C. Sep 2026.
- Bajaj Allianz, Herizon Care launch. Feb 2025. Women-only health and protection plan.
- Redcliffe Labs, preventive health checkups case study. Women about 57% preventive, men about 65%; platform data.
- Maruti Suzuki (Shashank Srivastava), via afaqs. Mar 2024. Company research and sales data.
- Thrillophilia report, via Outlook Money. Nov 2025. 2.12 lakh itineraries.
- Retail Dive, Nike women's business. Jun 2019. Global.
- Powersports Business, Harley-Davidson women riders. May 2013. US, Polk registration data.
- Mia by Tanishq, Precious Every Day, via MediaNews4U. Oct 2026.
- Axis Bank ARISE, via exchange4media. Mar 2025.
- HDFC Mutual Fund, Invest Like A Woman. Mar 2026.
- House of Abhinandan Lodha, Women's Day 2025, PTI via The Wire. Mar 2025.
- BOBCARD TIARA product page. Product features and fee.
- Campaign India, creative critique from a gender lens. Mar 2023. Score by Dr AL Sharada, Population First.
- Bloomberg, Uniqlo bra tops. May 2021, citing Euromonitor.
- Financial Alliance for Women, BLC Bank case study. Lebanon; with IFC.
- Grab, Women Passengers Preferred. Oct 2024. Company data, driver side.
- Tanishq, Celebrate Your Sparkle, via afaqs. Feb 2025.
- WFA, Inclusion = Income study summary. Jun 2024. Data from Bayer, Diageo, Kantar, Mars, Mondelēz and Unilever.
- Unilever, inclusive advertising results. Sep 2024. Kantar analysis of Unilever's 2023 inclusive campaigns.
- ASCI × Futurebrands, GenderNext. Oct 2021. 600+ ads.
- Nitika Parmar (VMLY&R India), via Social Samosa. May 2023.
- Manisha Kapoor (ASCI), IndianTelevision interview. Mar 2021.
- DSP Mutual Fund, Winvestor Pulse 2025–26 press release. Mar 2026. 5,050 urban investors, 13 cities, by YouGov.
- Thrillophilia, via Outlook Traveller. Nov 2025. 2.12 lakh itineraries on one platform.
- Policybazaar, via Business Standard. Mar 2024. Platform data on women buying health cover, to FY24.
- Square Yards / Urban Money, women and housing finance. 2025. 56,523 home loans approved in 13 markets.
- Magicbricks, via The Realty Today. 2026. Women homebuyers surveyed.
- Waterfield Advisors, via Cafemutual. 2024. 104 women worth ₹10 crore or more.
- DBS Bank India and CRISIL, women earners survey. Jan 2024. About 800 earning women in 10 metros.
- Outlook Traveller × Toluna, What Women Want. 2024. 1,214 women travellers.
- IHCL research on women travellers. 2020. Company-commissioned survey.
- Abbott × Ipsos, via The Quint. 2023. 1,241 women aged 40 to 55.
- Geena Davis Institute with UNICEF India and the IAA India Chapter, India Advertising Midline. 2026. 996 ads from 2024 (3,917 characters) and 1,000 from 2019.
- ASCI, Kantar and Unstereotype Alliance, Gender Narratives in Indian Advertising. 2024. 261 new TV ads aired Oct 2023.
- HerKey × Havas Creative India, The Paradox of Influence. Mar 2026. Senior marketers; sample size not published.
- Unstereotype Alliance and Oxford Saïd, Inclusion = Income. Sept 2024. 392 brands, 58 countries; global and correlational.
- Campaign coverage: Edelweiss (Storyboard18), Royal Enfield (afaqs), Royal Enfield (Open), Zurich Kotak, Zurich Kotak 2025, South Indian Bank (Campaign India).
- Case-study coverage: Fast Retailing, 2009, CNBC, Nike, 2019, MediaPost, Harley-Davidson, 2008, BizTimes, Harley-Davidson, 2013.
- Inclusive advertising evidence: Unstereotype Alliance, The Business Case for Progressive Marketing (PDF), Kantar, Unstereotype Metric, Mondelēz, via Marketing Week.
Published October 2026 · Version 3 · Last updated 22 October 2026
Decoding Her is published by Decoding Draupadi, a women-first community and media platform examining the lives, work, choices and ambitions of urban working women in India. Comments and corrections: ak@c4e.in