Women’s Financial Autonomy and Entrepreneurial Leadership under SDG 5: A Comparative Socio-Behavioural Analysis of India and the Global Context

The importance of women’s financial independence and entrepreneurial leadership has emerged as one of the most important supporting pillars of Sustainable Development Goal 5 (SDG 5) of the United Nations, which assigns the highest priority to gender equality, leadership participation, and equality in accessing economic resources. The research study on this topic will examine the socio-behavioral factors that shape women’s financial independence and entrepreneurial leadership in a comparative manner, with a special emphasis on India and the global scenario. The research study will try to (i) identify the social and behavioral factors that shape women’s financial independence, (ii) examine the inter-linkages between financial independence and the development of entrepreneurial leadership, (iii) compare the global and Indian scenarios of financial inclusion and women’s entrepreneurial businesses, and (iv) align these scenarios with the targets of SDG 5, particularly targets 5.1, 5.5, and 5.a. The research study will be done in a descriptive and analytical manner that will depend entirely on the secondary sources of data from the World Bank, World Economic Forum, Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, OECD, and Indian institutional publications such as RBI, NFHS, MSME reports, and NITI Aayog SDG Index. The results show that financial autonomy encompasses not only banking and credit access but also socio-cultural values, behavioral traits like risk perception and self-efficacy, institutional enablement, and structures of social capital. The role of entrepreneurial leadership is reinforced when financial autonomy is complemented by psychological empowerment. The research framework integrates socio-behavioral insights and locates financial autonomy as both an economic enabler and a strategic pillar of entrepreneurial leadership in the architecture of SDG monitoring.