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Posted 03 Jun 2024

2 min read

Report sheds light on progress made so far and outstanding challenges towards gender diversity and inclusion in women’s corporate leadership.

Key Highlights of the report

  • Globally, in lower-middle income countries, 19.2% firms had female top manager as against 17.3% in high-income countries. (World Bank, 2022)
  • In India
    • Only 16% of employed people in senior and middle management positions were female in 2022. (World Bank)
    • Substantial increase in proportion of women serving on boards over the past decade, from 6% in 2013 to 18% in 2022.

Reasons for gaps in Women’s Corporate Leadership roles

  • Gaps in enforcement of existing regulatory measures: During 2018-2023, 507 of companies have been fined for non-compliance with the Companies Act 2013 which mandates women directors on company boards.
  • Limited pool of women: Due to lower female labor force participation rates (37% in 2022-23), women dropping off the workforce due to familial responsibilities, etc.
  • Social conditioning: Women not applying for leadership roles due to their environments, cultural gender roles, etc.
  • Sector-wise discrepancies: Representation of women greatly varies across sectors with determining factors such as work environment, travel requirements, disparity in pay, number and nature of the work-hours, etc.

Initiatives to promote women leadership

Government-led

  • Companies Act, 2013:  Mandates presence of at least one woman director on the governing board of certain class/ classes of companies. 
  • Business Reporting requirements on Social Responsibility: Seeks data on women representation in workforce and leadership.

Industry-led

  • Standing Conference of Public Enterprises (SCOPE): Pledged to make concerted efforts to address the gap with a focus on ensuring gender-diversity in leadership positions in Public Sector Enterprises.
  • There are similar initiatives from private sector corporations like Accenture, Cognizant, etc.
  • Tags :
  • Women’s Corporate Leadership
  • Companies Act, 2013
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