Women in Leadership in Corporate India | Current Affairs | Vision IAS
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    Women in Leadership in Corporate India

    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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