Despite these baby steps, as we celebrate  International Women’s Day on March 8, it has to be accepted that there remain significant gaps in women’s representation and role in India Inc. 

It is close to 40 years since the Wall Street Journal in an article, first used the term “glass-ceiling” to refer to difficulties that women in corporate America have in reaching the top of the hierarchy.

Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in a recent study quotes Debjani Ghosh, President of NASSCOM stating, “We must ensure to address this super-leaky pipeline, as fixing it remains a challenge. Going forward, I believe it is crucial to increasingly associate women in top positions with higher profits and greater sustainability of businesses.” 

What Is Holding Women Back?

However, realising the goal that Ghosh has set for India Inc, is not an easy one as there continues to be many hurdles for women to become a force for good in the business world.

Some of them are regulatory in nature. For example, it is mandatory only for listed companies in India to report their diversity status, and unlisted companies are not mandated to do so. In fact, many of them hire women only as freelancers or in contract roles so that they can avoid investing in maternity and other benefits that women get. One estimate puts the number of unlisted companies in India to be over 10 lakhs. 

While the number of women on boards of listed companies has increased from 8 per cent five years back to 17 per cent today, it is still a small group of women directors who rotate in multiple boards. 

This makes it important to widen the horizon and look beyond the corporate pool. It could be academicians, women from the social sector or even from the world of art and culture. 

Some of the celebrated independent women directors include Rama Bijapurkar, Anita Ramachandran, Shikha Sharma, Lalita Gupte and Kalpana Morparia. 

Therefore, there is a need for more women in the leadership pipeline. Says Preetha Reddy, Vice Chairperson, Apollo Hospitals, “It is essential to recognize that women should not merely be present on boards but acknowledged for their substantial contributions”.

One of the major reasons for the poor representation of women in leadership roles in India Inc. is the CEO’s lack of conviction in the importance of a diverse leadership team. At the same time, only 1.6 per cent of CEOs of Fortune 500 India companies are women. In the Next 500 ranking of emerging companies, the number is slightly higher at 5 per cent. Overall, for the Fortune 1000 India companies, only 3.2 per cent are led by women CEOs.

Further, the reason why many women drop out of the workforce is the lack of support infrastructure in the form of a reliable daycare for their children or assisted living services for the elderly. And, several states have existing policies against women working at night. Also, each state government has different laws for women working on shop floors of manufacturing units. This lack of uniformity makes it difficult for organisations to employ more women in manufacturing.

The CII study found that an organisation loses 30-40 per cent of its women talent by the time they reach middle management. To fix this broken rung, organisations must set mandates for gender-specific hiring. 

Call To Action 

What can be done to improve the situation?

One, offer tax advantages, recommends CII. Companies, which are doing considerable work in increasing gender diversity, could be offered a corporate tax reduction. This will incentivise organisations to bring more women into the workforce. Further, apart from encouraging organisations with corporate tax or GST reductions, incentivising women with income tax reductions across salary slabs would be helpful.

Two, corporate India or the government could mandate a body that would enable sponsorship and mentorship of women leaders. Australia, for instance, has Chief Executive Women (CEW), an industry body that engages directly with government and business to advocate evidence-based policies, which support women leaders.

Three, girls could be given scholarships for science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education. The government could partner with the private sector to provide internship and skills training to girls undergoing STEM education.

Four, while many progressive companies have creches for small children of employees, facilities for elder care are missing in corporate campuses. This could be incorporated.

Finally, organisations need to work hand-in-hand with government bodies and help create an ecosystem where a woman would feel safe to go to work could substantially help in encouraging women to join the workforce.