Gender Balance in Organisations – A Dipstick Check
Fifty percent of users of all services and consumable products are women and the population is a mix of various ethnicities, colours, and cultures. Thus, all companies need to get as many diverse views as possible to improve their products and services – Great wisdom from the business lens, understood by decision-makers
The 2019 pandemic established the fact that women make for wholistic & balanced PEOPLE leaders in the face of uncertainty, ambiguity & complexity – Tangible results documented by leading consultancies about women in lead, giving the Talent & Development teams the way forward.
Considering that both focus areas of business & future talent development were clear, it is important to step back & do a dipstick check on current reality.
Are organisations leveraging the Gender Diversity advantages through short- & long-term strategies of Attraction – Retention – Inclusion – Growth.
This article is restricted to GENDER Balance in Indian companies only.
Diversity in the Board room:
During 2013-2022, India made significant and rapid progress in increasing women’s representation on Boards from 6% in 2013 to 13% in 2017, post 2017 women’s representation has increased, albeit at a slower pace to 18% in 2022.
Multiple initiatives are taken by the Indian Government and other regulatory bodies.
More than 40% of the companies have gone beyond the regulatory mandated limit and have appointed more than one women Board member. There is no doubt that Indian companies are making progress for women’s representation on Boards; however, statistics highlight that there is still room for improvement as less than 5% of companies have women as Chairpersons.
Traditionally, women’s representation on Indian Boards has been limited to leadership positions in Grievance and CSR committees; however, this is changing.
− Across NIFTY500, the Nomination and Remuneration Committee (NRC) and Audit Committee, customarily reserved for male Board members, had 13% and 12% women Board members respectively in 2017.
− In 2020, this had increased to 18% and 16%, respectively.
− Almost 95% of companies out of NIFTY500 have one woman Board member compared to 69% in 2017.
− In 2022, women account for 7.2% of executive positions on Indian Boards compared to 6% in 2017.
− The growth of women in non-executive positions on Indian Boards paints a more encouraging picture as it has increased from 16% in 2017 to 21.4% in 2022 [BoardEx, EY Analysis 2022]
India appears to have ticked a few boxes proactively & the numbers are encouraging.
Gender Balance at Leadership/Management levels:
Beyond the share of board seats, it’s important to also look at who sits in leadership positions.
The share of female CEOs in India is now 7.7 percent, up from 2.1 percent in 2020.
On the other hand, women are rising to the CFO role at a much slower pace—with a 0.6 percent change in two years in the country. [Egon Zehnder, 2022]
In 2021, women held only 10% of management roles and were only 5% of CEOs in India- [Kersley et al. 2021]
The share of women in senior and managerial positions in India is only 14.6% and there are only 8.9% of firms with women as top managers [EY analysis 2022]
While the representation of women at entry levels continues to increase from 33 per cent in 2017 to 38 per cent in 2022, the female talent pipeline continues to narrow as it goes up the organisational ladder.
In managerial roles, women representation in 2022 stood at 26 per cent women and further dipped to 18 per cent at the senior managerial level and 17 per cent at the corporate executive level. Women leading business units stagnated at 14 per cent between 2017 and 2022. [Avtar & Seramount’s 100 Best Companies for Women in India (BCWI) report]
Despite modest progress, women are still dramatically underrepresented in leadership
The Big Challenges Ahead:
- Proactively controlling the She-Recession / Great Break-up movements
Women are demanding more from work, and they’re leaving their companies in unprecedented numbers to get it.
If companies don’t take action, they won’t just lose their women leaders; they risk losing the next generation of women leaders, too. Young women are even more ambitious, and they place a higher premium on working in an equitable, supportive, and inclusive workplace. As they see senior women leave for better opportunities, they are prepared to do the same.
Women leaders are switching jobs at the highest rate ever seen, much higher than men. This signals serious implications; women are already significantly underrepresented in leadership positions & this could impact the diversity ratios in the future. [McKinsey & Company]
- Meeting aspirations of women leaders
Women leaders are as ambitious as men & want to advance, but they face strong opposition compared to their male colleagues. This opposition comes from decision-makers as they share that they are judged, questioned, and doubted more than male colleagues in similar positions.
This has given rise to newer concepts like imposter syndrome being more associated with women than men.
- Bias of labelling & unwillingness to accept as equals
Women leaders are more likely to be mistaken for someone more junior.
- Overworked & under-recognised
Women leaders are overworked because of dual roles & responsibilities and continuously having to prove that they are equal in performance. While EQUITY policies are in place, the under-recognition happens from deep unconscious bias mindsets which have different yardsticks of measurement.
Look out for the next article on ACTIONS that companies still need to work on.
BY TATVA