NEW DELHI: Despite efforts by India Inc and regulations to address gender diversity, women still occupy just 19% of C-suite roles in India, far below the global average of 30%, highlighting the need for targeted talent search initiatives.
A key barrier preventing women from accessing and excelling in these leadership positions is work-life integration, with around 60% of respondents citing it as a major challenge, a research by Avtar, a workplace culture consulting firm, shared exclusively with TOI says.
This underscores the necessity of systemic changes that extend beyond hiring and promotion processes to better support women’s advancement in leadership.
Saundarya Rajesh, founder-president Avtar group, said, “Our research reveals that multiple factors continue to limit the advancement of women to the C-suite. Given the systemic barriers that affect women in India more acutely, an effective approach to bridge the gender gap is through targeted diversity-driven executive searches. These searches offer customised and comprehensive strategies to ensure an equitable recruitment and advancement process.”
What’s concerning is the rising attrition at the senior leadership level, which increased from 4% in 2019 to 10% in 2020, largely due to the pandemic’s impact on women’s careers. Although a slight recovery was observed, it rose again to 10% in 2022, reflecting ongoing challenges in retaining women in senior roles.
In 2023, the rate improved slightly to 9%. It further decreased to 8% in following year, indicating incremental progress in addressing attrition, but it still remains above pre-pandemic levels, the study adds.
Additionally, gender bias in hiring and promotion continues to hinder women’s progress, with 44% of respondents pointing to this issue. Many believe that leveraging data and AI could play a crucial role in mitigating this bias and creating more equitable opportunities for women in leadership roles.
To address this, a majority of respondents feel that organisational culture needs to improve for women to thrive in leadership roles. Another significant barrier to increasing women’s representation in leadership is the shortage of qualified candidates. Around 41% of respondents cite the unavailability of women talent as a key factor contributing to the skewed gender diversity. This issue ties into challenges related to organisational culture, gender bias, and work-life integration, all of which must be addressed to create meaningful change.