More women on boards, but top management figures lag behind global average
Illustration: Binay Sinha
The share of women on company boards increased from just over 5 percent in FY14 to nearly 16 percent in FY23, according to a study by the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER). The study found that the number of women in top management positions increased from nearly 14 percent to around 22 percent during the same period. However, India still lags behind in the share of women in middle and senior management positions with just 20 percent, compared to nearly 33 percent globally, in 2019. Nearly 60 percent of the companies included in the study had no women on top management teams by March 2023. The deadline for obtaining the mandate for women directors was set on April 1, 2015.
Five of the top ten NSE-listed companies by market capitalisation (mcap) had no women in their top management teams as of March 2023. More than half of the NSE-listed companies in the sample did not have even one woman in their top management, and about 10 per cent of the companies had only one woman. Ratna Sahay, lead author of the study, said: “Having at least one woman on board is associated with higher economic performance and lower financial risk, and this effect is significant for large and mid-sized companies.”
First print: 02 Jul 2024 | 23:33 IST