“From a young age, women struggle to be themselves in the office,” said S*, an assistant vice president in a multinational bank. “If you don't wear makeup, male colleagues comment about your appearance. If you do wear makeup, they judge you for spending time on your looks instead of working."

S* is a 43-year-old tall and determined woman living with her husband and son in Bangalore. With around 20 years in the thriving information technology sector, she is among the few women in India to have occupied a leadership position.

Women are increasingly visible in both formal and informal workspaces, with their labour force participation rate in 2023 jumping to 37% from 32.8% the previous year.

In corporate India, women did better than ever before. In March 2023, job openings for women in the white-collar sector saw a 35% year-on-year spike.

According to a May 2024 report by LinkedIn and The Quantum Hub, a Delhi-based consulting firm that aims to inform public policy deliberations, women's overall workforce participation in corporate India grew from 23.9% in 2016 to 26.8% in 2024.

Despite this increase, few management roles are held by women. The report, ‘Women in leadership in corporate India’, based on data from 100 million LinkedIn users, revealed that only 18.3% of senior leadership positions (managerial levels and above) were held by women in 2024. While women constitute 28.7% of the workforce at the entry level, this figure drops sharply to 18.5% at the managerial level.

This disparity persists despite significant educational qualifications. The department of economic affairs’ 2024 economic review notes that the female enrolment rate in higher education quadrupled over the past 20 years. Yet this is not reflected in the upper echelon of the job market.

With so many women pursuing higher education and entering the workforce, the question arises: what stops their progress up the corporate ladder and what are the systemic changes needed to address this?




Sources - https://article-14.com/post/more-women-than-ever-in-india-inc-but-they-hold-less-than-a-fifth-of-leadership-positions-new-study-66c2a7a9a5dd4