Lack of social support, poor work-life balance to blame for women avoiding bank jobs: Experts

International Women's Day

Despite this being the third decade of the 21st century, the number of women in the Indian banking sector remains low. On average, women make up 23-27 percent of the headcount of banks in India. The good news is that their numbers are growing, albeit at a slow pace.

Shymala Gopinath, former deputy governor, Reserve Bank of India (RBI), said fewer women want to work in banks because of the “lack of social support, and difficulty balancing life and work”.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a senior executive at a private bank concurred with Gopinath, saying, “The industry has seen some top women bankers but the average number remains low due to difficulties in managing work and life.”

Making it to the top

The Indian banking sector has had a clutch of women chiefs in the past. Among them are Arundhati Bhattacharya (first woman to lead SBI), Shikha Sharma (former CEO, Axis Bank), Chanda Kochhar (former MD & CEO, ICICI Bank), and Kalpana Morparia (former CEO, South and Southeast Asia, JP Morgan).

In March 2022, Madhabi Puri Buch became the first woman to lead India’s market regulator, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). She also headed ICICI Securities between 2009 and 2011.

Padmaja Reddy, founder and former chief of Spandana Sphoorty, is another woman who built an iconic organisation in the microfinance world, leading it through one of the worst phases in the history of that industry, during the 2010-2012 microfinance crisis in Andhra Pradesh.

Other names include Usha Ananthasubramanian, former chief of PNB, and Padmaja Chunduru, MD and CEO of National Securities Depositories and the former head of Indian Bank.

Currently, Union Bank of India is the only lender to have a woman chief executive officer and managing director (CEO & MD) in A Manimekhalai. Other top women bankers include Shanti Ekambaram, Deputy Managing Director of Kotak Mahindra Bank, and Shalini Warrier, Executive Director at Federal Bank.

Change in trend

Though the number of women bankers in top positions is still low, there has been a slight improvement over the years in the lower ranks. “We are seeing a change, with more women joining banks. But to see more of them at the top would take time,” said the senior executive cited earlier.

In its annual report for financial year (FY) 2022-23, State Bank of India, the country’s largest bank, showed that the share of women employees in the bank had inched up from 24 percent in 2018 to 26.78 percent in 2023. Data from HDFC Bank showed that the female workforce in the bank also grew slightly, from 21 percent in FY22 to 23 percent in FY23.