Women directors make up just 16% of board in NSE 200 companies: The Glass Ceiling report

According to researcher Promila Agarwal, the study tries to solve the pay gap between men and women in top management, which persists despite companies investing in hiring and paying women equally at lower job levels.

Women make up only 16 percent of the board of directors in NSE 200 companies as of 2022, says The Glass Ceiling Report by the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. This number increased from 4.5 percent in 2014 to 16 percent in 2020, just touching regulatory requirements, and has since been stagnant.

According to the report, women account for only 2 percent of top management — the set of ten individuals with the highest salary bracket in these companies. In addition, women in the senior executive position, with salaries higher than Rs 1.02 crore per annum, stood at 7 percent. The report also highlighted that within this job role, while men receive an average salary of Rs 2.24 crore per annum, women are only paid Rs 1.91 crore.

The research is based on data received from 124 NSE 200 companies. Public companies were excluded from the analysis, and the rest did not respond to queries from the researcher.

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Reasons for the disparity

A 2019 World Bank Report showed that the Women’s Labour Force Participation Rate in India stood at 20 percent against 55 per cent in the US and 60 percent in China. The common reasons for this disparity were their role as the primary caregiver for children and elders, limited female representation in leadership, unavailability of strong mentorship and their often self-limiting behaviour.

According to researcher Promila Agarwal, the study tries to solve the pay gap between men and women in top management, which persists despite companies investing in hiring and paying women equally at lower job levels. The report, hence, has also made some recommendations. They include setting up diversity goals for companies and councils to evaluate progress regularly, cultural training at every level, and increased intake of women at junior levels. A 2019 report by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) estimated that $700 billion was added to India’s GDP by 2025 by improving gender equality in the workforce.

No women in top management in many companies

Among the participating companies, HDFC and Syngene International Ltd. were the top performers, each having four women on their board of directors. Asian Paints, Bharti Airtel and Cipla were among those ranked second, with three women directors. Along with Trent, Cipla again made the charts with three women in top management (WTM). However, out of the participant companies, while 21 had only one WTM, 76 had none.

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In addition, the report said that while senior women executives make up a considerable part of the financial services industry, with IT following as a close second, there is a severe lack of women in sectors such as pharma and consumer services.

‘The Glass Ceiling: Research Report on Leadership Gender Balance in Indian Companies’ was launched at the inaugural event of the Arun Duggal Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance (ESG) Centre for Research and Innovation on February 9. Veteran Banker KV Kamath addressed the event as the keynote speaker, with former PepsiCo CEO Indira Nooyi, joining later for an interaction with the IIM Ahmedabad students.