Women's workforce participation rises to 27% in 2024, but senior-level hurdles remain: LinkedIn data

Industries such as 'Education' at 30 percent and 'Government Administration' at 29 percent have the highest representation of women in leadership roles.

Professional networking platform LinkedIn’s economic graph data shows that there has been an overall increase in the representation of women across workforce over the years, rising from 23.9 percent in 2016 to 26.8 percent in 2024.

However, there have been slight fluctuations between 2022 and 2024, with a decline of 0.5 percentage points. The percentage of women in senior leadership roles has increased from 16.6 percent in 2016 to 18.7 percent in 2023 but has dipped slightly to 18.3 percent in 2024, which may correct by the end of the year.

A report ‘Women in Leadership in Corporate India’, launched by LinkedIn and New Delhi-based public policy consulting firm, The Quantum Hub (TQH), is based on the data that is self-reported by over 1 billion LinkedIn members, covering trends from 68 million companies, 1.35 lakh, and 41,000 skills globally.

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“While the percentage of women hasn’t seen a significant growth, the overall number of women in corporate roles has increased due to various initiatives by companies. The challenges lie on both the demand and supply sides. On the demand side, biases in hiring for leadership positions persist…on the supply side, despite diversity policies, companies often struggle to find appropriate candidates from a smaller talent pool,” Aditi Jha, Board Member, Country Head of Legal & Government Affairs at LinkedIn India, told Moneycontrol.

Leadership positions

The challenge of advancing women's leadership in Indian organisations is evident, despite relatively strong female representation at the entry level, at 28.7 percent, and senior independent contributor levels, at 29.53 percent.

There is a significant drop as women advance to managerial positions at 18.59 percent, followed by a continuous decline in female representation in leadership positions, with 20.1 percent in director roles, 17.4 percent in Vice President roles and 15.3 percent in C-suite positions.

To be sure, women in senior leadership roles include women holding Director, Vice President (VP), C-suite or Partner positions.

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On the possible reason behind women having more representation in directorial roles, compared to managerial positions, Aparajita Bharti, co-founder at TQH, hinted at the Companies Act, 2013, which mandates the presence of at least one woman director on the governing board of listed companies.

“This reform has been lauded for its significant contribution in improving women’s representation in corporate decision-making positions ... however, for women at managerial positions, currently we do not have any such provisions,” she said.

Nevertheless, there is an encouraging trend in leadership hires. Over the past nine years, female leadership hires have increased from 18.8 percent in 2016 to 25.2 percent in 2021 and approximately 23.2 percent, as of January 2024.

Sectors in favour of women

Industries such as 'Education', at 30 percent, and 'Government Administration' at 29 percent, have the highest representation of women in leadership roles, followed by 'Administrative and Support Services' and 'Hospitals' and 'Healthcare', each with 23 percent. Sectors like 'Technology', 'Information', 'Media and Financial Services' each have moderate female representation in leadership at 19 percent.

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The lowest representation is found in 'Construction', and 'Oil, Gas, Mining, and Utilities', each with 11 percent female representation in leadership, while 'Wholesale and Manufacturing' have 12 percent, and 'Accommodation and Food Services' have 15 percent.