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

“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.