India must act now to bridge the workplace gender divide

Over 75% of organizations reported that gender diversity is a CEO priority. (Image used for representational purpose)

By Vivek Pandit and Sarah Gitlin 

It is no surprise to most that women’s progression to C-suite roles in India – women represent 17% such roles today – has often been elusive; the path to change may now be within reach. Recent McKinsey research draws on a survey of private sector companies, across consumer goods, pharmaceuticals, construction, financial and IT services among other sectors, having a combined workforce of nearly nine lakh in India, to evaluate the current state of women’s representation across levels, and highlight where the most significant barriers lie and how they can potentially be overcome.

There is now greater clarity on where the most significant drop-offs occur: women’s representation starts low – despite constituting almost half of all university students in India, women hold just 33% of entry-level positions on average, and drops sharply from entry-level to managerial roles – where women hold 24% of the positions. In India, 9.4% of entry-level men are promoted in a given year, versus 4% of women. Furthermore, at the entry level women are 1.3 times more likely than men to leave their roles. Women’s representation starting low, being less likely to be promoted to managerial roles and experiencing higher rates of attrition compared with men, creates a gender disparity in workforce progression.

Beyond the manager level, women’s representation takes a moderately positive turn for the women who remain: from 24% at manager level, women’s representation tapers to 17% at the C-suite level, a markedly slower decline than when transitioning from the entry level to manager level.

To correct this imbalance companies are taking action. In the survey, over 75% of organizations reported that gender diversity is a CEO priority, over 80% had at least 25 policies intended to drive better outcomes for women, 96% had at least one policy each to increase safety and security – such as anonymized grievance reporting, and to reduce bias – such as a clear and consistently applied evaluation criteria for each role. While important and worthwhile, such policies are ‘baseline expectations’ of a modern workplace. ‘Baseline policies’ focus on making the workplace less biased or hostile, helping employees stay – and can go further in enabling them to advance and thrive.

Organizations who aspire to improve gender diversity across levels may be ready to start thinking about ‘differentiator policies’ related to mentorship and sponsorship, flexible work, and family and personal care that demonstrate beneficial outcomes for women in terms of their progression.

Informal mentorship, such as senior leaders – who are men – seeing a bit of themselves in the more junior men and lending a helping hand, has tended to help men as men outnumber women in senior roles, women in senior positions frequently cited the impact of company-supported mentorship and sponsorship in advancing their careers. Flexibility – enabling employees to work when, where, and how they work best – is the employer benefit that women have found most impactful in their ability to join, remain, and advance with their employer. Family and personal care policies support caregivers – women tend to spend more time as caregivers to their children and the elderly – to balance work, care responsibilities and personal needs by offering them support or services, like daycare centers.

The right interventions will differ by sector and individual company – in the legal sector, for example, contrary to nation-wide averages, women’s representation remains robust through the junior (51%) and mid-level roles up to C-suite (32%); in the financial sector, it is 31% at entry level and falls to 13% at C-suite; by contrast, in the pharmaceutical sector, women make up 11% of entry level roles and 13% of the C-suite roles.

By pinpointing where the pipeline issues lie, organizations can determine if the challenges are related to attraction, retention, or promotion – and at what specific levels, allowing them to craft targeted strategies for improvement. If internal diagnostics are not feasible, employers can use the country-level and sector specific insights as a proxy to identify priority areas.

Some companies in the survey had several ‘differentiator policies’ in place and were still stalled on progress. A deeper look indicates that success requires effective implementation: while two-thirds of the companies surveyed track gender inclusion metrics, only 15% of Boards have established accountability mechanisms for such metrics for each level of seniority.

Implementation of gender diversity policies must work well for the most junior employees, those at greatest risk of falling behind. Organizations could benefit from taking a moment to assess whether their time, effort, and resources for gender diversity are being directed toward the right areas. By doing so, they can potentially transform their commitments into meaningful change.

(Vivek Pandit is a senior partner in the Mumbai office and Sarah Gitlin, a partner in the Washington DC office of McKinsey & Company.)

Views are personal and do not represent the stand of this publication.