Women as board members increasing at sluggish rate in India and globally: Report
Globally, the report revealed that companies led by women at the executive or board levels tend to have the most diverse and gender-balanced board (33.5 percent) than those led by men (19.4 percent).
While Indian women are climbing the corporate ladder to become board members, the progress has been frustratingly slow. Deloitte Global's Women in the boardroom report published on Tuesday revealed that only 17.1 percent of the board seats in India are held by women, increasing at a sluggish rate from 9.4 percent in 2014.
The report further shows that while only 3.6 percent of the board chairs are women — which has gone down by 0.9 percent from 2018, more women (4.7 percent) have taken charge as CEO — up from 3.4 percent reported in the same period.
An average 19.7 percent of women are on company boards globally, recording a mere 2.8 percent increase compared to 2019.
If the current rate of change persists every two years, it is expected to reach ‘something near parity’ at the leadership level globally in 2045.
“While this is still unacceptably slow, we can find some optimism in the slight acceleration in the pace of change. Our last report showed parity being reached by 2052 — a milestone that has now been reduced by nearly a decade,” the report states.
Notably, companies led by women at the executive or board levels tend to have the most diverse and gender-balanced board (33.5 percent) than those led by men (19.4 percent).
Deloitte India Chair Atul Dhawan said, “While the Indian regulators have set up a holistic framework to encourage the representation of women in key positions at corporates, the numbers suggest a significant gap between the ideated measures and ground realities…It is time that gender diversity and gender parity get more focused attention from Indian corporations.”
In India, the Companies Act of 2013 mandates listed companies and other large public limited companies to have at least one woman on their boards, and in cases of a vacancy of board seat previously held by a female director, another woman must be appointed in its place within three months of the vacancy or by the company’s next board meeting.
Edited by Kanishk Singh