Women’s representation in India Inc remains stable: Avtar-Seramount study

Workplace culture consulting company Avtar on Wednesday announced findings from the 9th edition of its ‘Best companies for women in India (BCWI)’ listing.

According to a press release, the 2024 Avtar & Seramount findings established that average women representation across industries today is at 36.6%, and close to 40% at entry level. Sectors like professional services are close to gender balance with 46% of employees being women, while manufacturing reported a gender ratio of 20%, an indication of intensifying efforts.

The 2024 annual listing dives deep to provide an industry-wise listing for the first time, establishing the IT industry as the single largest employer of women, with 24% companies in the listing, Banking and financial services follow with a distant 11%, and close to 20 other sectors ranging across manufacturing, healthcare, media and entertainment, and hospitality trail, with fewer companies featuring on the list, it added.

This year’s listing also includes the category of “Best Companies for Women in India- Emerging Icon”, which features organisations with 100-500 employees in their Indian operations, where 33% of the workforce comprises women and the gender ratio at the leadership level is at an encouraging 26%.

Avtar also released the sixth edition of its annual ‘Most Inclusive Companies Index’ (MICI), wherein from 58% companies focusing on People with Disabilities (PwDs) in 2019, the number has risen significantly, to 98% of companies focusing on building inclusive work environments for PwDs.

This year, BWCI received 361 applications from organisations from industries ranging from automotive, chemical, ecommerce, hospitality, healthcare, to IT, real estate, science & engineering, and telecommunication and utilities, among others.

The Top Companies and Best Companies for Women in India were chosen based on their efforts towards gender inclusion, as represented in their applications. The Emerging Icons had 52 companies applying to participate, of which the winning list features 10 companies.

The companies that feature in MICI together employ 7,427 people with disabilities. The champions of inclusion together employ 4,652 people with disabilities, while the exemplars have over 2,275 PwD employees working for them.

2024 Avtar & Seramount Top Companies for Women in India (listed A-Z, alphabetically)

• Accenture Solutions Private Limited

• AXA XL India Business Services Pvt. Ltd.

• Barclays in India

• Cairn Oil and Gas, Vedanta Limited

• Citibank

• IBM India Private Limited

• KPMG in India

• Lear Corporation

• Tech Mahindra Limited

2024 Avtar & Seramount Champions of Inclusion – Most Inclusive Companies Index. (listed A-Z, alphabetically)

• Accenture Solutions Private Limited

• AXA XL India Business Services Pvt. Ltd.

• Citibank

• IBM India Private Limited

• Infosys Limited

• KPMG in India

• Midland Credit Management India Private Limited

• Target Corporation India Pvt. Ltd.

• Tech Mahindra Limited

"We are at a unique, paradox and juncture in India today with respect to women's participation in the workforce; we have made significant progress in many areas such as the sheer volume of the women workforce, the facilities and flexibilities provided and the benefits to name a few but yet far behind in leveraging the opportunity - of enabling women in leadership positions, of ensuring rise in women participation and distribution across sectors and needless to emphasise women's safety and well-being at the workplace so that they are encouraged to stay and grow,” Dr Saundarya Rajesh, Founder and President, Avtar, said.

“Most Inclusive Companies Index helps companies in India focus their efforts to understand gaps and provide specific strategies, programs, tools, and resources to help raise the standard on DEI strategies for under-represented talent including gender, LGBTQ+, PWD, and different generations.” said Subha Barry, President of Seramount.