India ranks among lowest in women representation on boards

IPE Study finds that only 4.8% of board seats are occupied by women in the country

Globally, 9.8% of directors in 2011 are women and 58.3% of the companies have a female on board.

However, India is ranked 38th in the world in terms of women representation on boards, with only 4.8% of board seats being occupied by women, according to a study.

The study titled ‘Board diversity in India’, conducted by Hyderabad-based Institute of Public Enterprise (IPE), examined 375 directors across 30 boards. All the companies constituting the BSE Sensitive Index (Sensex) were covered in the study, authored by RK Mishra, director of PE, and Shital Jhunjhunwala, head (Centre for Corporate Governance), IPE.

“Half the boards do not have a woman director, and merely 3% of the boards have three female directors, with 44% of the boards having only one woman director each,” the study said.

On the passive role of women, the study said that women members were mostly (50%) independent directors, and that several of the female non-executive directors were family owners or government/institute nominees.

“Executive role is male dominated, and no board had a chairwoman. Only one board had a female chief executive officer,” it said.

The study observed that the average board life of male directors was three years more than female directors, while in the Netherlands and the UK the difference was only about one year.

The gap between the maximum board tenure of male and female directors is very large. 3% more female directors have been a director for less than one year, which clearly indicates that boards are just beginning to include female directors, the study noted.

According to the study, boards consist of men with a wide range of ages from 38-89 years, and an average age of 63. In comparison, the women age range is narrower, between 40-75 years, with the average age of 58.

“Women directors are on an average five years younger than their male counterparts. Till few years back, women were not likely to find themselves on boards or senior positions in companies, which is probably why there are less elderly women on boards,” the study said.

Stating that proponents of the 'glass ceiling' effect have always argued that women need to be more qualified than men to get the same job, the study said that in India, at least, that was not the case.

No woman director has a doctorate whereas 11% of male directors are doctorates. As much as 6% (against 1% male directors) of the women directors are undergraduates. This is the bequest of family-run businesses, it added.