Banks sole bright spot in gender diversity report

Women hold only one in 20 board positions of the 100 largest companies listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Banks and financial institutions have proved to be the only ones in corporate India’s otherwise dismal gender diversity performance, according to a report published by Standard Chartered Bank.

The study, conducted in association with the Community Business and Cranfield School of Management, found that women hold only one in 20 board positions of the 100 largest companies listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).

Out of a total of 1,112 directorships on the BSE-100, only 59 were held by women. Less than half of the companies (only 46) have women on their boards — which means 54 companies have no female representation at all.

Banks were the bright spot in the report with nine of the 11 banks featuring in the BSE-100 having at least one woman director on their boards. ICICI Bank and Axis Bank, the country’s largest and third largest private sector lenders, have female CEOs.

“Corporate India clearly has some way to go in addressing gender diversity imbalances at the board level,” said Aparna Banerji, co-author of the report.

JSW Steel was the most gender-diverse board, with three women among its 13-member board. Oracle Financial Services came next with two women on its 19-member board. At the bottom of the pile is Jaiprakash Associates with no women members on its 19-member board.

Blue-chip companies, such as Reliance Industries, Tata Motors and Tata Steel, also have no woman representative on its board. The report found that female directors on an average are almost five years younger than their male counterparts (55.6 years compared to 60.3 years).

Women holding office of executive directors were employed with the organisation twice as long of their male counterparts.