'About 85% men board members feel women are equally qualified'

Most men agree that their women counterparts are enough capable, but there is still a dearth of women leaders in boardrooms, a KPMG survey today said.
"According to our survey, while 85 per cent men feel women are capable enough and contribute equally to boardroom discussions, we still see a dearth of women leaders in boardrooms beyond the regulatory mandate. While the mandate has given women a voice in the boardroom, we still have a long way to go for a truly gender-balanced board," said KPMG India Partner, Governance Risk and Compliance Services Pankaj Arora.
The need to comply seemed to be a stronger motivation than the belief that diversity adds value, as more than half the respondents indicated that companies are hiring women directors primarily to comply with the regulatory mandate.

Only a third of the respondents agreed that the regulation should have specified that the appointed women directors have to be independent, the survey revealed.
The survey was conducted among corporate directors and independent directors.
As much as 89 per cent of the women respondents considered 'expertise in a particular domain' as a pre-requisite for their board membership. Only half of these women identified 'business contacts and networks' as a pre-requisite.

About 86 per cent of respondents indicated that companies leverage internal networks to hire new directors, and women with strong professional networks tend to have an advantage.
Most respondents agreed that women improve the board dynamics by creating a positive environment (68 per cent) and are better at providing inputs in a constructive manner (51 per cent), which helps in decision making.

"...Decision making in boardrooms has become complex and dynamic. The need of the hour is a diverse set of board members to lend it balance and mix of skillsets. While the legislation has played a significant part in institutionalising it, lot more needs to be done to ensure substance over form," KPMG India Partner and Head Risk Consulting, Mritunjay Kapur, said.