Women remain under-represented at India Inc: Prime Database study

Women form 23% of employees in listed firms but only 5% of CEOs or MDs, highlighting a steep drop in representation as one moves up the corporate hierarchy

Women continue to be under-represented at the top of corporate India, even though their presence has improved at the board level following regulatory interventions, according to a Prime Database Group report released on the eve of International Women’s Day.

 

The study by Primeinfobase.com shows that while women account for 23 per cent of employees in listed companies, their representation declines sharply higher up the corporate hierarchy — a trend described as the “leaky bucket” phenomenon.

 

Women make up 14 per cent of key managerial personnel (KMPs), 10 per cent of executive directors, and only 5 per cent of managing directors or chief executive officers, the report said.

   

“There is still a long journey ahead with little changing in the last one year,” said Pranav Haldea, managing director, Prime Database Group. He added that companies need supportive policies to ensure women do not drop out mid-career due to childcare and other caregiving responsibilities.

 

Nearly all listed companies now have at least one woman on their boards. As of February 23, 98 per cent of the 2,285 companies listed on the NSE main board had at least one woman director, up from 97 per cent last year. Of the 48 companies without a woman director, 20 are public sector undertakings.

 

Overall, 2,898 women hold 3,738 directorships, accounting for 21 per cent of board positions, compared with 18 per cent in 2021 and just 5 per cent in 2014 when regulators first mandated the appointment of at least one woman director.

 

According to Haldea, the improvement highlights the impact of regulation, though the pace of increase has slowed after companies met the minimum requirement.

 

“Companies themselves are not seeing merit in gender diversity,” he said, adding that many firms initially complied with the rule by appointing women from promoter families or those close to promoters, diluting the intent of the reform.

 

At present, 47 per cent of companies have two or more women directors, up from 35 per cent in 2021. About 88 per cent of companies have at least one independent woman director, while 21 per cent now have two or more women independent directors.

 

Women account for 28 per cent of independent directorships, up from 17 per cent in 2018 before regulations required large listed firms to appoint at least one woman independent director.

 

However, the share of women in executive leadership remains significantly lower. Women hold 519 of the 5,179 executive directorships, or about 10 per cent, only slightly higher than 8 per cent in 2021.

 

Just 119 of the 2,285 companies — about 5 per cent — have a woman MD or CEO, with little improvement over the past five years. Of the 130 women MDs or CEOs across these firms, 69 per cent belong to promoter groups, highlighting the scarcity of outside professional women executives at the top, the report said.

 

Similarly, only 135 companies (6 per cent) have a woman chairing the board, and nearly half of these chairpersons are from promoter families.

 

Among non-promoter executive directorships, women occupy only 167 out of 2,424 positions, or 7 per cent, underscoring the limited presence of outside professional women leaders.

 

The report also highlighted a significant gender pay gap across corporate India.

 

The median remuneration of male executive directors was Rs 1.2 crore, about 74 per cent higher than Rs 69 lakh for women. Among non-promoter executive directors, the gap was wider, with men earning Rs 1.04 crore compared with Rs 43 lakh for women.

 

At the KMP level, the median remuneration for men was Rs 1.93 crore, about 77 per cent higher than Rs 1.1 crore for women.

 

Among employees, men earned 34 per cent more than women on average, while the gap widened to 86 per cent among workers.

 

An exception was among independent directors, where women earned marginally more than men, with a median remuneration of Rs 4.9 lakh compared with Rs 4.8 lakh for male counterparts.

 

Among employees, the information technology sector had the highest share of women at 34 per cent, while commodities and industrials recorded the lowest representation at 7 per cent.

 

The findings are based on data from all 2,285 companies listed on the NSE main board, while workforce data covers 1,213 companies that filed Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reports for FY25.