Gender equality in Indian boardrooms? Hah!

Some cracks may have appeared on the glass ceiling, but it is still a long way from being smashed to bits.

Consider that despite an encouraging male-female ratio in the corporate workforce, the number of women steadily declines on the upper steps of an organisational ladder — very few make it to company boardrooms, according to a study conducted by Cranfield University, School of Management, UK, and Community Business, an NGO that advises CSR cells of international organisations and is sponsored by the Standard Chartered Bank.

The study shows that out of 1,112 directors of BSE-100 companies, only 59 (5.3%) are women and, of the 100 companies, 54 have no women directors.

Interestingly, among the women who do make it to the board, the proportion of executive directors — who are most likely to rise internally (2.5%) — is smaller than non-executive ones (6.5%), that is those who have no previous working history in the organisation.

It is seen that women who have achieved executive positions took twice as long as their male counterparts to get there, indicating either an element of bias in promotion or mid-career breaks. Compare this to the non-executive directors. 

Of the 182 appointments made to the boards of BSE-100 in the 12 months preceding May, only nine were women, of whom just three had worked with the organisation for a considerable time.

“At this rate, and given the uncharacteristically long tenures of people in Indian boards, it will take more than 50 years to reach any sort of gender parity in the boardroom,” said Dr Ruth Sealy, senior research fellow, Cranfield School of Management and co-researcher in the study.