Women hold only 17.1 percent of the boardroom seats in Indian companies

Mar 8, 2022

By: Vaamanaa Sethi

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Women in leadership roles remains low

Deloitte’s Women in the Boardroom report reveals that females hold only 17.1 percent of the board seats in Indian companies.

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Companies Act 2013

This number has definitely increased by 9.4 percent since 2014, as the Companies Act 2013 mandated having one woman member on every board.

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Global percentage

Globally, 19.7 percent of the board seats are held by women, an increase of 2.8 percent since 2018 compared with 1.9 percent over 2016−2018.

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Women still out of top leadership positions

More women are involved in the job market, however, it doesn’t mean they are reaching top leadership positions. The percentage of female board chairs, which was 6.7 percent in 2021, is still comparatively low in India.

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Women CEOs are still a rare breed

Women at chief executive officer (CEO) positions are rare to be seen in Indian companies. However, the percentage of female CEOs increased to 5 percent in 2021 from 4.4 percent in 2020.

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Tenure of women directors in India

In India, the average tenure of women directors marginally increased from 5.0 years in 2018 to 5.1 years in 2021.

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Tenure of women directors globally

Globally, the number has gone down from 5.5 years in 2018 to 5.1 years in 2021, especially in markets, such as the US (from 6.3 years in 2018 to 5.3 years in 2021), the UK (4.1 years to 3.6 years in 2021), and Canada (5.7 years to 5.2 years).

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France, Norway tops the list

According to the Deloitte report, France tops the list of number of women in the boardroom with 43.2 percent, followed by Norway (42.4 percent) and Italy (36.6).

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Qatar, Saudi Arabia at the bottom

Qatar at the bottom of the list of number of women in the boardroom with just 1.2 percent, followed by Saudi Arabia (1.7 percent), and Kuwait (4 percent).

Credit: Pixabay

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