Women may be getting more college degrees than men for the past 30 years, but they remain underrepresented at every level in corporate .Women are sorely outnumbered in senior leadership as well. 

According to a 2017 World Bank report India ranked 120 out of 131 countries when it came to female participation in the workforce.

Companies report that they are highly committed to gender diversity. But that commitment has not translated into meaningful progress .  Progress isn’t just slow. It’s stalled.

Though companies are taking conscious steps to retain women employees and having more women in leadership roles, the country has seen little progress in the matter. India Inc is working hard to improve the gender diversity equation, especially at the top deck. Conglomerates such as Mahindra & Mahindra and Vedanta and ecommerce companies like Droom, among others, are seeking women to fill leadership roles.

While gender parity is distant, some progress can be reported 

‘Shift in the Needle’ 

Vedanta is looking to increase the representation of women in its workforce to 30% by end 2020 from about 11% at present. Roles earmarked for women at Vedanta are primarily in areas such as in HR, finance and other enabling functions, besides those based in metros. “We tend to choose roles where talent is available, and location is not a problem,” said Srivastava. 

These initiatives are percolating to the mid-level as well, said Srivastava, citi .. 

Santrupt Misra, director, group HR at the Aditya Birla Group, said the conglomerate was not in favour of setting targets or earmarking roles for women since that runs the risk of pandering to gender stereotypes. However, the group that has 14% women in its management cadre and 3% in its senior leadership, is constantly looking at strategies to remove roadblocks for women and create a more facilitatory framework for them. 
 

Earlier, it was about ‘We prefer a woman’.

Now   'We want a woman only’ has started 

Sarla S

Pioneer Management Consultant  Pvt Ltd

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