Only 19% of C-Suite Roles in India Are Held by Women: Why Gender Gaps Persist

Work-life integration was highlighted as the major reason why women fail to enter and excel in such roles, according to the Avtar report. 60% of respondents pointed to this.

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Gender Bias Continues to Be A Problem

Gender bias in key processes like hiring and promotions remains a major barrier, with 44% of respondents acknowledging it as a major challenge. Additionally, 41% of respondents also pointed to how they’ve witnessed a lack of qualified female candidates for leadership positions as another significant obstacle.

Another study from 2024, by McKinsey and Company, highlighted that the hiring gap and representation ratio are skewed at every level. From entry-level roles, to higher up, the report highlighted that men outnumber women at every level.

The report also added that promotions also reflect a gender gap. In 2018, for every 100 men who earned their first promotion to manager, only 79 women achieved the same. In 2024, the figure had only slightly improved to 81 women. This “broken rung” in the corporate ladder results in men significantly outnumbering women at the managerial level, creating substantial challenges for organizations in fostering consistent progress toward gender diversity in higher leadership positions.

In the report by Avtar, women highlighted that the office culture too plays a role in keeping women in leadership roles.

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Targeted Initiatives Needed to Bridge the Gender Gap

To tackle the overall underrepresentation, companies need targeted and customised strategies.

To overcome the largest obstacle, the lack of work-life integration, organisations have to prioritise building an environment that fosters women’s long-term career development.

Another persistent concerning trend is the increasing attrition rate among women in senior leadership roles, which jumped from 4% in 2019 to 10% in 2020. This was primarily due to the pandemic's impact on women's careers. While there was a brief recovery, the attrition rate climbed back to 10% in 2022, highlighting that there continue to exist challenges in retaining women in leadership positions.

“Our research reveals that multiple factors continue to limit the advancement of women to the C-suite. Given the systemic barriers that affect women in India more acutely, an effective approach to bridge the gender gap is through targeted diversity-driven executive searches. These searches offer customised and comprehensive strategies to ensure an equitable recruitment and advancement process,” Saundarya Rajesh, Founder-President of the Avtar Group, told the Times of India.