Women In Business: 36 Per Cent Senior Positions Held By Women In India’s Mid-Market Businesses, Says Report

With 36 per cent of women in leadership roles, India is ahead of the current global (32 per cent), BRIC (34 per cent), and G7 (30 per cent) averages, the report said

In India’s mid-market businesses, nearly 36 per cent of senior management positions are now held by women compared to 32 per cent globally, according to the latest report published by Grant Thornton. However, the report also reveals that globally 9 per cent of such businesses still have no women in senior leadership roles globally. 

While in India 5 per cent of mid-market businesses still don’t have any women in senior leadership roles. 

Grant Thornton’s International Business Report on ‘Women in Business 2023 is published by Grant Thornton after around 5,000 interviews and surveys conducted between October and December 2022 with chief executive officers, managing directors, chairs, and other senior decision-makers from all industry sectors in mid-market businesses in 28 countries. In India, the firm surveyed approx. 281 mid-market businesses.

According to the report, all regions (Africa, APAC, ASEAN, Latin America, North America, and the EU) surpassed the 30 per cent figure for women in senior management for the first time.

The ASEAN region experienced the most significant percentage points rise among the regions, increasing from 37 per cent to reach 40 per cent mark. APAC’s increase to 32 per cent, from 30 per cent in 2022, places it ahead of North America for the first time since 2018 and North America was the only region to experience a dip, from 33 per cent to 31 per cent. 

With 36 per cent of women in leadership roles, India is ahead of the current global (32 per cent), BRIC (34 per cent), and G7 (30 per cent) averages, the report said. 

Pallavi Bakhru, Partner, Grant Thornton Bharat said, “As we continue to strive for gender parity in the workplace, it is encouraging to see progress in the representation of women in senior leadership positions. To push for better parity, businesses must adopt a hybrid or flexible approach, create a supportive and understanding culture, and focus on employee well-being and mentoring programmes that support women. Working towards improving diversity, especially at senior levels, is not only the responsible thing to do but also the right thing to do commercially. It is a proven driver of performance.”

This also gave an insight into the working modal of businesses. It showed that businesses that offer hybrid, flexible, or home working outperform when it comes to women in senior management. 

Globally, 36 per cent of mid-market businesses are now working purely office-based, and 53 per cent have a hybrid approach. 

In India, 62 per cent of such businesses are adopting a hybrid model, 27 per cent are still primarily office based, 5 per cent of staff is permanently home-based and 5 per cent have a fully flexible schedule and choice to choose where to work from, the report said. 

This year there was also an increase in the percentage of women occupying the chief executive officer (CEO), managing director (MD), and chief information officer (CIO) positions. 

In 2019, just 15 per cent of businesses had a female CEO/MD. Now, that number is 28 per cent, on a global level.