Still difficult for women to break the glass ceiling

NEW DELHI: Until now, India Inc has only wooed men. Women seldom find themselves on board in the corporate sector. Save a few sparks such as Nokia’s recent nomination of ICICI Bank’s former MD Lalita Gupte as its independent director or HSBC’s Naina Lal Kidwai’s ascension to the Nestle board. In the same vein, strategic marketing consultant Rama Bijapurkar sits on the boards of Infosys, Titan, UTI Bank, Godrej Consumer Products and CRISIL. Similarly, former Infosys group HR head Hema Ravichander is an independent director on Marico’s board. They’re all women who’ve fought their way up on merit. But they’re just too few and far between.

Even as percentage of women executives in the workforce is rising – in new economy sectors like IT & ITES, in retail, it’s as high as 40% and in MNC banks, women executives are estimated to be around 58-59% - breaking the glass ceiling is still a far cry. “The argument that there are no qualified women does not hold merit,” says Reena Ramchandran, independent director, United Phosphorous. Companies just aren’t looking enough, she adds.

Globally, diversity – including gender diversity - on corporate boards has been a big issue as companies are waking up to the fact that women’s number in workforce and among customers has been rising. Over the last five years, the number of women-on-board of S&P 100 has gone up from 15% to 30%. At least, 30% of the Fortune 500 companies have at least one woman on their boards. “The worldwide trend is pretty clear...but perhaps these signals are not being picked up by a feudal India Inc,” says Poonam Barua, regional director, The Conference Board India.

Blame it on the hierarchy, says Rama Bijapurkar, who vehemently calls for more participation of women at the middle and senior tiers. “Call it a mid-level crisis, wherein women in middle management grapple with a range of issue extraneous to the workplace,” points out Ms Bijapurkar adding that once the pool (of women) in the middle is large, senior to top management progression will automatically follow. For HSBC India CEO Naina Lal Kidwai, it’s all a question of fair practices rather than the fair sex. “As Indian companies mature in understanding and adopting good practices, a higher ratio of women holding board-level positions will follow...For now, it is not something many companies have thought about, or done,” the former JM Morgan Stanley and ANZ Grindlays matriarch observes.