Let more women rise to the top

We welcome the appointment of Arundhati Bhattacharya, the first woman to steer the country’s largest lender, the State Bank of India. She joins other women heading public and private sector banks in India, all of whom have been chosen on merit and performance, and not because of their gender.

But in sectors other than banking, there is a dearth of women in the senior-most positions. Which is strange and calls out to be remedied. We do not need a quota on company board seats for women. That would be patronising. What corporate India needs is awareness that there is something called a glass ceiling for women, probably right there in its own house.

Other things being equal, gender should not come in the way of women’s progress to leadership roles. Rightly, Twitter is now under attack, for lack of diversity, being the only tech powerhouse without a female board member. And what drives home the difference is the fact that there are more women than men using Twitter.

Facebook came under similar attack ahead of its IPO, but named a woman director shortly after the public offering. Google, Apple, Microsoft, LinkedIn, Amazon and eBay, all have at least one woman elected to their boards. Surely, diversity improves the quality of decision-making. Research has shown that having women on boards provides genuine value addition to decision-making.

In India, women are less than 5% of the board members. The corresponding figure is 15% in the US and 12% in the UK. Norway has a law mandating 40% of board seats for women. Spain and France are expected to achieve a similar target by 2015 and 2016 respectively.

We have a distance to go, especially in the larger society, whose attitudes determine how women are viewed and valued, including in corporate life.