The representation of women falls drastically as one moves up the corporate ladder, a report by PRIME Database shows. From 23% employees being women, the share of women dwindles down as we go up the hierarchy to 13% of Key Management Personnel (KMPs), 10% executive directors (EDs) and just 5% Managing Directors (MDs)/Chief Executive Officers (CEOs), showcasing the leaky bucket phenomena, says the report.
Women hold just 480 out of the 4,828 executive directorship positions, up marginally from 8% as on 31st March 2020. Just 5%, or 103 out of the 2,133 companies, have a woman MD/CEO, with barely any improvement over the last 5 years. There are 115 women MD/CEOs in these 103 companies of which 77 (or 67%) are from the promoter group itself showcasing the lack of “outside professional” women at the very top.
Outside professional executive women directors (non-promoters), as a whole, hold just 163 out of 2,344 such directorship positions (or 7%). Only 6%, or 123 out of the 2,133 companies, have a woman chairing the board. 57 out of these 123 chairpersons (or 46 per cent) are from the promoter group (Table 10).
