Download Fortune India-SPJIMR Whitepaper here.
India Inc. has examples galore of companies and boards shying away from hiring women leaders. Will the woman leader be willing to relocate or travel? Will she be able to balance her job along with her caregiving responsibilities? Will she be committed to the role? Is it fair to give women P&L roles? Even more interestingly, often the male seniors/colleagues take a negative decision on behalf of the female colleague even without asking her preference: “She won’t leave this city” or “She won’t be interested in this promotion”. These are some of the biases deeply ingrained in the minds of the male-dominated decision-makers of corporate India. No wonder barely 1.6% of the Fortune 500 companies in India have women MDs and CEOs. In The Next 500, a ranking of emerging companies, the number is higher at 5%. Overall, for the Fortune 1000 India companies, only 3.2% are led by women MD/CEOs.
The Fortune India-SPJIMR study on ‘Enhancing Women Leadership In India Inc.’ brings to the fore not just the challenges of having a fair representation of women leaders, but also suggests ACTIONABLE SOLUTIONS to the problem after extensive discussions with leaders of corporate India as well as potential women leaders.
