Directorship: Is it Gender Neutral?
Neha Shah
21 Mar 2023
Its becoming harder than ever to argue there are not enough experienced women to be a chief executive or chair.
Its becoming harder than ever to argue there are not enough experienced women to be a chief executive or chair. So the battle for corporate gender equality is about to take an interesting turn. At the Women Directors Conclave hosted by MentorMyBoard on September 16th, 2022 our Finance Minister Smt Nirmala Sitharamanji referring to Women Directorships in India quoted that ‘We as Women need to be the part of the system to change it.’
Progress has come via voluntary action rather than the quotas that countries such as France and Norway have introduced. Wilson’s report ranks the UK second only to France in female boardroom representation, and just ahead of Norway.
Where is India?
We do have some trendsetters but we still lack behind when it comes to Inclusion of Women Directors across industry. Only 17.1% representation on Board Positions is currently held by Women. Apollo Hospital a trendsetter in Healthcare with 57% women directors (including women promoters) and Zomato in the startup space (not a Nifty100) with 50 % board women have shown remarkable Women Representation.
62 out of 100 Nifty Board Companies have a mandatory women Director and 32 have 2 Women Directors
Breaking the records won’t happen easily and overnight because the blocks to female advancement are not always straightforward. Some clear ways to increase the inclusivity of Women Directors are:
- If every male independent director recommends a capable woman and vice versa, it will rapidly lead to more representative boards and retain gender parity in the long term
- Women get in the Boardrooms with their percpectives and are clear on the conditions on which they want to come in
- Rethinking the ways in which Women need to be included, etc
- Having a pipeline of female executives concentrated in marketing or HR roles.
Women belong in all places where decisions are being made or work being done. It shouldn't be that women are the exception.
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