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The e-commerce sector may be revolutionising India’s retail story, but when it comes to women leaders, it lags behind other segments.
Several industry players BusinessLine spoke to say that only a tiny fraction — less than 1 per cent — of women make it to leadership roles in Internet start-ups, compared with 25-30 per cent in other sectors.
Only a handful of companies, including Shopclues, Zivame, Mydala, Shopify, Cashkaro.com and Local Banya, have women as co-founders or in key management positions.
Most of the roles are in marketing, human resources or administrative functions. Only a few are in tech-related or product-driven roles.
“It is a common perception that only men can perform when it comes to technology. None of the e-commerce start-ups has women leaders at the top,” says Megha Sudan, a senior software developer at online marketplace Shopclues.com, who wants to break the stereotype.
Radhika Agarwal, co-founder of Shopclues, is an engineer and leads the marketing division. Most ecommerce start-ups such as Flipkart, Myntra, Snapdeal and Jabong have female employees making up about 25 per cent of the workforce, but more than 80 per cent of this is in marketing or human resources roles.
‘Strictly no women’Udit Mittal, founder of recruitment firm Unison, which works mostly in the e-commerce sector, says that whenever he gets any mandate from e-commerce companies in tech roles, they specify that they do not want female candidates. Besides, women themselves do not opt for start-ups as maternity policies are not well-defined, he adds.
Adds Pooja Gupta, VP-HR at online fashion marketplace Myntra: “We are very focused on getting more women across functions. We also offer a host of facilities and benefits to help women, including flexible work arrangements and a tie-up with a childcare facility.
“We see women leaders contributing significantly to Myntra’s fashion strategy and are consciously trying to hire accomplished women from different domains.”
Myntra has 5,000-plus employees, with 18 women in management positions.
However, things are changing. A few start-ups are trying to hire more women. Fashion portal Jabong, for instance, is looking to recruit more eves and help them upgrade skills.
“I think e-commerce as an industry actually enables more women to succeed compared with other industries as the ecosystem is more entrepreneurial and creative ideas are rewarded,” says Swati Bhargava, co-founder of Cashkaro.com.
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