GCCs lead in diversity with 28% women in workforce: Report

Global Capability Centres (GCC) are leading the charge for a diverse workforce with 28 per cent women in their workforce, according to a report by Pure Storage in association with Zinnov. The report also highlighted challenges in achieving gender parity within deeptech organisations, where gender diversity currently stands at 23 per cent.

Further, the report stated that Bengaluru leads in diversity representation among tier-1 cities in India, with 31.4 per cent in GCCs and 14 per cent in deeptech. Titled, ‘Towards a Gender Equitable World: Unveiling Diversity in DeepTech,’ it highlighted the need for greater focus on university enrolment in STEM courses and workplace retention to address the low representation of women in the deeptech sector. 

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As per the findings, the median representation of women graduates from top engineering universities stood at 25 per cent between 2020 and 2023, which directly affected the inflow of women candidates in GCCs, especially in the deeptech sector. Despite this disparity in women’s representation, women graduates consistently outperformed in securing placements compared to the overall average in those universities.

With 6.7 per cent of women in the executive level in GCCs and 5.1 per cent in deeptech organisations, the report found that there is a considerable decrease in the available talent pool of women as they move up their careers. This was primarily attributed to family and caregiving responsibilities, biases in the workplace, limited access to career advancement and leadership opportunities, pay disparity and poor work-life balance.

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“While India proudly leads in the number of women STEM graduates globally, their underrepresentation in the deeptech workforce stems from systemic barriers hindering their education and career advancement,” said Ajeya Motaganahalli, VP Engineering and Managing Director, India R&D, Pure Storage. “To unlock the full potential of our talent pool, we need to take a comprehensive approach, including strategic actions to increase the enrollment of women in leading technological institutions and retaining them in the workforce,” he added. 

“Advancement in any industry is stagnant without equity. Interventions to solve the talent pipeline issue and create work environments enabling women to thrive have become an urgent necessity. Initiatives like leadership development programs, returnship opportunities, and flexible work arrangements introduced by Global Capability Centres (GCCs) are a positive start, but true progress demands unwavering commitment and consistency from the entire ecosystem,” said Karthik Padmanabhan, Managing Partner, Zinnov.

(Reported by bl intern Vidushi Nautiyal)

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