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Indian women seem to have a harder time than men when it comes to working their way to the top of the corporate ladder — the board of director.
A new study reveals that half the boards of Sensex companies do not have a woman director. And of the women who have managed to break into the boardroom, hardly any are in an executive role.
Globally, 9.8 per cent of directors in 2011 were women, with 58.3 per cent of companies having a female on the board.
India is ranked 38th in the world in terms of women representation on boards, with only 4.8 per cent of board seats occupied by them. Of the women directors, 50 per cent are independent directors.
The study, ‘Board Diversity in India’, conducted by The Institute of Public Enterprise, Hyderabad, notes that none of the boards of Sensex companies is led by a woman.
Age profile
What is more, most of the women directors are not only new entrants to the board but younger than their male counterparts.
Sensex companies’ boards consist of men with ages in the range 38-89 years, with an average age of 63. In contrast, women directors were aged 40-75 years, with the average age being 58.
Another interesting finding was that none of the women directors in the Sensex companies holds a doctorate, whereas 11 per cent of male directors were doctorates.
And 6 per cent of the women directors are undergraduates, which appears to be an outcome of the family-run business model for a number of India’s largest firms.
The report also suggested that Indian boards are yet to go global, with only 7 per cent of directors in listed companies being non-Indian.
The foreigners who have made it to the boards are highly qualified or have expertise that is directly related to the company business.
The study highlights the diversity in the tenure of directors in India.
While the average is 8.4 years, some have served as long as 48 years. Some 10 per cent of them are veterans with more than 20 years’ experience on the board.
>arvind.jayaram@thehindu.co.in
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