Percentage of women in senior management falling since 2021: Grant Thornton

The percentage of Indian women in senior management positions in mid-market companies, with revenue between $10 million and $1 billion, has been declining since 2021, a report released on Thursday said.

According to Grant Thornton's "Women in Business Report 2024", currently, 34 per cent of women in these Indian businesses have senior management posts. In 2023, it was 36 per cent.

In 2021 and 2022, this percentage was 39 per cent and 38 per cent, respectively.

However, this is considerably higher than 12 per cent in 2004.

The dip was attributed to the "evolving landscape of work models across industries".

"Less flexibility in work models, such as the drop observed in India's figure for 2024, may have contributed to fluctuations in women's representation," it said.

The report highlighted that businesses offering a hybrid model have decreased to 56.5 per cent in 2024 from 62.3 per cent in 2023.

And those asking employees to return to the office have increased to 34.7 per cent in 2024 from 27.4 per cent in 2023.

Staff working out of their homes has also significantly dipped to 1.8 per cent in 2024 from 5.3 per cent in 2023.

However, the report said that the percentage of women in senior roles is higher in India than the global average of 22 per cent.

It topped the global average in 2020 and has stayed above it since then.

Among all the roles, the highest percentage of women are in the role of chief finance officer (40 per cent), followed by human resource director (38 per cent) and chief executive officer/managing director (34 per cent).

The report added that adopting hybrid models that offer a blend of on-site and remote working could help address the declining trend.

"The need of the hour is to prioritise a people-first culture that empowers employees in their personal and professional lives, allows them to work flexibly, and inspires trust and accountability," said Satya Jha, chief business officer at Grant Thornton Bharat.