Less than 4 p.c. women become senior managers in India: report

Asian average is 11 p.c., says McKinsey India

A report released by management consultancy firm, McKinsey India, claimed that the representation of women in the senior management level in India is considerably less than the Asian average.

While in Asia, the average is around 11 per cent, in India only about four per cent of women make it to the highest echelons of the corporate world.

“In India, [in the corporate sector] the number of women at the entry level is 25 per cent and in the mid-level management it comes down to 16 per cent. In the senior level, it decreases further to four per cent,” said Sahana Sarma, the chief of McKinsey & Company, which prepared the report.

She was speaking at an event in the city on Thursday.

Ms. Sarma pointed out that in Asian countries there is a sharp drop in the number of women corporate executives when they enter the senior management level from the middle management level.

“In most of the Asian countries there is a 20-30 per cent drop [in number of women executives] at the senior management level,” she said.

As for the reason of such a sharp decrease in the senior management, Ms. Sarma said that the women were “most vulnerable at this point of their career” as they go through several changes such as marriage and maternity.

She also said that in a survey conducted by her organisation among women corporate employees in Asia, 43 per cent of them said their employers did not have the effective initiatives in place for promoting and developing women employees.

“Double burden”

Ms. Sarma also pointed out that the survey had revealed the “double burden syndrome” or the difficulty in facing the pressure of both family and society as another key reason for fewer women being in senior corporate posts. “The challenges are manifold and to tackle them more awareness and proper policy framing are needed,” she said.