Boardroom diversity progressing at snail’s pace: Deloitte report

Unequal equals

A report by Deloitte shows that India is making little progress at including women in the board.

The seventh edition of Deloitte Global’s Women in the boardroom report revealed that women hold 17.1 per cent of the board seats in India. This number rose by 9.4 per cent from the 2014 edition − the year the government mandated through the Companies Act, 2013 that companies should have at least one woman member on every board.

To make things worse, only 3.6 per cent of the board chairs in India are women, down by 0.9 per cent since 2018.

“While the Indian regulators have set up a holistic framework to encourage the representation of women in key positions at corporations, the numbers suggest a significant gap between the ideated measures and ground realities,” Deloitte India Chairperson Atul Dhawan said.

Also read: Government sports facilities in Karnataka's lack gender parity: Study

The need for change is immediate.

“With the continuing disruption and the current pace of change, the case for diverse boards that work with a unified purpose is becoming stronger than it ever was. It is time that gender diversity and gender parity get more focused attention from Indian corporations,” Dhawan added.

Globally, 19.7 per cent of the board seats are held by women, an increase of 2.8 per cent since 2018 compared with 1.9 per cent over 2016−2018. At this pace, the world could expect to reach near-parity only in 2045, Deloitte predicted.

Austria, Canada, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Spain, the UK, and the US saw the most notable increases, the report noted.

Only 6.7 per cent of board chairs are women, with even fewer women holding the Chief Executive Office (CEO) role, at just 5 per cent, the report showed.

Although India saw a decline in board chairs held by women in 2021, it witnessed an increase in the number of women taking up CEO roles − 4.7 per cent female CEOs against 3.4 per cent reported in 2018.

Deloitte research showed a positive correlation between appointing a female CEO and board diversity.

Globally, companies with
women CEOs or chairs have significantly more women on their boards than those run by men. Gender-diverse boards are also more likely to appoint a female CEO and board chair, Deloitte’s report said.

Deloitte Partner Sachin Pranjape, who authored the report, told DH that at the rate India was progressing, women would hold 30 per cent of the board seats in India after a decade.

“Our last report said that we would reach parity only by 2050, now we have revised it to 2045.This is a good sign. We are better compared to other Asian companies in our progress. We just need to keep at it to achieve our targets,” Pranjape said.

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