India ranked 12th in women member presence on companies’ board globally

PTI, Mar 8, 2020, 3:58 PM IST

Mumbai: With more and more organisations in the country realising the importance of gender parity, a recent study has revealed that India ranks 12th globally in women member presence on board.

According to a recent study on ‘Women On Board 2020’ by global recruitment tendering platform MyHiringClub.com and Sarkari-Naukri.info, India ranked 12th worldwide in women member presence on board.

This study was done online amongst 7,824 listed companies across 36 countries, including India.

In India, 628 listed employers participated in this study.

The study revealed that among these 628 listed companies, 55 per cent have women directors, which is 14 per cent higher than last year.

Overall, it found that women’s director on board percentage is 14.87 per cent, more than double compared to the last two years.

Among them, 29 per cent of the boards have two women directors, 63 per cent of these boards have only one woman director each, it said.

The average board life of male directors in India is three years, more than their women counterpart while globally it is only about two years, it pointed out.

Further, it said that the gap between the maximum board tenure of men and women directors is very huge, with 46 per cent fairer sex been a director for less than one year.

Around 54 per cent of employees in Asia and 39 per cent in India are women, but only a fraction of that number makes it to middle and senior management level, it added.

According to the study, Norway continued to top the list with 40.72 per cent women on board, followed by Sweden with 30.84 per cent, Finland 29.91 per cent, Germany 29.70 per cent, South Africa 19.84 per cent and the US 20.41 per cent.