The CFA institute found that during the fiscal year 2021-22, the IT sector in India had the highest female participation rate at 30%, followed by financial services companies at 22.4%. These numbers were derived from the voluntary Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting disclosures of 134 companies.
The poll also found that women are most heavily represented in the workforce in the information technology industry, which is the largest employer of the country’s white-collar workers, followed by the fast-moving consumer goods sector (FMCG) and the industrial sector (4.3%).
For a first look at how Indian women are faring in corporate workplaces, the CFA analysis relies on a sample of voluntary BRSR reports. Companies with a fiscal year end date of 31 March 2022 have the option to participate in the BRSR disclosures, while the top 1,000 corporations with a fiscal year end date of 31 March 2023 will be required to do so.
A closer look at the analysis’s data, however, reveals that women still face barriers to advancement in the workplace, especially in traditionally male-dominated fields such as information technology and the financial sector. For instance, in the financial services industry, women make up 21.7% of the workforce but only 15.9% of the KMP. The gap widens to 18.7 percentage points in the IT industry, where women make up only 8.3 percent of KMP despite making up 27% of the workforce. Throughout the sampled organisations, the average rate of female labour participation was 12.7%. As expressed as a percentage, this means that for every eight individuals on staff, there was only one female employee.
Also, the statistics showed that female employees had a greater turnover rate than male employees across the board (18.3% versus 16.1% for males) and in two of the four industries studied. The research noted that the finding, defined as the percentage of the average number of people in a given category who quit their jobs during the fiscal year, was consistent with what had been observed in other nations during the COVID-19 epidemic. When compared to men, more women quit their occupations. According to the paper, “the increased attrition among women is worth watching given the existing low involvement of women in the Indian workforce.” The report suggests that the disproportionate responsibility of caring for children and the elderly may be to blame for this trend.
