Summary
The study focused on presence and compensation of women in top management and leadership positions of NSE 200 companies
Industry stalwarts KV Kamath, Indra Nooyi and Arun Duggal shared their views and recommendations to bridge the gender pay gap
The gender pay gap widens as women advance in their career, with every promotion further increasing the pay gap between them and their male peers, a study conducted by the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad on gender balance in NSE 200 companies has revealed.
The B-school recently held an event to share the findings of the study titled ‘The Glass Ceiling: Research Report on Leadership Gender Balance in NSE 200 Companies’. The study was undertaken by Promila Agarwal, associate professor, Human Resource Management, IIM Ahmedabad.
Presenting the highlights of the study on the gender balance in National Stock Exchange of India Limited (NSE) listed 200 companies in India, Agarwal said that the findings of the study have been put together with data from across 109 NSE 200 companies and response from as many as 4146 senior executives.
The study has been undertaken with two key objectives – improving gender balance amongst top management and senior executives in Indian companies and helping to accelerate career progression of women in senior management.
Speaking on the need for the industry to take a deeper cognisance of the leadership potential of women, Agarwal presented the following findings from her report:
• The gender pay gap widens as women advance in their careers. Every step up in responsibility increases the pay gap for women
• The percentage of women in top management and senior executive positions is significantly lower than the percentage of women on the board of directors
• On an average, women senior executives earn Rs 85 for every Rs 100 that men senior executives earn
• Average compensation paid to women senior executives is Rs 1.91 crore and average compensation paid to men senior executives is Rs 2.24 crore
• Major companies that have high women in top management roles include HUL, Kotak Mahindra Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, L&T Infotech
• An increase in the percentage of women at the board has not yet resulted in a significant increase in the percentage of women at the top management level.
The event also saw participation of industry stalwarts like KV Kamath, former chief, New Development Bank of BRICS Countries and Indra Nooyi, former chairperson and chief executive officer, PepsiCo. They also shared their recommendations to bridge the pay gap between working men and women.
“There are internal and external challenges and all of them come through two key things – biases and male assumptions or family stereotyping,” said Kamath
In a chat with students from IIM Ahmedabad, Indra Nooyi said it is important that companies revisit their approach towards women leaders. To ensure that women function at par with men, companies should take an “all talent on equal pay” approach, she said.
She suggested that organisations could achieve this by taking measures to put in place a critical mass of women leaders who could set the precedent and inspire other women.
“Another important thing is that men in power have to be educated. Men in society have to be educated not to discriminate against women,” she added.
Arun Duggal, chairperson ICRA presented some of the recommendations to improve gender balance at workplaces. Some of the recommendations focused on linking senior management performance with gender balance improvement and establishing clear diversity goals as part of company targets.
Last updated on 10 Feb 2022
