New Delhi: The Women's Reservation Bill 2008, is popularly considered to be a lapsed bill in the Parliament of India. It was aimed at uplifting women status via making amendments in the Constitution of India to reserve 33% of all seats in the Lok Sabha and also in all state legislative Assemblies.
In spite of all the talk regarding gender equality, corporate India still lags behind in empowering women. As per reports, out of every 100 CEOs and managing directors of companies listed on NSE, only 3 are women.
As per the latest data which came out on 6 March 2019, out of a total of 1,814 CEOs and MDs of the NSE listed companies, only 3.69% among them are women. In other words only 67 among these are women. The percentage of women in the corporate houses has remained stagnant since 2014.
"If the numbers haven’t changed, it is obvious that despite the stated intent to improve diversity and create opportunities for women all levels, action has not matched the talk. Clearly, a lot more needs to be done if we believe in equity and merit", says Vinita Bali who is an independent director and a former MD of Britannia. Notwithstanding, Bali also pointed that gender diversity initiative take time to reflect at the top management of the company.
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A chairperson at a leading biotech firm stated that ‘two-way efforts’ are very much required for creation of more woman CEOs. Initially, the women need to push themselves to take up leadership roles and secondly, men must not overlook women.
The international figures too revealed the same story, as there were just 24 or 4.8% women among CEOs of companies that were listed in the 2018 Fortune 500 list. The list witnessed a 25% fall from 2017 in which 32 women made to the list.