In charts: How Indian companies fared on gender diversity in FY23

livemint.com:

reality in India Inc: overwhelmingly male-dominated corporate boards. There have been gradual gains to bridge the disparity at the employee level as well as top echelons, some of it through regulatory intervention. Yet, pain points remain.

For instance, male executive directors earned over 1.5 times what women did in FY23, primeinfobase.com data shows. Over 97% of the companies listed on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) had at least one woman board member as of March 2023. Women’s representation on boards has increased in the past decade due to new laws.

But the actual number of women directors shows companies are not going beyond the token woman for legal compliance. Only a fifth (19.5%) of the 16,449 directors across listed companies were women. Women executives graduating to board positions have a hard climb to the top rungs.

At 10.1%, the share of women non-independent executive directors in India’s listed companies touched double digits for the first time in FY23. This is a rise from 7.9% in FY17. Moreover, the disparity in compensation is disturbingly stark.

While male executive directors on an average raked in a cool ₹3.3 crore in FY23, women executives received ₹2 crore. The ratio has averaged 1.4:1 in the last six years. Globally, female representation in company boardrooms averaged 20% in 2021, according to Deloitte.