Startups, SMEs see decline in women workforce, survey reveals

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startups to 27% in 2022 from 39% in 2021. According to the DivHERsity Benchmarking Report 2022-2023, powered by HerKey (formerly JobsForHer), women's representation at India Inc increased to 50% in 2022 from 33% in 2021. Women's representation has surged significantly at large enterprises in the country from 34% in 2020 to 52% in 2022.

However, in startups and SMEs, there has been a decline of 12%. The report that provides a comprehensive compilation of data collected from over 300 companies across India between January 2022 and January 2023, revealed that 70% of participating companies have a clear gender diversity goal in hiring. 89% of the companies asserted that their gender sensitisation programmes are contributing to higher rates of women's retention within their organisations.

Further, the report underscored an increase in women's hiring at mid-management to senior levels in India over the years. Women are mostly hired at entry-level (65%) to junior to mid-management (71%) in SMEs and Startups. Only 41% of women are hired at the senior level in startups.

Overall, women are majorly hired at both entry-level and senior levels across companies at 37%. The representation of women at the senior level has witnessed a remarkable increase to 37% in 2022 from 13% in 2021--equivalent to the proportion of women at the entry-level. The survey revealed that more than 70% of organisations have a clear gender diversity goal in hiring, a 13% increase from last year.

Encouragingly, 91% of large enterprises and 90% of startups and SMEs have successfully achieved their gender diversity hiring goals in the past 12 months. Of the 300 surveyed companies, 63% of companies have women-specific hiring drives within their organisation. In a