Top companies lead in bridging IT's gender gap

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

The overall woman headcount at TCS, Infosys, Wipro, HCLTech and LTIMindtree has jumped by 77% in the last six year while their male employees’ number increased 62%, data compiled by specialist staffing firm Xpheno for ET showed. “The IT services cohort and its bellwethers in particular are a huge driving force behind the tech sector having a significant one-third ratio of women professionals,” Kamal Karanth, cofounder of Xpheno, told ET. Companies vouch for the trend.

“Out of the total number of employees that joined us in FY23, the percentage of women hired is more than the overall percentage of women in TCS,” said a spokesperson of Tata Consultancy Services. Women make up 35.8% of workforce at the country’s largest IT company as of June end. Infosys and Wipro are ahead of others with women representation of 39.4% and 36.3%, respectively, in their workforce.

“With diversity-focused policies, interventions and hiring activity, the tech sector is well set to onboard more women talent and increase the representation ratio well above 35% in the years to come,” Karanth said. The share of women employees across these five companies stood at 34.1% at the end of the first quarter of 2023-24, up from 31.7% as of the first quarter of 2017-18, Xpheno data showed. All these firms have programmes in place to attract and retain female employees.

HCLTech’s ‘Momtastic’ programme, for example, supports female employees during their transition into motherhood. Its other initiatives include ‘Communities of Practice’, a virtual platform to engage in inclusive conversations, sharing knowledge, etc., and ‘Inclusion Lab’ that caters to senior and leadership levels. “Our gender diversity ratio is at 29% which has steadily improved over the