India Inc is ensuring you will mostly be answering to a ‘woman boss’

"Dear Sir, I need a leave” seems to be a matter of the past. As India Inc is aggressively trying to replace the Sir with Ma’am, thanks to the initiative to improve gender diversity at the top management level, four headhunting firms are together reporting nearly 100 live search mandates for women CXO-level executives.

While MNCs were among the earliest to employ more women at the senior management levels, Indian companies are no exception now. As per a report by The Economic Times, Indian promoter driven organisations are on an aggressive bid to get high potential women talent at CXO level. "Initially, the whole push came after it became mandatory to have women directors on the board. But this process triggered thinking in this direction,” Anindita Banerjee, executive director at RGF Executive Search has told the financial daily.

Now this direction is definitely signalling a change! Companies like Mahindra & Mahindra, Hindustan Zinc Limited, Jindal Steel & Power Limited and Schneider Electric have given mandates to search firms to hunt for potential female CXO talent. Jindal Steel is currently scouting for a woman candidate to head its finance department, director group-HR, Rajeev Bhadauria has informed the ET.

This scenario is the same throughout the industry. "We will prefer more and more women when it comes to filling up positions with no compromise on merit," said Prince Augustin, Executive Vice-President - Group Human Capital & Leadership Development at Mahindra & Mahindra.

Yet the red line seems to persist. Experts informed the ET, while demand goes up by 40%, success rate is only half of it.

Forum for Women in Leadership (WILL) estimates that 8-10% of senior management leadership in India are women, compared to 22-25% in the US.

"There is a lack of understanding on diversity...on why should we have diversity, for innovation, competitiveness, for different ideas and different skills," says Poonam Barua, founder chairman, WILL.

(Image: India Times)