Gender Diversity A Far Cry
IN A COUNTRY that has produced a legion of successful male business leaders, from N.R. Narayana Murthy to Mukesh Ambani, the number of key female business leaders remain abysmally low, a reflection of the glaring gender disparity in business education, despite the global push for diversity and inclusion. Are institutions truly reflective of India’s demographic diversity, or is it a case of ‘diversity on paper?
A closer look at the gender composition of premier Indian business schools reveals a story of a slow but incremental change. According to data from the Ministry of Education, the gender ratio in India’s top 10 business schools has improved over the 2014. But benchmarked against global business schools such as Wharton (50%) or Harvard (45%), there’s still a long way to go.
While IIMs, including IIM Bangalore, IIM Calcutta and IIM Kozhikode boast of a more diverse student body than they did a decade ago, the progress has not been uniform. IIM Bangalore has a female representation of around 40% in its postgraduate programme for the 2024-26 batch, up from 21% five years ago, the highest women participation in the programme in last 18 years. Rishikesha T. Krishnan, director, IIM Bangalore recalls when he first joined the institution as a faculty 28 years ago, female students comprised only 15-17% of the class.
Meanwhile, IIM Calcutta reported 32% female students in its 2024 batch, an increase from 17% in 2013. IIM Kozhikode touched a high of 54% women intake in the PGP batch of 2013-2015, from less than 10% earlier.
“We have seen a significant shift in recent years wherein companies pledge to be diverse organisations, and then the recruitment team ensures the numbers reflect that commitment,” shares S. Pasupathi, COO of HirePro, an AI-powered recruitment and automation firm, adding, “The business side may dictate the numbers, but the recruitment team decides how to achieve diversity goals.” In fact, campus hiring has become a key strategy, he says, for achieving diversity goals in recent years.
“Today, every organisation is advancing diversity as a goal, ensuring their DEI mandates are met. This means when companies announce their hiring numbers, they always include the percentage of female employees and other diverse candidates. In the past, this may not have been a priority, but now most firms aim for a 30-50% hiring mandate of female candidates,” says Pasupathi.