WOMEN AND IT SCORECARD: INDIA

Prof Parvati Raghuram and Dr Clem Herman

The Open University, UK

A SURVEY OF 55 FIRMSPart of ESRC funded project: Gender Skilled Migration and IT: A Comparative Study of India and the UK

India in the world

Brazil

China

India

Mexico

Russia

n Fed

eratio

n UK US0.0

10.0

20.0

30.0

40.0

50.0

37.733.5

26.6

45.341.5

16.0

25.0

Proportion of full-time workers that are women

Women’s employment in IT in India

Key characteristics: ● Most are graduates with technical degree in either Engineering or

Technology.

●Most are young - under 30 and single.

●Most are employed at lower career levels

●There is a leaky pipeline - women are under-represented in senior leadership positions – but the picture is improving.

Women and leadership

2012: - 22% of the companies had >20%

women at senior level- 15% of companies surveyed had >20%

women at C-suite level.

2015: - 33% of the companies had >20%

women at senior level- 26% of the companies had >20%

women at C-Suite levels

2017 (estimates): - 60% of firms will have >20% women at

senior level - 51% of firms will have >20% of women

at C-suite level.

6

Challenges of producing gender equity Uniquely attributed to female employees

Equally attributed to both female and male employees

Uniquely attributed to male employees

Don’t know/ can’t say

Require additional benefits and other expenses such as providing separate workplace facilities that make them expensive employees

24% 58% 7% 11%

Having had a break in career (e.g. due to family care) 45% 53% 2%  

Challenges of hiring given government regulations such as working hours and parental leave

60% 27% 4% 9%

Wondering if they can combine work with their family commitments 71% 18% 2% 9%

7

Sources of recruitment: keeping it balanced

Public employment agency

No Response

Direct university contact

Internet advertisements/online job portals

Private employment agency

Internal employee referrals

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

7%

5%

20%

33%

31%

40%

7%

7%

20%

25%

29%

40%

Male Female

Recommendations

For individual companiesPolicies are not enough. Train line managers in managing maternity so that they feel empowered to support and retain women employees.

For IndustryCompanies should act together across the whole IT sector to prevent women’s career stagnation at entry and middle IT career levels.

For other sectorsThe IT sector is leading the way in India in implementing policies and practices – they demonstrate that recruiting and retaining women requires a different approach.