From 20% to 16.7%: What’s behind the setback for women leaders in India Inc?

For years, the direction of travel for women in corporate India was broadly upward. This year, the trend has turned.
Women now account for 16.7% of corporate executive roles among India’s Best Companies for Women, down from 20% last year. Overall representation has also slipped to 34.6% from 35.7% in 2025. After years of incremental gains, the reversal raises a bigger question: is India Inc losing momentum on women at a time when the economy needs more people in the workforce?

The findings come from the 11th edition of the Best Companies for Women in India (BCWI) study by workplace culture and DEI consulting firm Avtar Career Creators, in partnership with Seramount. This year, 387 companies participated, of which 125 made the Best Companies list. Of these, 63% are MNCs and 37% are Indian companies.

For Dr Saundarya Rajesh, Managing Director, Avtar Group, the numbers are an early warning—particularly as AI reshapes work and what she describes as “jobless growth” means technology-led productivity gains may not translate into enough new jobs.

“Having a lesser number of women in the workplace is absolutely detrimental to the progress of India,” Rajesh says.
The decline is sharper at the leadership level. Women’s share of corporate executive roles, which had risen from 13% in earlier years to 20% in 2025, has now fallen to 16.7%. Rajesh calls it a “cautionary and extremely worrying trend”, given that leadership representation had consistently moved upwards until now.

The reversal, however, is not uniform. The Top 10 Best Companies have held up better, with women accounting for 42.8% of their overall workforce. This suggests that companies with stronger, more embedded inclusion practices may be better placed to sustain progress.

The MNC question

The data also throws up a sharp divide by company headquarters. Women account for 31.4% of the workforce at India-headquartered Best Companies, compared with 41.1% at US-headquartered companies and 39.2% at companies headquartered in other countries.

The gap widens at the leadership level. Women occupy only 14.2% of corporate executive roles at India-headquartered companies, against 18% at US-headquartered organisations and 20% at other foreign-headquartered companies.
That makes the India story more complicated than a simple backlash against DEI.

Rajesh points to the global pullback in diversity initiatives, particularly among American multinationals. Companies scaling back gender-focused efforts in their home markets are still operating in an Indian labour market where women’s participation remains far below potential.

“Why do companies which are based in India not follow an India strategy?” she asks.
Her argument is that global companies operating in India need to recognise that a policy appropriate in one market cannot automatically become the template for another. India, she says, needs more women in the workforce to support consumption, economic growth and its ambition of becoming a developed economy.

The issue becomes more pressing as AI reshapes work. If technology puts pressure on routine and entry-level roles, a slowdown in efforts to attract, retain and advance women could deepen the gender gap.

What can India do?

Rajesh believes policymakers also have a role to play.

Companies operating in India already have to comply with the country’s regulatory and policy framework. The government could therefore examine whether organisations, particularly multinationals, should have a clearer India-specific strategy for women’s workforce participation.

She points to the Ministry of Women and Child Development and the Ministry of Commerce and Industry as possible stakeholders. Avtar, she says, is prepared to contribute by developing a policy guideline or white paper outlining measures companies can adopt to improve women’s participation.

The case for doing so, Rajesh argues, should not be reduced to DEI ideology or the global debate over whether diversity initiatives compromise merit.

“That does not hold good at all in India,” she says.

There are areas where India Inc is making progress. 83% of India-headquartered Best Companies have formal second-career programmes, compared with 70% of US-headquartered and 60% of other foreign-headquartered companies. Such programmes can help women return after career breaks and rebuild their professional trajectories.

Geography matters too. Bengaluru leads among Indian metros, with 41.1% women’s representation, while Delhi-NCR trails at 28.5%.

The business case for inclusion is also evident. Among the companies surveyed, 79% report increased profits linked to better workplace culture, while 79% report improved customer satisfaction and 74% better innovation or revenue outcomes.

That creates a clear contradiction: companies say inclusion improves business outcomes, even as women’s representation slips.

For India Inc, the challenge now is to ensure that a global retreat from DEI does not become an Indian retreat from women’s economic participation. For a country seeking faster growth, higher consumption and a larger formal workforce, keeping women at work and moving more of them into leadership is an economic imperative, not merely a diversity goal.