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- Women’s overall workforce shares slip to 19.4% even as companies add over one million jobs; nearly two-thirds of firms report no female KMP
- Senior-level pay disparities remain stark, with male directors earning 3.6 times more than female directors in FY 2024-25
Mumbai, 05 March 2026: CFA Institute, the global association of investment professionals, today released the third edition of its Mind the Gender Gap, titled Analysis of Women’s Participation, Pay, and Other Measures in Indian Public Companies. The report provides a comprehensive assessment of the BRSR disclosure data around gender representation and remuneration trends across 300 listed companies which together account for more than 70 percent of India’s total market capitalisation.
The findings indicate that corporate expansion alone is not delivering improved inclusion outcomes. Between FY 2022 – 23 and FY 2024 – 25, the total workforce across the sample increased by 13.3 percent, adding more than one million jobs. However, women accounted for only around 18 percent of this incremental hiring. As a result, overall female workforce participation declined marginally from 19.6 percent to 19.4 percent during the same period.
Arati Porwal, Senior Country Head – India CFA Institute, said, “With its third edition, the report challenges the widely held assumption that economic expansion and corporate growth naturally lead to greater inclusion. While companies have created over a million new roles, women have not participated proportionately in that growth. This points to structural gaps rather than cyclical fluctuations. Without deliberate hiring strategies, sustained leadership development and clear accountability at board and executive levels, workforce expansion alone will not resolve long standing imbalances.”
Progress at senior levels remains measured with women’s representation on boards staying at around 18 to 19 percent over the past three financial years. Female representation among Key Managerial Personnel (KMPs) increased modestly from 11.1 percent in FY 2022 -23 to 12.4 percent in FY 2024 – 25. Nearly two thirds of companies in the sample reported having no female KMP.
Compensation trends further underscore the challenge. In FY 2024 -25, male directors earned a median remuneration 3.6 times higher than that of female directors, compared with 2.9 times three years earlier. Although the gap among KMP has narrowed slightly over time, male KMP still earned approximately 70 percent more than their female counterparts on average. At employee and worker levels, remuneration remains relatively closer to parity, yet female to male pay ratios have slipped from 94.6% in FY 2022–23 to 88.3% in FY 2024–25, indicating stronger pay growth for men.
Gaurav Kapur, Senior Director, Government Relations & Advocacy – India, CFA Institute said, “These findings reinforce the importance of transparency at senior levels. Clear disclosure at the top is essential to enable meaningful and sustained reform. Our aim with the Mind the Gender Gap report is to sustain focus and spark action among policymakers, regulators, and industry leaders to advance women’s representation, pay parity, and equitable participation in India’s progress.”
The report further highlights significant sectoral variation. Information Technology (IT), Financials and Consumer Discretionary continue to demonstrate relatively higher levels of female participation, typically ranging between 23 percent and 34 percent. In contrast, sectors such as Energy, Materials and Utilities remain at the lower end, with female participation between 4 percent and 6 percent and some of the widest senior level pay gaps. The recent slowdown in hiring within the IT sector, traditionally one of the largest employers of women, has had a disproportionate impact on overall female workforce representation, illustrating how sector specific dynamics can influence national outcomes.
The report also outlined policy recommendations to help address the persistent gaps in corporate India, including:
- Standardising the definition and classification of Key Managerial Personnel (KMP) across companies to ensure consistent reporting and more reliable comparisons
- Introducing greater granularity in remuneration disclosures, including clearer differentiation between executive and non-executive directors, independent and non-independent directors, and role-based hierarchy levels within employee categories
- Encouraging boards to adopt measurable targets for improving women’s representation in senior leadership and to strengthen oversight mechanisms to track progress
- Implementing targeted hiring, retention, return-to-work, and leadership development programmes for women, particularly in sectors with low participation
