Bridging India’s Glaring Gender Gap
Government and business commitments to close the gender gap must be treated as investments in the future growth of the country.
Since 2006, when the World Economic Forum first introduced The Global Gender Gap Index, India’s ranking has consistently hovered in the bottom quartile. For the first time, in 2022, its ranking sunk below the bottom 10%. This is indeed a rude wake-up call for India.
The election of India’s second female President, Droupadi Murmu, presents a tremendous opportunity to fast-track gender equality, and position India as a true global growth leader. Billions of Indian women have reason to hope that under her stewardship, India will break through the socio-economic barriers that have held its women back, and bring about deep-rooted legislative and corporate changes to enable women to power India’s growth story.
Why is it important for India to bridge the gender gap? The answer is that India has so much to gain both socially and economically. Socially, bridging the gender gap translates to happier women, stronger families, safer and more prosperous communities, and a boost in the Gross National Happiness Index, a term first coined in 1972 by Bhutan’s King Wangchuck. Economically, numerous studies indicate that gender parity in the workforce will produce multi-faceted economic benefits such as better decision-making and risk management, poverty reduction, increased productivity, and lower costs.
The GGG Index benchmarks the current state and evolution of gender parity across four key dimensions: Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational Attainment, Health and Survival, and Political Empowerment. A powerful thread that is apparent across the top ten countries is women’s political empowerment. All of them have political empowerment sub scores in the top 15%, and 60% of them have female leaders.
The stories of countries that have bridged the gender gap are remarkable. They highlight the pivotal roles played by strong and dedicated women leaders in overcoming incredible odds and uniting their citizens to not only improve the condition of women in their countries but to uplift the entire nation.
The top ten countries in the GGG Index are as far-flung geographically as they are politically, socially, and economically. Notable among them are the developing countries, Rwanda, Nicaragua and Namibia.
In 1994, Rwanda rose from the depths of its worst civil war and quadrupled the percentage of women parliamentarians to 64%, the highest in the world. Women’s labour force participation rate is one of the highest in the world (86%), and the wage gap is lower than in many industrialized counties (88 cents per dollar). The Rwandan Women’s Parliamentary Forum and the constitutional amendment mandating a minimum 30% quota for women in all decision-making bodies were instrumental in this remarkable transformation. Moreover, the plan was executed flawlessly through the Gender Monitoring Office.
In Namibia, 44% of the national assembly seats are held by women. Since 2014, the Government has conducted annual workshops to support the performance of women parliamentarians and has organised effective mass media campaigns to eliminate harmful cultural practices and reduce gender-based violence.
In 2000, Nicaragua changed its electoral laws and mandated 50% women candidates on the electoral lists of all parties participating in the National Assembly elections. Nicaragua's vice-president and more than half of cabinet positions are occupied by women.
In June 2022, EU lawmakers passed a landmark deal for gender equality, mandating that women have at least 40% of seats on corporate boards by mid-2026. National authorities have been empowered with strict enforcement of the directive. Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, said: “It is high time we break the glass ceiling. There are plenty of women qualified for top jobs: they should be able to get them.”
In India, the 1993 Amendment to the Indian Constitution mandating 33% of panchayat seats to women, accelerated the entry of women into grassroots level governance. Currently, women hold 45% of panchayat seats. Several research studies have highlighted the marked difference in the nature of decisions made by women-led panchayats.
They used their power to prioritize issues like drinking water supply, installation of pumps, construction of toilets, village wells and roads, the appointment of teachers, and closing of liquor shops. In 1997, President Murmu was elected as councillor of the Rairanpur Nagar panchayat as an independent candidate from a reserved seat for women. From the grassroots levels, she steadily rose up the ranks to be the Governor of Jharkhand and is now the President of India.
However, her story is the exception. The percentage of women drops significantly from the panchayat levels to the upper echelons of government.
According to the 2022 Inter-Parliamentary Union report, women’s representation in the lower and upper houses of Parliament were 14.9% and 12.3% respectively, putting India in 143rd place amongst 184 nations.
The narrative in Corporate India is even more alarming. Female workforce participation has dropped from 26% in 2010 to 19% in 2020. Women currently occupy only 17.1% of board seats. Even though women constitute 50% of the country’s population, and despite the quota systems in place to increase their participation in the government and on corporate boards, their numbers at the leadership levels are dismal. Clearly, comprehensive change is needed to ensure that women are equally represented at all levels of decision-making.
For India, the time for this comprehensive change is now, under the leader of its newly elected female president. A 2008 Institute of Social Development study found that a large proportion of women in panchayats suffer from a lack of confidence, fear of being ridiculed by males and speaking in meetings in the presence of village elders. Moreover, they all faced gender discrimination in some form, due to deep-rooted patriarchal mindsets, and their economic dependence on male relatives. The study recommended collective action from the state, community, NGOs and village organisations, backed by adequate resources, and a holistic approach to problem-solving such as awareness generation and education with measures towards attaining economic independence, gender justice, equal access to education and health services and freedom from socio-cultural inhibitions.
A 2021 article in the Harvard Business Review titled How to Close the Gender Gap highlights how companies can level the playing field by identifying patterns of gender bias in the way they treat people and then systematically making appropriate changes to fully leverage women’s talents. Some of the practices identified are implementing gender-blind hiring and promotion processes, cultivating an inclusive culture, increasing women’s access to mentors, and destigmatizing flexible work and family accommodation arrangements. However, without managers who are invested in monitoring the results and being accountable for them, the best practices will fall short.
Both in government and business, commitments to close the gender gap must be treated as investments in the future growth of the country. These commitments must be etched in mission statements, roadmaps, and measurable goals.
Only then will they bring about meaningful change. Existing programs must be re-evaluated periodically, and tweaked to ensure maximum efficacy. In the words of JRD Tata, “the effective execution of a plan is what counts and not mere planning on paper.”
With India completing 75 years of independence, let us hope that, for its half a billion women, this will usher in a new era of freedom from the clutches of outdated patriarchal mindsets and practices so that they can contribute equally to India’s growth narrative.
Valli Arunachalam is Karta of the MVM HUF, and a scion of the multi-billion-dollar family-owned Murugappa Group. She is a technology consultant with 23 years of work experience in Fortune 500 companies.
The views expressed here are those of the author’s and do not necessarily represent the views of BQ Prime or its editorial team.