Women power in corporate India: women directorships on Indian corporate boards 1995-2007 trends

Abstract

Data on Women Directors on the Board of Directors of 166 Indian companies have been collected and analysed for the period 1995 to 2007. Women Directorships on Corporate Boards show an increasing trend in numbers as well as in percentage terms from 29 or 1.66% of all Directorships in 1995 to 67 or 3.63 % of all Directorships in 2007. These percentages are much lower than those for many of the industrially advanced countries for which such data is available. Once Women make it to the top the data seems to suggest that they do wield more influence than their male counterparts. Women started with 1.04 Directorships per Woman Director in 1995. However by 2007 they held 1.34 Directorships per Woman Director. Men on the other hand held only about 1.20 Directorships per each male Director and this remained more or less constant during this period. These results however should be interpreted with caution since there could be some self-selection bias. Women never held more than 3 Chairperson positions in any year for the period 1995 to 2007. The number of Chairperson positions held by women ranged from two to a maximum of three for the whole period.