The share of women directors on the boards of NSE-listed companies has grown from 5% to over a fifth – over four times– between 2013 and 2025, even as the total number of directors grew 45%, according to a report by primeinfobase.com. However, women still struggle to move up the corporate hierarchy with less than 5% of such companies have women managing directors/chief executive officers as of March this year, compared with 4.5% in 2020. The share of executive directorship held by women too has only inched up from 7.7% to 10% during the period, the report added.
The number of directors on the board of the NSE-listed companies grew by from 11,518 in March 2013 to 16,694 now. In the same period, number of women directors grew from 569 to 3,479.
The report also reveals that 97% of the 2,133 NSE-listed companies now have at least one woman director on board because of the regulatory requirements, up from 30.8% in March 2013. Women hold 28% of 8,472 posts of independent directors in these firms, up from 17% as of March 2018. For the top 500 companies by market cap it has been mandatory to have at last one women ID since April 1, 2019.
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Only 6% or 123 companies have a woman chairing the board. Of which 57 are from the promoter group. Around 15% companies have a woman chairing the audit committee, up from 9% as on March 2020.
The report shows that women independent directors are seven years younger than their male counterparts on an average while non-independent directors are four years younger. The median remuneration of male executive directors is 62% higher at Rs 1.14 crore as compared with Rs 71 lakh for women.
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