Women constitute 41% of India’s hospitals & lab workforce but leadership & pay gaps persist: Report

New Delhi: Women’s Formal Employment Tracker for FY 2023-2024’s findings reveal that the representation of women in formal employment across NSE-listed companies remained at 18% in FY 2023–2024,  marginally, decreasing by 0.6% from the previous year. 

Data for the Women’s Formal Employment Tracker was extracted from the SEBI mandated Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting (BRSR) reports and annual reports of the NSE-Listed companies. This year’s report looks at a total of 1256 NSE listed companies, who collectively employ 13.4M people of which only 2.4M are women. 

The report is a part of Udaiti Foundation’s flagship Close the Gender Gap (CGG) Initiative, this is the fourth consecutive year that this report is being put together.

Pooja Goyal, Founding CEO of The Udaiti Foundation, commented on the findings: “Despite an increase in the FLFPR to 41.7%, the persistent stagnation of women’s representation in formal employment at 18% raises concerns about achieving gender parity and India’s $30 trillion economy aspirations. This gap underscores deep-rooted demand-side barriers preventing women from securing quality employment. To truly unlock India’s economic potential, we must fully leverage its gender dividend by dismantling these systemic barriers at scale, through evidence-backed strategic action. The CGG reports aim to do just that, by providing a clear pathway for India Inc to move from intent to action.” 

Key Insights from Close the Gender Gap, Women’s Formal Employment Tracker 2024: 

• Greater transparency and accountability signals a show of intent and action: Gender data reporting among NSE-Listed companies has increased with 57% companies reporting in FY 2023-24 compared to 52% in the prior year. 

• NSE average flatlining for the last 3 fiscal years: The NSE average of women’s representation in the reporting year is at 18%, with a 0.6% decrease from the previous year. 

• All sectors fall below the 50% mark of women representation, only 5 sectors cross the 20% mark.

  • Women’s representation is highest in Hospitals & Labs at 41% (linked to caregiving roles), followed by the Textiles sector at 36% (women’s historical presence in garment industry), IT sector at 34%, (office-based jobs, educated talent pool), Consumer Services at 30% (women preferred in consumer-facing roles) and Banks at 26% (desk-based roles). What is noteworthy here is that women’s representation in these sectors has plateaued over time.

  • In sharp contrast, sectors like Construction, Power, Forest Materials, and Capital Goods & Industrial Products see low women representation of less than 5% due to these industries being male dominated with field and factory work still being unwelcoming for women. 

• Women in leadership, reflects a compliance mindset for Board of Directors; women in key management positions prove to be challenging still:

  • In FY24, 98% of companies had at least one woman on their Board of Directors, but only 46% had more than one. For Key Management Positions (KMPs)—including CEOs, CFOs, and company secretaries—50% of companies had at least one woman, while just 10% had more than one.

  • The disparity in the data stems from the fact that while the Companies Act mandates that there be at least 1 woman representative on boards, there is no parallel mandate for KMPs, where the ‘leaky pipeline’ effect is evident (only 10% with more than one). 

• Representation levels notwithstanding,  the pay gap kept widening; several women earning around half or even less of what men earn! 

  • In FY23-24, male employees earned an average of INR 774.1K annually, while female employees earned INR 722.1K—a ~7% gap. Among Board members, men earned INR 12.3 million, compared to INR 6.5 million for women – just a little over half of what the men drew. 

  • The Information Technology sector showed the highest gender pay gap, which stood at INR 3.2 Lakhs/Annum. 

• Policies, benefits, and the paradoxical road to returnship: Women’s Return to Work Rate post-parental leave stands at 94%, slightly below men at 98%. This was despite the fact that supportive benefits remain limited—only 37% of women and 25% of men had access to day care facility coverage in the same year.

• Increased POSH complaints reflect greater awareness and functioning redressal systems—but resolution must now keep pace

  • In FY23–24, reported workplace sexual harassment (POSH) complaints rose by 38% across sectors, with the Banking sector recording the highest number at 633 cases (a 24% rise). The Media, Entertainment & Publication sector had the highest complaint rate per 1,000 women, at 7.1. 

  • Rather than signalling only a rise in incidents, this increase also points to improved awareness and internal frameworks that are emboldening more women to come forward. 

  • However, resolution mechanisms must now be strengthened, as pending cases rose by 36% over the same period. Ensuring timely and just redressal is key to building safer, more inclusive workplaces where women can enter, stay, and grow.

These insights make it clear that incremental change won’t deliver on India’s growth ambitions. To realise its $30 trillion economy goal and 70% female workforce participation by 2047, India must urgently dismantle demand-side barriers—bias in hiring, pay gaps, and inadequate care and safety infrastructure. Through Close the Gender Gap initiative, The Udaiti Foundation is driving this shift by equipping businesses and policymakers with actionable strategies to raise formal workforce representation from 18% to 30% over the next five years.

Methodology:

The Women’s Formal Employment Tracker is based on data from NSE-Listed, covering the top listed companies on the National Stock Exchange. It establishes a baseline for women’s participation across 25 formal sector industries. Gender-disaggregated data was drawn from Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reports (BRSR) and annual company reports, and analyzed across indicators such as pay, seniority, attrition, and more. Additional parameters like industry type, market index (Nifty 50 to Nifty 500), employee size, and turnover were used for deeper insights. Definitions of indicators are available in the glossary at the end of the dashboard.

To explore the Close the Gender Gap Dashboard further, click here, and to help navigate the dashboard easily, click here.

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