Corporate India Faces Gap Between Women's Ambition & Systems

By: WE Staff | Monday, 23 February 2026

• There is a mismatch between the leadership aspirations of women and the systems at work, as revealed by Corporate India
• The issue has been highlighted in a report by All-India Management Association and KPMG India

The situation in Corporate India remains challenging in terms of integrating women’s leadership desires with the organizational structure.

A report by the All-India Management Association and KPMG India points out the existence of a large gap between women’s leadership desires and their achievement in organizations.

According to the report, 79 percent of women want to reach leadership positions, with over half of them targeting C-level roles. However, there is little progress made.

Close to 30 percent of organizations showed no increase in the number of women leaders in the last five years, which is nearly double the number recorded in 2024.

The report also revealed that 10 percent of organizations have no women leaders, which indicates the continued imbalance in the gender composition of leadership positions.

The Women Leadership in Corporate India 2026 report is compiled from the views of over 200 professionals from various industries and organizations. Women hold only 1 percent of board-level positions, despite the existence of formal diversity, equity, and inclusion policies.

According to the report, career advancement is one of the major issues. Almost three-fourths of the organisations reported that less than 30 percent of the long-serving female employees have been able to reach the top positions, while men have been able to do so in much larger numbers in the same organisations.

The mid-level and senior management phases have been identified as the most susceptible phases in the careers of women. Sixty-five percent of the respondents said that the mid-level phase is when women are most likely to leave the workforce entirely.

Opportunities for leadership development still remain unequal. Although the organisations are keen on, half of the women surveyed said that they have not taken part in any activity in the last year.

According to the report, leadership diversity is not likely to increase without making concerted efforts to improve the opportunities for advancement to senior positions and not just focusing on entry into the workforce.