Women's Presence in Indian Boardrooms & Senior Roles Rises

By: WE Staff | Thursday, 30 April 2026

• Women’s leadership rising in boards and senior roles
• Faster growth than men in managerial positions
• Strong surge in women-led startups

Women are becoming increasingly present within senior levels of management and the percentage of women on boards of directors has grown since 2018, according to a recently released Government report.

In 2018 women accounted for 29.1 percent of members on boards of directors, an increase from 26 percent five years previously. Men's proportion of board membership has decreased to 70.9 percent from 74 percent over the same period.

Senior management has also seen a similar trend, with women's representation growing from 13.9 percent in 2018 to 17.1 percent in 2025; while men have seen their proportion decrease from 86.1 percent in 2018 to 82.9 percent in 2025.

Some of the positions included in senior management are: Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Company Secretary, Managing Director, Manager and Whole Time Director.

"There has been a 73.80 percent increase in men engaged in managerial positions between 2017 and 2025, whereas there has been a 102.54 percent increase in women engaged in managerial positions during the same time period," the report said.

The growth of entrepreneurship has become increasingly dominated by women's influence on the market. The number of startups that have at least one female director has increased from 4,164 in 2018 to 19,351 by 2025.

Maharashtra, the top state in terms of numbers of startup businesses, will have had 3,311 startups by 2025, with Uttar Pradesh being second at 2,069 startups, followed by Karnataka at 1,804, and Delhi at 1,608.

A slight increase in the number of women participating as investors occurred in 2025-26 (year to October 2025), with women making up 24.7 percent of all investors compared to 24.3 percent in 2024-25. Men decreased slightly as a share of all investors from 75.7 percent to 75.3 percent.

Goa had the highest number of female investors at 33 percent of total investors, followed by Mizoram with 32.4 percent of total investors, Chandigarh with 32.2 percent, Sikkim at 30.9 percent and Delhi.

Also, as of December 2025, there were 18.7 million informal micro-enterprises owned and operated by women, providing employment for 22.8 million employees.

However, despite these advancements, women are still significantly underrepresented in several industries. Women hold only 14.3 percent of judicial positions overall (113 of 1,122) and only 3.03 percent of the Supreme Court's total number of judges.