- IT companies have slowed hiring, concentrating primarily on replacing key employees who have left due to attrition
- Gender diversity in the industry has suffered as a result of this slower hiring rate
- In FY25, the percentage of women in the workforce decreased at four of the top five IT companies
There has been a noticeable decline in gender diversity in the workforce as IT companies have slowed down recruitment and are mainly backfilling critical roles. Four of the top five Indian IT companies reported a decrease in the percentage of female employees in FY25. The fact that women are still underrepresented in senior leadership roles throughout the industry exacerbates this decline.
The proportion of female employees at Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) decreased from 35.6 percent in FY24 to 35.3 percent in FY25. Infosys experienced a similar drop, going from 39.3 percent to 39 percent. The percentage of female employees at HCL Technologies decreased from 29.1 percent to 28.8 percent. The lone anomaly, Wipro, reported a slight rise from 36.6 percent to 37.1 percent. Calendar-year-based Cognizant also saw a drop, going from 38.8 percent in 2023 to 38 percent in 2024.
Women continue to be underrepresented in senior leadership positions despite initiatives to increase diversity. Women make up just 3.6 percent of TCS's top leadership, compared to over 20 percent at Cognizant. Because of enduring structural and cultural barriers, women's representation has plateaued. Despite accounting for over one-third of entry-level positions, women's representation declines dramatically at the senior level, according to Kapil Joshi, CEO of Quess IT Staffing.
Although it is not required by law, most businesses strive to maintain a 33 percent benchmark for gender diversity, according to Kamal Karanth, co-founder of Xpheno. He cautioned that businesses that fall behind in gender diversity risk losing clients and talent, particularly those with clear diversity and inclusion objectives.
Another way that the diversity gap shows up is through differences in pay. At TCS (excluding board and senior management), the median salary for female employees in FY25 was ₹10.6 lakh, while the median salary for male employees was ₹16.7 lakh. On average, women at Infosys earned ₹8 lakh, whereas men earned ₹11 lakh.
International IT firms are performing better when it comes to gender representation. In 2024, Accenture's female workforce remained at 48 percent, while Capgemini's increased from 38.8 percent to 39.7 percent. "Women's chances of becoming managers are still 2.1 times lower than men's. Leadership diversity will continue to lag in the absence of deliberate succession planning and accountability", Joshi said.
Experts claim that despite expectations that remote and flexible work arrangements would increase retention after the pandemic, they haven't had a major positive impact on the status of women in technology.
