Women's Representation in Indian Leadership Reaches 20%

By: WE Staff | Friday, 26 September 2025

• Avtar has published the results of the 10th edition of the Best Companies for Women in India (BCWI) list
• The 2025 edition reflects the increasing prominence of inclusion as a business agenda in corporate India
• 125 companies have made it to the BCWI list this year

Avtar, a workplace culture consulting and inclusion solutions provider published the results of the 10th edition of the Best Companies for Women in India (BCWI) list. This year's list showcases the increasing acknowledgment of inclusion as a business priority for corporate India and lists 125 companies.

For the first time, women in leadership positions have touched 20 percent, whereas representation overall among the listed companies continues to be 35.7 percent.

Profession-wise, Professional Services takes the lead with 44.6 percent women working, followed by ITES with 41.7 percent. All other sectors like Pharma (25 percent), FMCG (23 percent), and Manufacturing (12 percent) are increasingly looking at inclusion.

The research also examined attrition patterns and discovered that men and women depart organizations at equivalent levels of approximately 20 percent. The most frequent reason given by both is access to improved career opportunities.

Health and wellbeing issues were also noted as a significant factor among women, outweighing childcare requirements.

Avtar also for the first time presented Top 10 Best Companies for ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance). Results indicate that 90 percent of the firms concentrate on energy efficiency, 80 percent use solar power, and all possess written occupational safety and health policies.

Nevertheless, adoption of wind and hydroelectric power is limited owing to infrastructure issues. The Top 10 Best Companies for ESG (in alphabetical order) are: CGI, Eaton Technologies, EPAM Systems India, GRP Ltd, Infosys, Lear Corporation, Solenis Chemicals, Tata Communications, UST, and Wipro.

Observing the results, Dr. Saundarya Rajesh, Founder and President of Avtar, said that representation of women among best companies has risen from 25 percent in 2016 to 35.7 percent in 2025, while representation of C-suite leadership has gone up from 13 percent to 20 percent during the same time.

She pointed out the increasing number of Indian companies that are listed, which went up from 25 percent in 2021 to 40 percent in 2025.

Subha Barry, Seramount President, furthered that the MICI has assisted companies in India with deploying solutions for underrepresented talent, creating workplaces where women, LGBTQ+ workers, employees with disabilities, and employees of all generations can succeed.