Despite India's position as one of the fastest-growing startup ecosystems in the world, gender diversity in top leadership remains a distant goal.
A recent report by talent solutions firm Xpheno, as quoted by The Times of India, shows that only 1 in 10 C-suite roles across 117 Indian-born unicorns are held by women, highlighting a starc gap that persists even as companies scale globally.
The study, which analysed 400 CXOs, reveals that women are significantly underrepresented in technology and strategic business functions. While they make up 54% of CHROs, they hold just 2% of CEO roles and less than 1% of CTO or CIO positions. Representation in marketing leadership is slightly better, with women accounting for 18% of CMOs.
“Diversity has clearly made inroads into HR but remains marginal in roles historically associated with core business and product functions,” the report said.
This uneven representation points to a larger issue of role-based gender clustering. Around 62% of women CXOs are in HR functions, while 45% of men dominate CEO, CFO, and CTO roles.
The average age of a CXO stands at 43.5 years, but women are more likely to reach leadership later in their careers. Only 7% of CXOs aged 33–37 are women, while this rises to 16% in the 48–52 age group.
Interestingly, women CXOs bring slightly more experience, 24 years on average, compared to 22 for men, and tend to have longer tenures. However, fewer women relocate for roles (31%) compared to men (33%), and only 60% have switched industries on their path to the top.
“The relative time taken for women leaders to move up the ranks does display a lag in comparison to their male counterparts. Apart from the enterprise contexts of lower supply, challenges with dynamics of acceptance and in many cases the personal context of planned career breaks, do collectively play spoilsport and impact velocity of movement,” said Siddharth Verma, head of executive search at Xpheno.
The study also highlighted the weight of educational background in shaping leadership: 90% of CXOs with postgraduate degrees come from elite institutions.
Among the 400 leaders surveyed, 119 were active founders or co-founders still holding executive responsibilities — underscoring the tight control startup founders often retain.
The gender imbalance extends to the venture capital space as well. A March report in The Times of India found that many leading VC firms in India still lack female representation in their investment teams. Peak XV Partners leads with 13 women out of 44 team members, while firms like Stellaris, Nexus Venture Partners, and Z47 have none.
(With inputs from Times of India)
A recent report by talent solutions firm Xpheno, as quoted by The Times of India, shows that only 1 in 10 C-suite roles across 117 Indian-born unicorns are held by women, highlighting a starc gap that persists even as companies scale globally.
The study, which analysed 400 CXOs, reveals that women are significantly underrepresented in technology and strategic business functions. While they make up 54% of CHROs, they hold just 2% of CEO roles and less than 1% of CTO or CIO positions. Representation in marketing leadership is slightly better, with women accounting for 18% of CMOs.
“Diversity has clearly made inroads into HR but remains marginal in roles historically associated with core business and product functions,” the report said.
This uneven representation points to a larger issue of role-based gender clustering. Around 62% of women CXOs are in HR functions, while 45% of men dominate CEO, CFO, and CTO roles.
The average age of a CXO stands at 43.5 years, but women are more likely to reach leadership later in their careers. Only 7% of CXOs aged 33–37 are women, while this rises to 16% in the 48–52 age group.
Interestingly, women CXOs bring slightly more experience, 24 years on average, compared to 22 for men, and tend to have longer tenures. However, fewer women relocate for roles (31%) compared to men (33%), and only 60% have switched industries on their path to the top.
“The relative time taken for women leaders to move up the ranks does display a lag in comparison to their male counterparts. Apart from the enterprise contexts of lower supply, challenges with dynamics of acceptance and in many cases the personal context of planned career breaks, do collectively play spoilsport and impact velocity of movement,” said Siddharth Verma, head of executive search at Xpheno.
The study also highlighted the weight of educational background in shaping leadership: 90% of CXOs with postgraduate degrees come from elite institutions.
Among the 400 leaders surveyed, 119 were active founders or co-founders still holding executive responsibilities — underscoring the tight control startup founders often retain.
The gender imbalance extends to the venture capital space as well. A March report in The Times of India found that many leading VC firms in India still lack female representation in their investment teams. Peak XV Partners leads with 13 women out of 44 team members, while firms like Stellaris, Nexus Venture Partners, and Z47 have none.
(With inputs from Times of India)
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