The growing presence of women in the workplace is one of the key reasons for celebrations held on International Women’s Day. The financial and personal freedom that comes with being an employed professional has served as a foundation for women’s progress worldwide.
Though times have changed and gender based norms have relaxed significantly in the past few decades, the path for women to work remains fraught with challenges. Though laws in many countries promise equal opportunities, social norms and expectations continue to serve as gendered challenges.
To ensure true equality in work opportunities and workplaces, companies and society alike need to confront the roadblocks that continue to hold women back from achieving their true potential.
The Leaky Pipeline: Where Do Women Drop Off?
According to a report by Great Place to Work India, women make up only about 26% of the workforce across Indian organisations. This number decreases significantly when one climbs up the hierarchy ladder, with only 8% of Indian CEOs being women.
The gender composition of the Indian workforce highlights the disparity in women’s representation not just within the workforce but also in leadership roles. The difference between the overall number and executive number also highlights that, for many women, rising beyond the mid-career barrier can be an even more pressing challenge than entering the workforce.
Some of the primary reasons behind the lower representation of women in the workforce and leadership can be attributed to societal aspects. Due to marriage, motherhood, caregiving responsibilities, and other gendered factors, many women find it hard to devote the same amount of time and energy to their professional lives as their male counterparts.
The impact of such societal events and expectations often affects the careers of female professionals in both the short-term and the long-term. Often owing to circumstances beyond their control, women find themselves victims of increased responsibilities, gender bias, and burnout.
The Double Burden: Work and Unpaid Care
Within India, the share of domestic work remains disproportionate, with women often taking care of a larger number of chores. This unequal distribution of household responsibilities is not limited to a particular part of society but is often prevalent across all socioeconomic levels.
From household chores to childcare, Indian society often expects women to take the lead, even at the cost of their career progression. It is often the women who are encouraged to prioritise the personal aspect of their lives over the professional one, even if it might negatively impact their job opportunities.
While many companies in India have started to become more and more accommodating by providing flexible work options, true equality of opportunity cannot be achieved by the efforts of employers and organisations alone.
A big reason why society continues to expect women to take care of domestic work is that household responsibilities are often not given the same level of importance as professional work.
The diminished view of how much effort domestic work often has a historical precedent, where it was often believed that housewives did not contribute as much as working husbands. This sentiment has carried over to the modern world, in which society wonders why working women find it difficult to do “small and menial” chores on top of their workday, ignoring the effort that needs to be put in for said tasks.
Bias That Still Exists (Even When We Think It Doesn’t)
Even within the workplaces, women often find themselves facing subtle biases, if not the overt ones. These kinds of biases can often have long-term impacts on not just career progression but also employee morale and the workplace environment. Some prime subtle biases include:
Motherhood Assumptions
Employers and employees may often start treating their female colleagues differently after they become parents. Many in India often assume that female workers may not prioritise their work over childcare responsibilities, irrespective of their work performance or visible efforts.
Leadership Favouring Masculine Traits
Perhaps due to the past dominance of men within the workforce, there remains a subtle preference for “traditionally masculine” traits when choosing leaders. Inherent biases can also make many trust the expertise of men while doubting ideas and theories shared by women, even if both may have equal qualifications, experience, and/or positions.
Gendered Perception of Actions
Because society expects men and women to behave differently, an action can be considered positive or negative depending on the person’s gender. What might be considered assertive when done by a man might be perceived as aggressive when coming from a woman.
“What is seen as confidence and leadership in men may be misread as being “difficult” in women. This is compounded by social conditioning that encouraged women to prioritise agreeableness, leaving assertiveness both underrepresented and underappreciated,” explained Swapnil Jain, Founder, Mriash Law.
This kind of bias harms both genders equally. When men try to veer away from the “traditionally masculine” way of doing things, they might be perceived as “weak” or “soft.”
Likability over Performance
Intrenched gender biases can often create a space where women find themselves being judged more harshly over their behaviour, irrespective of their performance. The same behaviour patterns that may be excused in male colleagues might be the reason female workers are criticised or sidelined.
Micro Biases in Work Opportunities
Many women, even today, often face microaggressions during meetings, promotions, and even project allocations. This can range from ignorant comments to an unintentional preference for male candidates over female ones, leading to lost opportunities.
Safety, Inclusion, and Psychological Comfort
Apart from workplace biases, physical and psychological safety are also key factors affecting women’s place in the workplace. This safety is often assured by law under acts such as the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013, or the PoSH Act.
Such laws, combined with state and federal regulations, regulate working hours and conditions for women, travel arrangements, and how any harassment incidents should be addressed.
In fact, as per data compiled for ET by Complykaro, the top 30 companies received 958 sexual harassment complaints in FY25, a 6% increase from FY24, indicating an increase in POSH reporting.
As per Lakshmi Rai, Founder of The Wish House, Good Things Ahead Foundation, and Bunai Silai, “For a 23-year-old management trainee, POSH provides the courage to call out ‘casual jokes’ that cross boundaries. For women in their 30s and 40s, it is the assurance that their growth will not be stifled if they speak up. For senior leaders, it is the dignity of finally working in an environment that acknowledges what they endured quietly years ago.”
Safety committees like Internal Complaints Committees mandate the provision of a safety assurance and grievance framework for female workers to level the playing field for both genders. They do not exist only to resolve grievances but also to provide assurance that the safety of the female workers remains paramount for the company.
Pay and Recognition Gap
Even in terms of pay and recognition, working women often find themselves being discriminated against when compared to their male counterparts.
A May 2025 TeamLease Digital study found that the overall gender pay gap in India is around 29.5%. This decreased only slightly to 23.5% for senior levels. The numbers highlight that even today, the gender pay gap remains a real and critical issue in India.
“Women’s workplace equality is held back by wage gaps, leadership barriers, bias, and caregiving pressures,” says Samriti Malhotra, Group CHRO, UDS Group. “Globally, women earn less than men, are promoted at lower rates, and remain underrepresented in senior roles.”
The factors surrounding this disparity can be attributed to entrenched gender biases in India. Additionally, working women often negotiate for higher pay less aggressively during appraisal processes, either due to systemic conditioning or to avoid appearing “aggressive” or “domineering.”
“Leadership often demands visibility, mobility, and risk-taking—areas where societal norms continue to hold women back and thereby their presence in senior leadership remains limited,” shared Madhhuumita Bbagai, Chief People Officer, The Mystique Group.
These factors also carry over to the recognition gap in workplaces, where women’s contributions are overlooked or credited to others. In many meetings, women report being interrupted more frequently or having their ideas repeated and later credited to someone else.
With women not getting their due recognition, they find it harder to climb up the ladder, making the gender gap in leadership that much wider.
What Organisations Can Actually Do
Though tackling gender biases in workplaces and society is far from a single-day job, companies can still take measures to make the playing field more level for women. This can include:
- Transparent promotion and pay frameworks.
- Return-to-work programs after career breaks.
- Flexible work arrangements without career penalties.
- Leadership pipelines specifically designed for women.
- Male allyship and shared accountability.
Such steps help compensate for societal expectations and duties placed on women that can hamper their careers. Rather than focusing on hours or office presence, prioritising results and performance can ensure that working women can give their best and remain motivated to contribute to the company.
Needed Conversations Around Gender Roles
A large part of creating a safe space for working women is encouraging conversations about gender-based challenges. Without open conversations about the existing roadblocks, it is almost impossible to find solutions that mitigate their negative impact.
When creating policies for gender equity, HR and leadership need to listen to their employees to create a truly actionable policy framework. The polices in place should
- Account for societal expectations around gender roles.
- Encourage equal caregiving and domestic responsibility.
- Support childcare infrastructure, parental leave, and other domestic obligations.
- Push for a cultural shift toward valuing women’s careers equally.
Women’s Day Should Be More Than a Celebration
The idea behind Women’s Day is not just about celebrating the feminine. It should be about honest conversations that push women forward in all aspects of their lives. While the positive progress should be celebrated, real progress also requires addressing uncomfortable truths.
Indian workplaces should ensure that female workers are not obligated to overcome systemic barriers to succeed. Rather than encouraging women to “overcome the system” to “become successful,” companies and society need to create a system in which the success of a woman becomes a normal rather than a rarity.
