Women’s representation in corporate executive roles at India’s Best Companies for Women has fallen to 16.7% from 20% a year earlier, a study released this week found.
Overall female representation across the companies on the list also slipped, to 34.6% from 35.7% in 2025. The findings come from the 11th edition of the Best Companies for Women in India (BCWI) study by workplace culture and DEI consulting firm Avtar Career Creators, in partnership with Seramount. This year, 387 companies participated, of which 125 made the list. Of those, 63% were multinational corporations and 37% were domestic firms.
The decline is not uniform. The top 10 companies held up better, with women accounting for 42.8% of their overall workforce, suggesting firms with more embedded inclusion practices are better placed to sustain progress. A divide by headquarters is also clear: women occupy 14.2% of corporate executive roles at India-headquartered companies, against 18% at US-headquartered organisations and 20% at other foreign-headquartered firms.
Dr Saundarya Rajesh, Managing Director of Avtar Group, called the leadership reversal a “cautionary and extremely worrying trend,” noting that representation at that level had consistently moved upward until now. “Having a lesser number of women in the workplace is absolutely detrimental to the progress of India,” she said. She pointed to a global pullback in diversity initiatives, particularly among American multinationals, and questioned why companies based in India do not follow an India-specific strategy.
Geography and programmes show where gains still hold. Bengaluru leads among Indian metros with 41.1% women’s representation, while Delhi-NCR trails at 28.5%. On second-career support, 83% of India-headquartered Best Companies run formal programmes to help women return after career breaks, higher than US-headquartered firms at 70%.
