Indian women may become the country’s president of chief ministers of states, or hold

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top bureaucratic positions, but their lot in the corporate world is another story.

One survey shows Indian women are six times less likely than women elsewhere to make it to the very top of companies or even get bigger pay packets than men.

The survey by the Chartered Institute of Management Accounts (CIMA), the world’s largest professional body of accountants, says Indian women, as indeed women elsewhere in Asia, lag behind men in advancement and compensation from the very start of their career. Their lot — always behind men — does not change even after years of experience. The region or industry they work in is of no consequence either.

“This is primarily because of a certain institutional bias and the women’s own tendency to stick to one job for long. Both act as a hindrance to their success,” said Louise Ross, a programme specialist at CIMA.

There’s more. According to her, men have a better chance of drumbeating their achievements within their organisation, volunteer for special projects, seek international experience and change jobs when they think it helps advance in their career. Women are less likely to do so.

E Balaji, director and president of Ma Foi Randstad, agrees. If a survey is done among companies across India, one would probably find more male functional heads than women. “But this trend is fast changing,” he says.

“It is a known fact that a woman’s career is to some extent determined by her family setup. Responsibility towards family and children may slowdowna woman’s career. Having said this, today’s woman is fast emerging as an employee of choice for most organisations. This is evident in more women taking up management and engineering studies,” Balaji points out.

Ross says the trait makes women an equal contender for top managerial roles is their ability to use inter-personal skills, such as the power of influencing others, teamwork and conflict management, more frequently than their men (67 per cent versus 62 per cent). Thus women have a more participative leadership style than men. This is good for organisational success.

Ashok Reddy, managing director of staffing firm Teamlease Services, believes today’s Indian women have an equal opportunity to make it to the top in any organisation. “I don’t see why any organisation will prefer a man to an equally qualified woman for a particular job.” In fact, he says, women are more likely than men to admit that they need to develop certain skills like business acumen and leadership. The implication is that men don’t.

Expressing the women’s point of view, Anuradha Narasimhan, category head of health and wellness in Britannia Industries, says women today are no way behind men. This is exemplified in her own company, which is headed by a woman. And there are women heading other companies also, she adds.

Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, founder of Biocon and one of the most successful entrepreneurs among the fair sex, could not offer any comment as she was traveling.

Wipro, acknowledged for its gender inclusivity, claims it has a structured programme to increase the proportion of women candidates they interview. Its policy is also to retain women employees through what it calls “life-stages”.

“Our life-stage approach focuses on providing women exposure, flexibility and empowerment across the various life-stages that they go through,” says Suresh Vaswani, Wipro’s joint chief executive officer for IT business and board member.