Promoting Women in Leadership for Improving Economic Outcomes, IWWAGE at Access Livelihoods Summit 2024
During the Livelihoods India Summit 2024, Institute for What Works to Advance Gender Equality (IWWAGE) organized a panel discussion session on Promoting Women in Leadership for Improving Economic Outcomes on January 18 in New Delhi. The session contributed to the current discourse on ‘women in leadership’, what it entails, highlighted measures that cover organizational strategies and best practices to accelerate women’s leadership.
The goal of ushering in women-led development requires concerted efforts on multiple fronts. Facilitating and enabling women in leadership positions can cause significant shifts in improving women’s economic outcomes using modern feminist methods.
The proportion of women in leadership roles is low in India. For example, a report by Dasra found that women’s workforce occupies only 18% of leadership roles in India’s healthcare sector, earning 34% less than their male counterparts. Another survey from Grant Thornton found that women hold 36% of senior management positions in mid-market companies in India. Creating an enabling ecosystem for women to transition into key decision making and leadership roles is critical not only from the point of view of diversity and inclusion but is also necessary for strengthening alternative forms of leadership that are starkly different from traditional approaches.
Enabling women leaders in politics, economics, finance, businesses, social sectors and so on, is crucial for institutionalizing gender-responsive mechanisms that cater to the needs of women in all sectors of the economy and facilitates in closing the rigid gender gaps. Women’s leadership has evidence of creating systems that operate to include and facilitate women not only in their productive spheres but adds to it by creating ‘caring’ spaces.
This panel aimed to contribute to the current discourse on ‘women in leadership’, what it entails, highlight measures that cover organizational strategies, market-based approaches and brings to the fore some of the existing knowledge and best practices from select sectors that accelerate women’s leadership.
Moderated by Sona Mitra, Principal Economist, IWWAGE
The Speakers were:
- Yamini Atmavilas – Udaiti Foundation
- Shagun Sabharwal, Co-impact
- Nayana Chowdhury, Breakthrough