A new study by global professional services firm Aon has found that the leadership gap in corporate India stems primarily from structural barriers within organisations rather than a lack of ambition among women professionals.
The study, titled Gender and Leadership at India Inc, surveyed 1,500 leaders, including more than 400 women, across over 30 cities in India. It examined how men and women progress through leadership pipelines and identified systemic challenges that restrict women’s advancement to senior positions.
The research found that men and women share similar levels of ambition and are driven by comparable career motivations such as purpose, professional growth and leadership culture. However, career outcomes differ significantly due to differences in how leadership opportunities are structured and allocated.
One key finding relates to career progression patterns. Men aged 50 and above in leadership roles are more likely to have built their careers within a single organisation, benefiting from clearer promotion pathways and access to high-impact assignments. In contrast, women leaders in the same age group are more likely to have advanced by switching organisations, relying on a combination of internal and external opportunities.
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By the age of 50, only 20% of women had progressed within the same organisation compared with 49% of men. Women leaders also reported a higher number of career transitions overall, averaging 4.13 job changes compared with 3.17 for men.
The report highlights limited access to core business and commercial roles as a major factor behind women’s underrepresentation in senior leadership. Nearly half of women leaders (49%) work in enabling functions such as HR, legal or support roles, compared with 37% of men. Men, on the other hand, are more frequently placed in revenue-generating and core business positions that are considered critical stepping stones to top leadership roles.
Among leaders under 35, 38% of women work in enabling roles compared with only 22% of men, reflecting a significant early-career gap. Although this disparity narrows over time, many women who eventually reach senior positions do so only after shifting from enabling roles into core business functions later in their careers.
The experience gap is particularly pronounced in profit-and-loss (P&L) responsibilities and sales roles. While 91% of male leaders reported having P&L experience, only 68% of women had similar exposure. The gap is even wider in sales roles, where 90% of men reported experience compared with just 45% of women.
The study also revealed perception gaps regarding workplace fairness. While organisational policies are often described as gender-neutral, women report lower confidence in their fairness. Only 65% of women believe leadership decisions are unbiased, compared with 84% of men. In addition, 34% of women rated their organisations’ action against gender bias as average or below expectations, nearly double the 17% reported by men.
The findings suggest that improving women’s representation in leadership will require organisations to rethink how career-defining opportunities are distributed and ensure that women have equal access to roles that build leadership readiness.
