Women in Indian startups: A report on Monday by non-profit philanthropy platform ACT, with knowledge partner management consulting firm McKinsey, focusing on women in the Indian startup ecosystem said that women comprise 35 per cent of the startup workforce, compared to 19 per cent in corporates. Underscoring the growing share of women in startups, the report noted that 18 per cent of startup CEOs or founders are women while only 5 per cent hold these positions in corporations. The report involved participation from more than 200 startups including Urban Company, Meesho and Zomato with 111 founders, 117 CHROs, and 755 startup employees.
The share of women in the startup workforce is projected to jump to 50 per cent by 2030 with 2 million (20 lakh) new jobs expected for women by 2030 out of the overall increase in startup employment from 860k (8.6 lakh) in 2022 (with 3 lakh women employee) to 4.8 million (40.8 lakh) by 2030.
The report also noted faster progression in startups as it takes half the time to become a leader in a startup as it does in a corporate while in terms of autonomy at work, twice as many employees report a sense of autonomy in startups as do those in large corporates.
Further, when it comes to merit, the potential is valued over work experience in startups with the average age of startup employees being half of their corporate equivalents.
Moreover, since “experienced women in startups want to advance their careers and break the glass ceiling; this has been challenging in corporates. It’s emerged as the single most important factor for 72 per cent of them.”
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Notably, it was found that while only 5 per cent of women are at founder/CEO levels in corporates, the share of women at founder/CEO levels in startups is 18 per cent. Likewise, women in startups have a higher percentage of director, manager and entry-level roles in comparison to corporates.