Last month, the Indian Express published an article titled ‘The changing IIM: Over two decades, more and more women; engineers still dominate but their share dips’. It mentioned that while the percentage of female students has been increasing at most Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), it had touched almost 50% at IIM Kozhikode in the class of 2022.
Debashis Chatterjee, the director of IIM Kozhikode, has now told FE that it happened neither by accident, nor by design (i.e., there are no reserved seats for women). “We just made the classroom, management and MBA more attractive for female students,” he said.
In its flagship course, the Postgraduate Programme in Management (PGPM), IIM Kozhikode had just 5% female students in 2002 (the lowest among all IIMs), which increased to 30% in the class graduating in 2021, and 51% in the class of 2022 (see table).
“In 2022, we admitted 291 female students and 284 male students,” Prof Chatterjee said. “It was unprecedented.”
Steps taken since 2012-13
Prof Chatterjee said that IIM Kozhikode started taking steps to solve the gender diversity challenge more than a decade ago. “Those days, an increasing number of corporates were looking to hire more women at entry-level positions, but there weren’t enough female students in Indian B-schools,” he said. “We took steps to increase their participation, including organising many ‘women in leadership programmes’ since 2012-13. Looking at us, other B-schools also started their own initiatives. The result is that from about 10% female student participation across IIMs over a decade ago, today more than 30% students graduating from the IIM system are females. We didn’t do any magic, just organised a few programmes and lectures, inspiring women.”
Women outside the classroom
He added that IIM Kozhikode has a distinct legacy and a pioneering role in bringing about affirmative action towards gender parity in management. “Along with a high percentage of female students, women in IIM Kozhikode comprise about a quarter of the faculty, and about 50% when it comes to the Board of Governors, possibly the highest amongst IITs and IIMs,” he said. “This has been at the core of IIM Kozhikode’s efforts in the past decade and its conscious contribution towards women empowerment.”
Some training programmes at IIM Kozhikode have also inspired women to come forward in the field of management. For instance, the School Leaders Programme of IIM Kozhikode is popular in the region. It trains school principals for leadership roles, and indirectly supports women in management.