Breaking the Glass Ceiling: Women of Indian Banking

Breaking the Glass Ceiling:

Women of Indian Banking

Ms. Chanda D. Kochhar

MD & CEO, ICICI Bank

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Breaking the Glass Ceiling: Women of Indian Banking

‘Here we are in 2011, and how odd is it that only a dozen

Fortune 500 companies have female CEOs?’
- Patricia Sellers, Fortune

Look for banks‟ CEOs in America and the chances are you may not
find many women at the top in these institutions. In fact, the latest
Fortune 500 has only a dozen women CEOs in its list. So
unfortunate. This is despite the fact that „placing women in key
positions pays off for investors,‟ comments Patricia Sellers of
Fortune in one of her recent posts. Indian banking sector should be
applauded for breaking the proverbial glass ceiling and giving
female managers equal opportunities, at part with their male
counterparts, and encourage them to lead from the front.

"It is very difficult for women to break the glass ceiling here (West),"
Sheila Wellington, clinical professor of management at New York
University's Stern School of Business told the Times of India in an
interview. Given that, kudos to banks like ICICI Bank (Chanda
Kochhar - CEO), Axis Bank (Shikha Sharma - CEO), Kalpana
Morparia (Country Head – JP Morgan India), Naina Lal Kidwai
(HSBC), Madhavi Puri Buch (CEO – ICICI Securities), Manish
Girotra (MD - UBS), Renuka Ramnath, Meera Sanyal (India Head -
RBS) amongst others, today‟s Indian banks stand taller compared
to their western counterparts when it comes to breaking the glass
ceiling.

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Breaking the Glass Ceiling: Women of Indian Banking

According to the executive research firm, EMA Partners, in India,

54% of the women CEOs are from the financial services sector. So
what makes female managers succeed well in banking and financial
services? “You got your next big challenge based on your
performance and your potential, not whether you were male or
female,” Chanda Kochhar, CEO of ICICI Bank, said in an interview
to NY Times. In another study Standard Chartered Bank found that
the financial sector performs best in terms of gender diversity, nine
of the eleven banks listed on BSE-100 have a woman on their
board, said a report in the Times of India.

In fact, many researchers have attributed Indian banking sector‟s

ability to scrape through the worst global financial crisis (of 2008)
in living memory without getting hurt to their women power (read:
women at top). "Women are not driven by wanting to just show
numbers," TOI quoted Renu Sud Karnad, MD of HDFC, India‟s
leading mortgage lender, as saying. She further added, "Women are
more practical and moderate in risk taking."
Besides women managers also possess certain qualities such as:
they are sensitive, caring and less vulnerable to corruption.

While banking sector can look forward to continue the good work in
this regard, there is a need for other organization too to ensure that
they work towards improving gender equity at work and equally
importantly make sure that a deserving female manager gets

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Breaking the Glass Ceiling: Women of Indian Banking

opportunity to occupy that corner office, CEO‟s office. And also,

other key positions.

(To be concluded….)

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