The decline was also seen in leadership roles, with women holding 16.7 per cent of corporate executive positions down from 20 per cent in 2025
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The Trump administration’s crackdown on Diversity Equity and Inclusion programmes has begun to pull down women’s representation in Indian corporations.
The share of women employees in the 125 companies that were part of workplace culture consulting firm Avtar’s list of Best Companies for Women in India (BCWI) Index dropped to 34 per cent this year, down from 36 per cent in 2025.
This was the first time that the share of women in the workforce declined after inching up gradually for 10 consecutive years.
The decline was also seen in leadership roles, with women holding 16.7 per cent of corporate executive positions down from 20 per cent in 2025.
At a virtual press conference, Saundarya Rajesh, Managing Director, Avtar Group, said that after the executive order passed by US President Trump in January 2025, a lot of companies have pulled back their efforts to increase the number of women in the workplace. “We definitely have to say that this has had a very strong impact on women in India,” she said.
Among the 125 companies surveyed this year, 63 per cent were global MNCs, while the remaining 37 per cent were Indian headquartered firms.
“Maybe the pushback against DEI in the US has been due to concerns about it not being merit-based. That is not the case in India… The MNCs need to be pushed to adopt a different India strategy around DEI,” she said.
Accenture, Barclays, HDFC Life Insurance, Procter & Gamble, Tech Mahindra, TVS Motor and Vedanta are among the companies surveyed.
This year, the share of sectors among the companies that ranked highest in the BCWI index has changed significantly.
“Three to four years ago, many of the best companies for women were in the IT or BFSI sector. Now we are seeing more companies in industries like manufacturing, energy, and pharmaceuticals, implying that these traditional industries have also increased their focus on DEI initiatives,” she said.
South Indian cities continued to outperform the national average, with women accounting for 41 per cent of the workforce in Bengaluru, 39 per cent in Chennai and 38 per cent in Hyderabad. Meanwhile, 75 per cent of surveyed companies reported a direct impact on profits from their DEI programmes.
The group also released the Most Inclusive Companies Index, which ranks companies based on the share of LGBTQ people, persons with disabilities, and generational variance. The number of LGBTQ employees among companies in the index rose to 3,188, while the number of persons with disabilities went up to 14,148.
The index, compiled in partnership with Seramount, a US-based global workforce and talent solutions firm, formulates a list of the top companies in India for women workers based on factors like workforce profile, safety, maternity leave provisions, retention and benefits. The companies in the index have a combined workforce of around 26.5 lakh employees.
Published on September 9, 2026
