2012-11-28 Women and India Inc.: Equality means business blogs.lse.ac.uk /southasia/2012/11/28/women-and-india-inc-equality-means-business/ At a time when half of all Indian women working in the private sector give up their careers before they turn 30, can the Women’s Empowerment Principles, a joint initiative of UN Women and the UN Global Compact, help firms cut down attrition rates, asks Mitali Nikore. On 3 October 2012, The Economic Times, an Indian daily, carried the headline “ Not Everyone is Marissa Mayer…” in reference to the working-mother precedent set by the pregnant Yahoo CEO. Closer to home, the Economic Times reports that there are 9.8 million women working in the Indian private sector, but only 18 per cent are in middle management roles and 50 per cent give up their careers before they turn 30. Less than 2 per cent of BSE 500 companies have female CEOs and just about 3 per cent of directors are women. In a recent study of 10 Asian markets , including China, India, Japan, S. Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia, Taiwan and Hong Kong, Mckinsey & Co. pointed out that India had the highest gap between university graduates and entry-level professionals: 42 per cent of graduates are female but only 29 per cent of entry-level professionals are female. The report also highlighted that India has one of the lowest female labour force participation rates in the world, roughly 35 per cent. If India means business, it needs to address the workplace gender gap. After all, consulting firm Deloitte hails “Women” as the biggest emerging economy of the world, pointing out that women‘s income will equal $18 trillion worldwide by 2014. As Deloitte puts it : the Gender Dividend is a steady benefit that is earned by making wise, balanced investments in developing women as workers and potential leaders as well as understanding women as consumers and their impact on the economy and the bottom line. Done right, the Gender Dividend should be reflected in increased sales, expanded markets, and improved recruitment and retention of a key talent segment. This view is reaffirmed in a study of Standard & Poor’s (S&P) 500, S&P Mid Caps and S&P Small Cap firms 1/2