Women rewriting tech playbook, but leadership pathways need fixing

As young women enter the technology sector with unprecedented confidence to shape emerging fields like artificial intelligence, corporate India must urgently redesign workplace systems to bridge the mid-career drop-off and propel them into leadership roles, top female executives said. While the industry has moved past the foundational struggles of basic representation, a consensus among leading women in the Indian tech and corporate ecosystem highlights a critical transition: the focus must now shift from mere participation to sustained leadership and accountability.

"They're rewriting the playbook - Not just succeeding in existing frameworks, but fundamentally changing how tech leadership looks - prioritising sustainable growth, inclusive innovation, and human-centred design. There's a critical mass now. Women leaders are actively pulling others up, creating mentorship pipelines and support systems that didn't exist before. It is exponential, not linear. "They know they belong - in boardrooms, in engineering, in the C-suite - and they're right. They are better educated, more globally connected, and frankly more confident than my generation ever was at their age," said Arundhati Bhattacharya, President and CEO of Salesforce South Asia.

This optimism is echoed across the sector, driven by the influx of women into frontier technologies. Sindhu Gangadharan, MD of SAP Labs India and Chairperson of Nasscom, noted that young women are actively building products and leading innovation in AI, data science, and engineering. She believes the coming decade will be transformative for gender representation in India's technology sector. The rapid expansion of digital industries and the growing demand for skills in artificial intelligence, data science and advanced engineering, she said, are creating new pathways for women to enter and grow in technology careers.

"At the same time, many organisations are becoming more intentional about building inclusive workplaces through mentorship programmes, leadership development initiatives and policies that support women at different stages of their careers. While progress will require sustained effort, the momentum today is stronger than it has ever been," Gangadharan said.

Tech Mahindra CIO Pallavi Katiyar says that the confidence and clarity with which young women today are approaching technology careers gives her great optimism. "They are not just participating in the ecosystem but shaping it, whether in AI, cybersecurity, or digital platforms. Access to global knowledge networks, mentorship, and more inclusive workplace policies is also helping. This generation sees leadership as a natural progression, and that shift in mindset will be a powerful catalyst for change," she said. However, despite robust entry-level numbers, the journey to the C-suite remains fraught with invisible barriers.

Resham Sahi, Senior Vice President of Technology at A.P. Moller-Maersk, pointed out the stark disparity in the talent pipeline. "While women represent roughly one-third of India's technology workforce, representation drops significantly at senior levels, with only about 7 per cent in executive roles and around 13 per cent at director levels," Sahi said. "The challenge is therefore less about entry into the workforce and more about sustained progression into leadership." To combat this, leaders are calling for a fundamental overhaul of corporate structures rather than superficial policy tweaks. Sahi added that corporate India must build work environments that support women across different life stages, particularly during periods of relocation, family transitions, and raising children. "Don't retrofit women into broken systems. Redesign systems for human reality," Bhattacharya asserted. She emphasised that companies solving for women's full participation will naturally solve for all employees, including caregivers and people with disabilities, marking a "strategic transformation" rather than just an HR policy. To ensure women do not fall off the corporate ladder, industry veterans are pushing for structured interventions. Sandhya Arun, CTO of Wipro Limited, advocated for greater accountability in leadership advancement.

"Corporate India needs to move beyond intent and ensure women are consistently represented in decision-making roles. When leadership pathways are transparent and outcomes are measured, inclusion becomes real," she said.