Women’s Leadership Progression in India: A Systematic Review and Research Agenda on Enablers, Barriers, and Emerging Trends

Abstract

Over the past three decades participation of women in the Indian workforce has significantly expanded, supported by increment in economic liberation, urbanization, educational attainment, and access to professional employment. Regardless of all these gains, senior managerial, executive, and strategic leadership positions are less represented by females across sectors. This systematic review examines the literature on women’s career progression toward leadership positions in India, focusing enablers, barriers, and emerging trends. The study integrated evidence from studies across various sectors such as, public institutions, entrepreneurship, corporate organisations, banking, healthcare etc. The study is based on the PRISMA framework and a total of 20 studies were included from several databases such as Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar, JSTOR, ScienceDirect, Emerald, and SpringerLink. Results indicate that career continuity challenges, structural barriers, organisational practices, and socio-cultural expectations influence women’s career progression. Issues like unequal access to mentoring or sponsorship, limited networking opportunities, work & family pressures, underrepresentation in leadership positions, and gender stereotypes were also observed persistently. At the same time, leadership development programs, inclusive organisational culture, entrepreneurship ecosystems, digital transformation, policy reforms, and flexible work arrangements are creating new opportunities for advancement. Findings also suggest that gender-diverse leadership is positively associated with governance quality, organisational performance, and innovation. The study concludes that improving women’s leadership representation in India is an economic necessity and social equity imperative. To create equal leadership pathways and to gain sustainable progress, coordinated actions by policymakers, organisations, educational institutions, and society.