TL;DR Women’s presence in India’s key decision-making institutions has improved over the years, but representation remains uneven and far from parity. While corporate boards and the Indian Air Force show relatively higher participation, women continue to hold a limited share of positions in the higher judiciary, senior corporate leadership, and core defence structures.

Context

Women’s representation in positions of authority has increasingly become central to discussions on inclusive governance and institutional credibility in India. Recent debates around the low share of women in the higher judiciary, renewed attention to the Women’s Reservation in legislature, and growing conversations on women in leadership roles across the armed forces and corporate sector have highlighted a common concern: who gets to participate in decision-making spaces. Even as women’s participation in education and the workforce has expanded, their presence in institutions that shape laws, security, and economic priorities remains uneven. The issue is no longer limited to representation alone, but to whether India’s key institutions adequately reflect the diversity of the society they serve. Against this backdrop, this article examines women’s representation across three critical domains linked to power and decision-making, viz, the judiciary, defence services, and managerial leadership positions in India.

Who compiles this data?
The data in the Women and Men in India report is compiled and published by the National Statistical Office (NSO) under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI). The report brings together gender-related statistics from various government ministries, departments, surveys, and administrative records to present a comprehensive picture of the status of women and men across sectors in India.

Where can I download clean & structured data related to this?

Clean, standardised, structured, and ready-to-use collection of datasets related to women in decision making is available on Dataful. The collection includes data on women’s representation in the Union Council of Ministers, Parliament, managerial positions, Panchayati Raj institutions, the judiciary, voter participation, and more.

Key Insights

• Women’s participation in India’s armed forces remains below global averages. As of 2025, women account for about 4% of officer-level personnel in the Indian Army and 7% in the Navy, compared to nearly 16-18% in the United States and Australia.

• Among Indian defence institutions, the Indian Air Force shows relatively higher representation, with women making up nearly 13% of personnel in 2025, closer to international levels. In the last five years, the Indian Navy recorded the sharpest increase, with women’s share rising from 5.5% to 7.2%.

• Women remain significantly underrepresented in India’s higher judiciary. As of November 2025, women accounted for just 14.3% of judges across High Courts, while the Supreme Court had only 1 woman judge among its 33 sitting judges (about 3%). Representation at the apex court has remained consistently low over the years, with the highest number recorded in recent years being 4 women judges in November 2021.

• Representation varies sharply across High Courts. Sikkim (33.3%), Punjab & Haryana (28.8%), and Telangana (25%) report relatively higher share of women judges, while the High Courts of Manipur, Meghalaya, Tripura, and Uttarakhand had no women judges at all at the time of reporting.

• Sikkim’s High Court has consistently reported one of the highest shares of women judges, with 1 out of its 3 judges being women (33.3%). Telangana too has maintained a relatively high representation, with women accounting for nearly 25–30% of judges over the last five years.

• Women’s representation in managerial roles in India has increased steadily over the past decade, though men continue to dominate leadership positions. Among the Board of Directors, the share of women rose from about 25.8% in 2017 to 29.1% in 2025, while women in Senior Management Positions increased from 13.6% to 17.1% during the same period.

• Women’s participation is relatively stronger at the board level than in executive leadership roles. In 2025, women accounted for over 10 lakh board positions compared to about 42,436 senior management positions, suggesting that representation declines at higher operational and decision-making levels within firms.

• The sharpest growth has been in “Other Management Positions,” where the number of women increased from 4.3 lakh in 2017 to over 9.8 lakh in 2025. Transgender representation in managerial positions, though still very limited, has shown a gradual increase over the years.

Why does it matter?

The judiciary, defence services, and corporate leadership are among the most influential decision-making institutions in any society. Representation within these spaces shapes how laws are interpreted, security priorities are defined, and economic decisions are made. Low participation of women in such roles reflects not just a gender gap in employment, but unequal access to power, leadership, and institutional influence.

Key Numbers

• 4% | 7% | 13% — Women in Army, Navy & Air Force (2025)

• 1 of 33 — Women judges in the Supreme Court

• 14.3% — Women judges across High Courts

• 25.8% → 29.1% — Women on Boards of Directors (2017 → 2025)

• 13.6% → 17.1% — Women in Senior Management (2017 → 2025)