International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR)

ISSN (Online): 2319-7064

Index Copernicus Value (2013): 6.14 | Impact Factor (2014): 5.611

Women Participation in Indian Banking Sector:

Issues and Challenges
Ramya K. R.1, Dr. A. Raghurama2
1
Research Scholar, Department of Studies and Research in Commerce, Mangalore University, Mangalagangotri-574199, Karnataka, India
2
Professor, Department of Studies and Research in Commerce, Mangalore University, Mangalagangotri-574199, Karnataka, India

Abstract: Nationalization of the Indian Banking Sector in 1969 served as the first major step to reduce gender discrimination against
women in banking and insurance sectors and has provided opportunity for women empowerment. The pattern of Indian women's
employment has changed markedly since the 1970s. Technology has indeed played a significant role in this change. Increasing women
literacy, growing economic pressure, and desire to gain economic and social independence are pushing womenfolk to take up gainful
career in banks. The phenomenal growth of banks has created massive employment opportunities for the educated women of our nation.
The women job-seekers find jobs in banks more attractive and more suitable to their nature. In this paper an attempt has been made to
identify the general sentiments, challenges and opportunities of women employees in the Indian Banking Industry, which is the life
blood of the Indian economy.

Keywords: Women, banking sector, empowerment, Opportunities

1. Introduction banking industry (Khandelwal, 1988).The Indian

government appointed a committee in the year 2009, to look
In Vedic times women occupied the highest place in society. at human resource issues of public sector banks under the
They were given all opportunities to develop themselves, chairmanship of former Chairman and Managing Director of
socially, intellectually and morally. They were given Bank of Baroda and Anil Khandelwal. The Khandelwal
thorough education. Similarly there is a positive change in Committee made some far-reaching recommendations, some
the present society, which is focusing on women of which were accepted by banks and the government.
empowerment. The progress of any country is intimately According to the committee's report published in 2010, at
linked to its ability to develop and use its human resource that time women accounted for only 17 per cent of
effectively. This is particularly true in a developing country employees in state-run banks, of which only 2.7 per cent of
like India. Women, as a significant part of this human women were in executive positions.
resource pool, play a vital role in the economic, social and
political development of India. Nationalization of the Indian “Women started joining banks only in the late 70s and
Banking Sector in 1969 served as the first major step to mostly at clerical levels. With career progression reaching
reduce gender discrimination against women in banking an apex, the industry is likely to have more women at the top
sector and that provided opportunity for women in the years to come. And when they do come, they are not
empowerment. The pattern of Indian women's employment just considered women, but as leaders and role models,”
has changed significantly since the 1970’s. Many major says Subhalakshmi Panse, chairperson-cum-managing
Indian banks are hiring highly qualified young Indian director (CMD) of Allahabad Bank, who took over the reins
women to their administrative levels and they are showing in 2012. Not only in the higher levels that we can see had the
remarkable growth over the years. involvement of women but also in the clerical levels also
women are more attracted. Secured family life, attractive
2. Objectives of the study salary, favourable working conditions and the stability in
work are some of the reasons that make this sector more
1) To identify the problems of women in the Indian banking preferable to women.
sector.
According to a study by Standard Chartered Bank about
2) To suggest the measures to overcome the problems.
women on corporate boards in India, the financial sector
performs best in terms of gender diversity, nine of the eleven
3. Methodology banks listed on BSE-100 have a woman on their board and
two of these banks have a female CEO. In fact, through the
The present study is based on secondary data and the data recent recession, Reserve Bank of India had two women
were collected from journals, books, news papers, RBI deputy governors on board, Usha Thorat and Shyamala
annual reports and other websites. Gopinath.

4. Spotlight on Women in Indian Banks According to the 2013 Catalyst Census: Fortune 500 Women
Executive Officers and Top Earners, women represented
The number of talented women with a finance background 17.6 percent of executives and 17.9 percent of the board of
joining into the banking sector is increasing every year. directors in the finance and insurance sector. In 2012,
Women constitute a little over 11% of the workforce in the women represented 23.1 percent of all senior officers in

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 International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR)
ISSN (Online): 2319-7064
Index Copernicus Value (2013): 6.14 | Impact Factor (2014): 5.611
Financial Post 500 companies, and in 2013 11.4 percent of and MD, Axis Bank), Usha Ananthasubramanian (CEO, MD
chief financial Officers of Fortune 500. Punjab National Bank), are contributing a lot to the bank’s
growth. The below table presents the class-wise distribution
The banking Sector in India which was male dominated till of all scheduled commercial banks employees and women
1980’s, in last three decades the gender equality became representation in it. From the below table we can observe
fairly poised. Women executives like Chanda Kochhar that the number of female employees in the banking sector is
(CEO, ICICI Bank), and Naina Lal Kidwai (CEO,HSBC), increasing year after year.
Arundathi Bhattacharya,(CMD SBI), Shikha Sharma(CEO

Table 1: Group-Wise Distribution of Employees Of All Scheduled Commercial Banks According To Category Since March
2005-2014
TOTAL EMPLOYEES OF WHICH : FEMALES
Year
Officers Clerks Subordinates Total Officers Clerks Subordinates Total
2014 6,40,869 4,31,842 1,81,244 12,53,955 1,29,345 1,25,795 22,652 2,77,792
2013 5,51,712 4,84,975 1,84,044 12,20,731 95,507 1,15,233 22,436 2,33,176
2012 5,02,938 4,81,421 1,90,790 11,75,149 84,375 107,826 23,113 215,314
2011 4,70,144 4,02,521 1,78,220 10,50,885 67,958 100,999 17,827 186,784
2010 4,01,060 3,49,360 1,75,608 9,26,028 50,507 86,351 16,525 1,53,383
2009 3,51,841 3,42,930 1,74,641 8,69,412 41,538 79,174 17,382 138,094
2008 3,34,884 3,33,414 1,70,471 8,38,769 36,091 72,102 15,208 1,23,401
2007 3,47,662 3,66,700 1,85,045 8,99,407 34,441 81,031 17,252 1,32,724
2006 330,093 3,84,821 1,85,210 9,00,124 30,566 84,843 17,339 1,32,78
2005 313,863 396,812 189,758 900,433 27,282 86,094 17,113 130,489

The above table depicts the distribution of employees of all women employees feel that these constraints are intensified
scheduled commercial banks in India since 2005-2014, it is by being forced to adopt the behaviour of the 'successful
clear from the table that every year the number of women manager or officer' which has been established by men.
entering into the banking sector has been increasing They argue that women could find their own strategies
significantly, that is from 1, 30, 489 in 2005, to 2, 77,792 in which would achieve the same result (Mankidy, 1988).
the year 2014, out of which 1,29, 345 are in the officers Women frequently suffer subtle forms of discrimination that
position. That means 1,47,303 and optimal women entered tend to get worse as they progress up the career ladder. Their
into the banking sector, within a period of 9 years. The lack of visibility is a disadvantage that manifests itself when
increasing number of women employees in Indian banking job assignments and selections for training programs are
sector shows that the gender discrimination in the workplace made and they tend to be excluded (Goverman, 1992).
is being reduced since past few decades. Indian women managers’ expresse interest to be included in
informal networks on the job (Bhatnagar, 1988)
5. Problems of Women Employees in Indian
Banking Sector The biggest challenge lies in changing the stereotypes,
assumptions and biases about what is required for leadership
The banking and insurance sectors today offer more and success that permeate the culture of financial
prospects for jobs for women - both qualitatively and institutions. The senior management of financial firms have
quantitatively. However there are some common problems always been almost exclusively men and they remain the
faced by women managers, officers and clerical groups in strongly dominant group. This means that what is in fact a
banking and insurance sector, in the course of their careers. gender-based bias may be perceived by most senior
These include the burden of the dual role, sexual harassment managers to be no more than commonsense meritocracy.
in the workplace, the refusal of men to accept women as These assumptions relate to both day-to-day working
colleagues or seniors, and the lack of solidarity among practices and also the qualities required for leadership.
women. A lot of women play both primary breadwinner and
primary care taker role which create a tension most men do Certain behaviors are perceived differently when exhibited
not experience when juggling work and personal by men and women. For example, an assertive man might be
responsibilities. perceived as being a strong leader whereas a similarly
assertive woman might be perceived to be “strident” or
According to a study by Kamala Srinivasan (1991) 50 per “bossy” (adjectives rarely applied to men). And as pointed
cent of women complained that extra work is always out earlier, the character traits traditionally associated with
shunted to women. They also complained about sexual leadership in financial firms have been typically masculine.
harassment from colleagues, managers, or customers.
Women also felt dissatisfied that they were not sent out for The discrimination experienced by women working in banks
training. Some obstacles arise from women's specific is mainly in terms of the lack of infrastructural facilities, the
difficulties in demanding promotion - because promotions transfer policy, and assumptions that women would not be
are linked with transfers; or they have difficulties in working interested in training or in promotions.
late; or because women shy away from responsibility,
having a low opinion of their own abilities and a negative
attitude to accepting recognition (Mankidy, 1986). Some
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 International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR)
ISSN (Online): 2319-7064
Index Copernicus Value (2013): 6.14 | Impact Factor (2014): 5.611
6. Strategies to Overcome from the Problems officers, and a cell to deal with women's issues in every
bank's personnel department. They are currently trying to
The first step in addressing the unconscious biases and formulate demands relating to training programmes and time
assumptions is to get people recognize and understand these off for women to do union work.
in their own thoughts and behaviour. Management may
require some training to help them do this. Some firms are Similarly the All India Bank Employees Association
taking measures to improve awareness of gender issues, (AIBEA) initiated a women's wing of the union to take up
using workshops and reverse mentoring, issues specially affecting women. The Reserve Bank of
India has a Women's Forum for the same purpose. The
The second, and perhaps the most important step in unions in the LIC have begun to organize women-only
eliminating biases is ensuring that these assumptions about meetings and workshops. The Insurance Employees
what it takes to be an effective leader do not influence hiring Association decided in 1991 to organize women employees
decisions, promotions, the allocation of career opportunities more effectively, as the number of women employees was
and performance evaluations. To bring this about, senior increasing day by day, with over 75 per cent of the new
management should change their recruitment and promotion recruits being women. The association has demanded
criteria and set targets for attracting and developing a crèches facilities, special leave and better working
diverse set of leaders. conditions for women, and the removal of hidden
discrimination.
Employers who want to help women advance to the top must
do more to make allowances for life outside of work. They Each PSB has to come out with a HRD plans for
must make sure that even ambitious and talented employees development of women and SC / ST employees. A special
do not feel that they will have to work hours incompatible HRD effort has to be put in place for developing these
with a family life. Women in banking who require flexible groups in key skills of banking. Training strategy to focus on
working conditions need to feel emotionally empowered to staff working in rural areas and women employees and
take full advantage of them. priority to be accorded for regular in-house training to rural
staff. Many of the Banks do not have transfer policy which
The Women's Wing of the AICOBOO has been taking up gives consideration to the special problems which female
these issues systematically. One outcome of their work has officers/employees face vis-a-vis their male counterparts.
been the charter of demands they submitted to their union Government of India, Ministry of Finance and Department
confederation. These included: of Financial Services has issued guidelines to all Public
Sector Banks including IDBI & SBI Associates, so that
6.1 Infrastructural facilities such as creches and day care transfers of female officers and employees can be considered
centres. with compassion and their hardship can be mitigated to the
extent possible. National Institute of Bank management
6.2 Provision of hostels for working women, (NIBM) is also organising workshops for female clerical
accommodation for divorced, separated and widowed staff, officers and managers.
women with children.
One way of improving prospects for women could be to
6.3 Special leave with a lien on service, for up to say five restructure the work, for example with flexible working
years, to meet certain contingencies specific to women, hours, part time job assignments, split location positions
extending this facility to men also whenever required. performed partly at home and job and job sharing
(Mankidey 1988). Banks should be encouraged to have a
6.4 Provision for a woman with a child less than three years formal mentorship program in which new employees are
old to work for fewer hours and receive proportionate pay. assigned mentors who are responsible for helping the new
recruit to fit into the central core of the organization.
6.5 Family pension and voluntary retirement for men and
women after twenty years of service. Finally, if financial firms are to make progress on increasing
diversity, they cannot treat it as a side-line activity.
6.6 Provision for flexi-hours and part-time employment in Increasing diversity must be a priority for the most senior
suitable cases. management in the firm and not merely for HR.

6.7 Although maternity leave (12 weeks in all) is regarded as 7. Conclusion

fairly satisfactory, additional provisions required are medical
benefits, hospitalization, leave for the purpose of child care, Increasing women literacy, growing economic pressure, and
paternity leave for at least ten days, and further leave for the burning desire to gain economic and social independence
those who have to look after an infant in special are pushing womenfolk to take up gainful career. The
circumstances. The Ministry of Labour is expected to amend phenomenal growth of banks has created massive
the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961, which presently entitles employment opportunities for the educated women of our
women to 12 weeks of maternity benefit whereby employers nation. Feminine traits no doubt help them perform better
are liable to pay full wages for the period of leave. than male colleagues in certain aspect of delivery of banking
service Researches have shown that having women on
6.8 The specific demands put forward by the Women's Wing boards provides genuine value addition to decision-making.
include a uniform transfer policy in all banks for women We have a distance to go, especially in the larger society,
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 International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR)
ISSN (Online): 2319-7064
Index Copernicus Value (2013): 6.14 | Impact Factor (2014): 5.611
whose attitudes determine how women are viewed and
valued, including in corporate life.

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Author Profile
Ramya.K.R received the M.H.R.D and M.COM.
Degrees from Mangalore University
Mangalagangothri, in the year 2009 and 2013
respectively, at present Perusing Ph.D in the
department commerce at Mangalore University.

Dr. A. Raghurama received the M.COM degree and

Ph.D from Mangalore University and working as
Professor in Dept. of Commerce at Mangalore
University, His Specialization areas are Advanced
Banking & International Finance, Micro, Small and Medium
Enterprises Management & Rural Development.

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