India's biggest banks are headed by women but sector is still male-dominated

What do State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, Punjab National Bank, HSBC, Allahabad Bank, Bank of America Merill-Lynch have in common? They are all headed by women in India.

Despite this, the banking sector still remains largely male-dominated and even this year the hiring trend is likely to continue being in the favour of men, an 'India Skill Report 2016', says.

According to the report by People Strong HR Services and Wheebox, in the Banking and Financial Services sector, entry and middle-level hiring is still male-dominated in 2016. This year, male hiring may account for 68% new recruits compared to 65% last year and female hiring is expected to drop to 31% against the 34% in 2015. 

The report says, that even though women like Arundhati Bhattacharya (SBI), Chanda Kochhar (ICICI Bank), Shikha Sharma (Axis Bank), Usha Ananthasubramanian (PNB), Naina Lal Kidwai (HSBC), Kaku Nakhate (BofA), Shubhalakshmi Panse (Allahabad Bank) “have broken into the C-suite...the sector has a long way to go in terms of gender diversity.”

To encourage women in the banking sector, ICICI Bank has been a pioneer with initiatives like iWork@Home which will let its women employees to work from home for one year, which can be extended too. The bank also facilitates travel and stay cost for women managers with children up to the age of three years.

This year, the aforementioned report says that the banking sector will see up to 2.2 lakh new jobs being created on the back of the government's focus on financial inclusion and many new bank licences being given out by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). “With the issuance of new licences and efforts being made by the RBI and the Government to expand financial services into rural areas, the job opportunities in this sector are expected to increase significantly. There will be a 24% jump in new jobs in the sector this year,” the report says.

This year, however, employers are looking to hire people with at least 5-10 years of experience and the demand for freshers has gone down.

“The hiring will take place across the levels but more action happening more at entry levels and middle management levels,” the report said.