‘India's working women face strong gender bias’

Even though 66% of people in India feel that gender equality has improved compared to their parents' age, working women still contend with the strongest gender bias across Asia Pacific countries, according to LinkedIn's Opportunity Index 2021 report released on Tuesday.

When asked about their reasons for being unhappy with opportunities to advance in their careers, one in five (22%) working women in India said their companies exhibit a 'favourable bias' towards men at work when compared to the regional average of 16%.

LinkedIn, the world's largest online professional network, commissioned independent market research firm GfK to conduct this research between January 26 to 31. The survey was conducted among 18 to 65 year olds via an online survey.

It had more than 10,000 respondents across the Asia Pacific region from Australia, China, India, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines and Singapore. The survey covered 2,285 respondents in India, 1,223 of whom were males and 1,053 were females.

Based on it, the LinkedIn Opportunity Index 2021 highlights the difference in perception of available opportunities in the market for men and women. While 37% of India's working women say they get fewer opportunities than men, only 25% of men agree with this.

This disparity in perception is also seen in conversations about equal pay as more women (37%) say they get less pay than men while only 21% of men share this sentiment.

An analysis shows that more women in India have experienced the impact of gender on career development when compared to the A-Pac region. More than four in five Indian working women (85%) claim to have missed out on a raise, promotion or work offer because of gender.