It is still a man's bastion at the top rung of privately held businesses in the world as women globally form less than a quarter of the top brass. In India, the representation of the fairer sex is only 15 per cent.
According to Grant Thornton International, women still hold less than a quarter of senior management positions in privately held businesses globally; 34 per cent of PHBs have no women at the senior management level.
The greatest percentage of women in senior management is in the Philippines where women hold 47 per cent of senior positions. Philippines is followed by Russia (42 per cent) and Thailand (38 per cent), as per Grant Thornton International Business Report.
The lowest percentage continues to be in Japan where only 7 per cent of senior management positions are held by women along with Denmark (13 per cent) and Belgium (12 per cent).
In India, there is a rise in percentage of women in senior management level (15 per cent) as compared to previous year (14 per cent) but it still ranks in bottom five globally.
"Though an increasing number of women are in senior most positions today, it is still male-dominated at the top since most women have to cope with multi-tasking and need to strike a balance between their personal and professional lives," Grant Thornton India Partner Karishma R Phatarphekar said.
Among the metros in India, Chennai tops the list of women at 22 per cent followed by Delhi (18 per cent) and Bangalore (16 per cent) of the total number of people participating in the senior management of the business.
The survey further reveals that women have become most successful in increasing their share of senior management roles in Turkey where they have increased their stake from 17 per cent in 2007 to 29 per cent in 2009.
Meanwhile, in Mexico, it has increased from 20 per cent in 2007 to 31 per cent. The biggest falls were in Brazil, where the figure fell from 42 per cent in 2007 to 29 per cent in 2009, and in Hong Kong it fell from 35 per cent in 2007 to 28 per cent in 2009.
The Grant Thornton International Business Report is an annual survey of the views of senior executives in privately held businesses all over the world.
The report now surveys over 7,200 PHBs in 36 economies providing territory, regional and global trend data on the economic and commercial issues.
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