In 2013, Top Indian B-Schools (Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta, Lucknow, Kozhikode and Indore.), were hitting record highs, with 32% of admitted applicants being women. Since then an odd spiral has commenced, resulting in 2016’s 26% figure for women. No one seems to understand why, as the overall percentage of female applicants have remained the same.
While some are blaming a lack of corporate role models for females, others are down right flabbergasted. "It is very difficult to say why there has been a drop. We will have to dig deeper into our applicant pool and see.“ said Neeraj Dwivedi, admissions chairperson at IIM Lucknow, to the Economic Times.
A lack of role models is not the issue as women applicants have remained consistent since 2013. It is truly hard to say what the decrease can be attributed to, but with corporations currently looking for solutions to gender diversity issues, a lack of qualified female applicants from top B-Schools will not help.
