Not enough women at the bottom of the corporate ladder: Archana Hingorani

Archana Hingorani, founder of Siana Capital Management, speaks to deputy editor T. Surendar, about women in leadership roles.

Do you think women leaders are rising fast enough on the corporate ladder in India?

I think that starts from the bottom. There are not enough at the bottom to get to the top quickly. But I would say there is a definite improvement especially if you look at the financial services sector. There are others like IT and BPO which are catching up. But not fast enough because there are not enough people to get there.

Was it fast enough in the last decade?

Of course it was dramatically different in the last decade. You are seeing a whole lot more women come out there. You don’t realize there are so many. But as I said the bottom is empty so there are only that many, that you will get.

How important are events like Fortune India’s Most Powerful women to inspire the next crop of women leaders?

If you would have asked me this question 10 years ago, I would have told you not important enough because many people who get to a higher station in life vis a via a career don’t always find it easy to talk about success. It's almost embarrassing at some level. But I have learnt that if you do talk about it more and more, you definitely serve as an aspirational point of view for so many other women. And in that sense, it is important.