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Journalism of Courage
The Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) have seen a record number of women students in their 2024-26 batch. The percentage of women enrolments in this session ranged between 25 per cent and 75 per cent. While the number is most in newer institutes, there is a minor increase in women representation — ranging between 25 and 40 per cent — in the older IIMs.
The poor gender balance, especially in management and engineering institutes, has been an issue for years. Before 2017, the representation of women students in MBA programmes was below 11 per cent. Many IIMs introduced supernumerary seats in the last decade to encourage their participation. However, women enrolment in the top-ranked IIM-Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Calcutta remain modest, probably because these B-schools want to keep admission strictly “on the basis of merit”.
IIM Ahmedabad enrolled about 25 per cent women in its postgraduate programme (PGP) which is just 2 per cent higher than last year. A total of 535 students have joined IIM Bangalore’s PGP in Management and 72 got admission to the PGP in Business Analytics this year. Of these, 40 per cent are women students, the highest in the last 18 years.
In its flagship PGP programme, IIM Kozhikode admitted 59.06 per cent women students (290 in a class of 491 students). Last year, the percentage was 42.07 per cent.
Meanwhile, the second-generation IIMs have gone ahead enrolling more women students than men. IIM Rohtak, ranked 12th in the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), enrolled 73 per cent women candidates, 4 per cent higher than last year.
In IIM Sambalpur, women have outnumbered men with 76 per cent enrolment, the highest among all IIMs. This is an increase of about 20 per cent from 57.99 per cent in the last academic session.
The flagship course of IIM Kashipur has recorded 42 per cent women students, overturning the gender equation of the campus that had admitted around 35 per cent women students last year – an increase of 7 per cent in one year. The MBA-Analytics cohort has 75 per cent women students this session, surpassing last year’s tally of 69 per cent women candidates. IIM Kashipur is a second-generation IIM and is placed in the 19th rank.
There are exceptions as well. The enrolment of women students at IIM Raipur, a second-generation IIM, has dropped drastically — from 60.05 per cent last year to 39.81 per cent this year.
At IIM Indore, only 27.4 per cent of the total students are women. The percentage of women enrolled at IIM Indore is also seeing a gradual decline. While it was 33.88 per cent in 2021- 23, it dropped to 32.68 per cent, 31.4 per cent and 27.4 per cent in 2022-24, 2023-25 and 2024- 26, respectively.
IIM Rohtak boasts of having one of the best gender-diverse classes in any management institution. Since 2018, this Haryana-based institute has had at least 50 per cent women candidates.
“We allow eligible female students and their parents to visit the institution by offering them train fare. Several interactive sessions with potential applicants are held every year,” said Dheeraj Sharma, director of IIM Rohtak. Further, the institute also facilitates loans from nationalised banks for deserving women students.
While IIM Sambalpur implemented a policy in 2017 that granted an additional 5 per cent cut-off reduction for women candidates during the interview selection process and in forming a unified merit list, IIM Kozhikode introduced initiatives like supernumerary seats in 2019.
Professor Debashis Chatterjee, Director, IIM Kozhikode, said, “The institute introduced initiatives like supernumerary seats for women students (2019) which ensured that women students inducted into our programme remained consistently between 30-40% and the progress made was not lost. Gender diversity among B-Schools became a conversation point after these major initiatives by IIM-K in the past decade (2013-2024).”
IIM Raipur, meanwhile, gives a 6 per cent weightage for gender diversity to the PGP programme.
To maintain the gender ratio, IIM Sambalpur has granted an additional 5 per cent cut-off reduction for women candidates during the interview selection process and in forming a unified merit list, which has been in place since 2017. “This has resulted in the historic achievement of a 50% female enrolment rate. This endorsement of gender equality and inclusivity, pioneered by IIM Sambalpur, has significantly inspired the gender balance across all IIMs to 30%, progressively increasing each year,” said Mahadeo Jaiswal, Director, IIM Sambalpur.
IIM Indore has scholarships specifically for female students to increase enrolment and retention: “We are now tracking and analysing gender demographic data related to our admissions process to identify areas for further improvement,” Professor Himanshu Rai, Director, IIM Indore, said.
The reason for the rise in women enrolment, according to IIM Bangalore, is the reduction in the dropout rates in women. “Women are more ambitious now and have been instrumental in leading key positions in the corporate world,” the institute said.
On bridging the gender diversity gap, Abhradeep Maiti, Chairperson of Admissions, IIM Kashipur, said, “IIM Kashipur has seen exponential growth in female students in the last couple of years. From 11% female students in 2019, the new batch has 42% female students.”
IIM Kashipur’s director-in-charge Somnath Chakraborti highlighted that while the first-generation IIMs took decades to come to this stage, they have done so in 13 years. “From gender to geographical diversity, ranking to tie-up with foreign colleges and universities, we are making all efforts to become the top 10 IIMs of the country.”
Currently working as a product manager in a corporate company, Chhavi Gupta, CAT 2017 topper and an alumnus of IIM Ahmedabad, said many believe that while IIMs are encouraging more women participation and people from different fields to take up MBAs, the benefit that is given is not much and neither is it available everywhere.
Fewer women reach top executive levels partly because they don’t receive the same level of support in their early education and career preparation as men do, she said. “While men often have the freedom to focus on their careers, women face additional pressures and less support, hindering their advancement,” she added.
According to Subhakar Alapati, Founder-Director of consultancy firm Global Tree Careers, while quota systems are a step towards addressing gender disparity, they often only scratch the surface of the deeper issues at play.
“The push towards higher enrolment of women in educational institutions is about more than just fulfilling a quota; it’s about creating an ecosystem where women can thrive and contribute equally to society. This drive ensures that women have access to the same opportunities as men, empowering them to break through traditional barriers and pursue their ambitions,” he said.
He further added: “In management, the need for more women is not merely about filling seats with diverse faces; it is about harnessing the unique strengths that women bring to leadership roles — such as emotional intelligence, collaborative approaches, and a strong sense of ethics. Encouraging women into these roles is not just about bringing in talent; it is about enriching the organisational fabric with perspectives that lead to better decision-making, enhanced creativity, and ultimately, a more resilient and adaptable business environment. The emphasis should be on not just meeting quotas but on recognising and nurturing the inherent value women bring to the table.”
