According to a report published on Thursday, about one-third of the candidates placed in CY2025 were women, and overall, women’s hiring remained steady compared with broader hiring patterns.

The Careernet report revealed that 36% of women’s postings were in entry-level positions, while the proportion of women hired for senior professional roles with more than 12 years of experience fell from 19% to 16%, highlighting a continuing leadership deficit.

There was an increase of about 2% year-on-year in the hiring of women with 3 to 12 years of experience, demonstrating an increasing need for seasoned female professionals.

With 40% of the market share, BFSI GCCs came first in CY2025, followed by other GCCs at 38%, showing a significant presence of women in GCC-led positions.

The best-performing core sector was domestic BFSI, which accounted for 31% of the market. The IT services industry remained at 29%, while the product GCC and local businesses were at 22% and 25%, respectively.

Mumbai (26%) and Delhi/NCR (24%) had modest participation in women’s placement, whereas Chennai (30%) and Bengaluru (29%) were at the forefront.

Women’s employment opportunities are still mostly concentrated in big urban areas, as evidenced by the 15% of Tier-II+ cities, which is about 3% lower than in CY2024.

Neelabh Shukla, Chief Business Officer at Careernet, said that focused interventions are clearly yielding results, as evidenced by the fact that one in three placements are women, there is a significant increase in hiring in BFSI GCCs, and there are advancements at the mid-career level.

Women are increasingly represented in positions requiring expertise and continuity as employment gets more competitive, he said.

In a separate report, TeamLease Degree Apprenticeship and GAN Global found that there is still a sizable gender gap in specialized IT and technical positions. Between 35 and 38 percent of all IT professionals are women, but there is still a 20 to 25 percent gap in job-ready women for specialized technical skills.

Only 14 to 16% of specialized technical positions, such as those in Java, Python, Cloud, Cybersecurity, and AI/ML, are held by women.

According to the report, women constitute 43% of STEM graduates overall, but in fundamental engineering fields like mechanical, electrical, and civil verticals, their representation is less than 20%.