According to findings by research consultancy KANTAR, less than four out of 10 Indians feel ‘very comfortable’ about a woman heading their government or a major company. The research also indicated that women in India and globally, are more accepting of women holding leadership positions, compared to men.

India is part of KANTAR’s research for the first time for its annual global exercise to rate countries on the extent to which men and women are viewed equally in terms of suitability for positions of leadership across all sectors.

The Reykjavik Index runs from 0 to 100 – a score of 100 means that across society, there is complete agreement that women and men are equally suited to leadership in all sectors.

As per the report, “the Indices for India and Brazil are broadly in line with those for the lower-scoring G7 countries (Italy 68, Germany 69 and Japan 70), while those for Russia and China are much lower”.

The report said that India ranks at 67, where higher the ranking on the index, the more acceptable is the country towards both men and women in leadership positions.

The research for leadership also measures acceptability across various sectors. The findings suggest India’s acceptability of both men and women in leadership positions for defence is higher than the global average. India’s index for defence and police was at 68, higher than the overall index of G7 countries, which was at 62.

Meanwhile, India ranks higher in its overall acceptability of both genders as leaders in government and politics. The report indicated, “India, which has had a female Prime Minister (Indira Gandhi with two terms of office 1966-1977 and 1980-1984) and a female president (Pratibha Patil – 2007-2012), has an index score of 74 for this sector. Currently, 14 per cent of members of the Indian parliament are women”.