For decades, the conversation around women in technology and leadership has been a numbers game. We have meticulously tracked enrolment ratios, attrition rates, and representation in entry-level cohorts. But as we stand at the cusp of an AI-driven revolution, we need to move beyond counting heads to understanding, who is shaping the tech that shapes our lives.
When women are absent from the rooms where algorithms are written and products are designed, the bias is not malicious. It is systemic. It sneaks into facial recognition software that fails on darker skin tones, into voice assistants that misunderstand female cadences, and into healthcare AI that overlooks cardiac symptoms unique to women. The interplay of these dynamics is subtle, but the impact is profound. And in India, where we are building digital public infrastructure for over a billion people, we cannot afford these glaring blind spots.
Globally, the picture is sobering. Women hold only about 25% of computing roles and an even smaller fraction of C-suite positions. According to the recent Jan 2026 EY report, in India, despite producing nearly 40% of the world’s STEM graduates, their participation in the core tech workforce remains stubbornly low, with the gender gap widening considerably at senior levels.
Asian Woman Leadership 