Next year, Janet Truncale is set to make history as she assumes the role of chair and CEO at EY, marking the first time a woman will lead a Big Four firm.

Her journey spans an impressive 33 years, progressing from an intern to the pinnacle of the firm's leadership—a testament to her persistence and dedication.

However, this ascent was not without its challenges. Early in her career, Janet often found herself as the sole woman in rooms dominated by men, a sentiment shared by women at various levels of the corporate hierarchy globally and in India.

Despite women holding only 19% of corporate positions, there is a glimmer of hope in the startup landscape. The ACT's Women in India's Startup Ecosystem report reveals that 35% of the Indian startup workforce is female. By taking targeted and timely actions, the representation of women in startups could potentially reach 50% by 2030.

Motivations for women entering the startup arena align closely with those of men, emphasising accelerated learning, career advancement, a dynamic work pace, and innovation. Interestingly, women express finding it comparatively easier to break through the metaphorical glass ceiling in startups than in the corporate sector.

Nevertheless, the statistics show that only 18% of Indian startups are led by women, with a mere 17% of billion-dollar startups having a woman co-founder. Furthermore, a gender gap becomes more pronounced in startups after the 10-year mark, where 8 out of 10 men occupy director-level positions or higher, in contrast to only 5 in 10 women.

CNBC-TV18 engaged in discussions with Suman Gopalan of ACT for Women, former CHRO at Freshworks, Supriya Paul, Co-Founder & CEO of Josh Talks, and Aakanksha Gulati, Director at ACT Grants to assess whether sufficient efforts are being made to level the playing field and identify the best practices that Indian startups should adopt as they commit to achieving gender parity.

Watch the accompanying video for the entire discussion

(Edited by : Ajay Vaishnav)