If India can increase women's labour force participation by 10 percentage points (68 million more women) by 2025, India could increase its GDP to 16% (Catalyst. Quick Take: Women in the Labour Force in India. New York: Catalyst, June 27, 2017.)

But what does that mean for organisations?

Any numbers of studies across the globe have shown that having a diverse workforce has business advantages. Research in the USA and Europe found that companies having several senior level women tend to perform better financially. Companies with at least one female director showed better financial outcomes on a range of measures than those where there was no woman.

A Canadian study found that having women on the board and senior levels enhanced financial governance. A Norwegian study found that corporate governance, including effective board procedures and structures, improved with women’s board representation.

Why does having women in the workforce have such positive impact?

Having the best talent is critical to success in competitive markets. Increasingly, women are more highly educated than men, and an organisation that is as attractive to women as it is to men, will have access to the entire talent pool and therefore a competitive advantage.

Moreover, having women leaders has been shown to increase innovation. A US study found that the presence of a woman in the top management amounts to creating extra market value for each firm of about US$44 million, just because of the increased focus on innovation.

Of course the benefits to reputation cannot be ignored either – companies are able to attract the best employees, retain existing customers and attract new clientele.

And yet, just hiring more women is not enough.

As has been rightly said, while diversity is fundamental, gender equality is paramount. This means access to the same opportunities and rewards, irrespective of gender. It means increased hiring, retention and promotion of female executives. It means promoting a culture of workplace gender equality to reduce the risk of discrimination and harassment. It means awarding productivity over physical presence (for men too, as increasing numbers of men have working partners and are more involved with childcare than before). It means closing the wage gap. It involves engaging men as champions.

It also means making training and leadership programmes available to women. It means investing in mentoring and sponsorship schemes. It involves training managers to lead diverse teams.

And yet, after all possible organisational efforts and policies, women still drop out. That’s because a large cause of the talent leakage is due to internal self-related and social factors. Such as self-perception, career orientation, success definitions, acceptance of social norms and gender roles, role models, family support system and work-family conflict.

Unless these are also addressed, the efforts to retain women at the organisational levels will only be half effective.

Are you doing enough to hire, retain and develop women employees?