The ‘leaky pipeline’ phenomenon, which describes the attrition of female students and graduates, who, despite educational qualifications, are not translating them into professional roles, can explain this. Beyond the education-to-workforce gap, a systemic leak also occurs when women in the workforce either hit the proverbial ‘glass ceiling’ or drop out entirely, resulting in the widespread lack of women’s representation in leadership. In India, this is particularly persistent in health, science, and technology—fields historically lacking gender diversity. World Bank data shows women comprised only 15% of research, science, and engineering roles in India in 2023. Department of Science and Technology statistics reveal that women made up only 18.6% of R&D personnel in 2021. In academia, reports show trends of women being underrepresented in STEM faculty and academic conferences. This reflects India’s persistently low, albeit improving, female workforce participation across sectors. The result: A STEM ecosystem that has limited women’s perspectives and decision-making power.

These leaks are driven by structural challenges and discriminatory attitudes, with familial responsibilities disproportionately falling on women and workplaces failing to support them. To address them, however, we must begin with where they take place.

The mid-career stage—roughly between 10 and 25 years into a person’s career, often preceding senior leadership and decision-making roles—is particularly vulnerable for women working in health, STEM, and allied fields. This is when they face some of the toughest bottlenecks: lack of mentors and professional networks, difficulties managing work and professional responsibilities, workplace biases, and discriminatory gender attitudes.

Careers are often thought to progress linearly, an assumption rooted in performance indicators and technical expertise alone. However, this negates foundational skills for effective leadership: Resilience, confidence, ecosystem awareness, productive relationships, and a commitment to mentor and develop others. An analysis of WomenLift Health data shows that at the mid-career stage, without intentional investments in their development, women’s perception of their leadership capabilities falls along multiple parameters. For mid-career women working in health and STEM across India, East Africa, and North America, their belief in their ability to build relationships, develop others, and be resilient in the face of challenges reduced over time. In comparison, mid-career women in these countries who received support through access to mentors, coaches, peer groups, male allies, and structured leadership development programmes, reported increased self-perception along all the same parameters. Data, therefore, suggest that without an ecosystem of support at this stage, women are at risk of experiencing real setbacks in their careers. They require training to apply an appropriate interplay of mindset, skillset, and behaviour to emerge as effective leaders.

In STEM, leadership skills have long been neglected in favour of technical expertise. Women STEM professionals working in India who are participating in the inaugural Women Leadership in STEM (WLS) programme, launched by the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), a department of biotechnology enterprise, and WomenLift Health, reported not having opportunities to develop softer leadership and negotiation skills upon reaching managerial positions. Without a contextually designed STEM leadership programme, emerging women leaders often have limited avenues to cultivate the skills for progressing into impactful leadership positions.

For disciplines that have historically overlooked leadership as a skill, conscious investments in women’s leadership by nodal institutions can correct long-standing gender imbalances. Evidence-based, structured programmes help address persistent professional barriers faced by mid-career women and advance women’s leadership in STEM. Additionally, a framework of leadership that focuses on meaningful self-reflection, allowing women to uncover the values with which they can lead authentically as well as contend with power, privilege, and one’s unconscious biases can foster impactful decision-making across the ecosystem.

In India, STEM decision-making involves several stakeholders: Educational institutions, researchers and academic institutions, startups and innovators, NGOs, funders, and governments and policymakers. So far, multiple leaky pipelines have excluded women’s perspectives and experiences across the STEM value chain.

Dedicated, competitively selected leadership programmes that include male allyship and an ecosystem approach, can help address these ecosystem-wide leaks. By bringing together diverse women from various sectors, they foster collaboration and expand ecosystem awareness across stakeholder groups. Such programmes offer both a systems and people approach to fix leaks: By increasing women’s participation and leadership across stakeholders while equipping them with the skills to lead authentically, inclusively, strategically, and impactfully. An appropriate interplay of mindset, skillset and behaviour is what will set these women leaders apart.

India’s science institutions need effective leaders, a substantial percentage of whom need to be women. If not, the government’s promising inclusive policies will only be good on paper.

This article is authored by Dr Ayesha Chaudhary, health care innovator and India director, WomenLift Health.