Corporate Social Responsibility including Gender Equality issue in present economic environment plays an important role in sustainable development. Since the UNCED conference in Rio de Janeiro 1992, a strong international women's lobby has been participating in the "Rio process". Women have been given "major group"accreditation status in UN policies.
Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting is a voluntary practice of Companies. However, it is assumed as an essential and ethical practice of the company as a responsible corporate citizen. Helen Brand, chief executive of ACCA, says: ‘ACCA supports greater diversity in terms of gender, but also in terms of background and experience. Transparency is the key to overcoming gender inequalities in companies -not quotas. We would not want to see new regulation on this issue and trust that companies will commit themselves to enhancing boardroom representation on a voluntary basis. To allow for greater transparency, ACCA recommends that companies should routinely report gender-detailed HR data for all staff, including board members.
Moreover, corporate reporting is total communication system between a company and its users. This is the most direct, least expensive, most timely and faired methods of reaching all shareholders and other, present and potential users. However, corporate reporting is meant for all the Users but our accounting concepts and conventions are silent in this regard. It is evident from the accounting conservatism that gender differences prevail in financial reporting Decisionmaking. Considering the above statement of the problem, this paper is an attempt to evaluate the role of corporate houses in promoting gender equality by means
Of Corporate Social responsibility. More precisely, the study is undertaken to evaluate and analyze the success factors of corporate social responsibility in promotion of gender Equality. By success factors, we mean conditions that are promoting positive impacts on society and the environment through CSR activities in the companies. Present study is Undertaken at Steel Authority of India Limited- A Navaratna public sector company and India's largest steel producer. The study is based on CSR Report of SAIL. A prime subject of the paper is to evaluate the role of SAIL in promoting gender equality in society. Presently, SAIL has 6960 women employees having only one in the board and 829 in management position. The employment ratio or gender ratio is only 94:6. It is not a satisfactory one though SAIL is initiating well number of gender promotional activities.
Furthermore, it can be said that the SAIL initiatives towards gender promotion, gender reporting in a conventional manner and inclusion of women in corporate affairs can stand as a complementary practice for the society.
