Kolkata, Aug 20 (IANS): India's corporate sector sees only four percent women at senior positions compared to the average of 11 percent in Asia, a report said on Thursday.

Revealing key highlights of the 2015 McKinsey's "Women Matter" research that explores the role women play in the global workplace, Sahana Sarma, principal, McKinsey & Company, attributed the "double burden syndrome" - the challenge of balancing work and family - in playing a key role in the decrease.

"In India, the number of women at the entry level is 25 percent and in the mid-level management, it comes down to 16 percent. In the senior management level there is a sharp drop to four percent," she said at an event here.

Sarma said the findings suggest that in most Asian countries, there is a 20 to 30 percent drop (in the number of women executives) at the senior management level, and attributed the low representation of women in prominent positions mainly due to five "barriers".

"As many as 43 percent feel that their companies don't have real initiatives in place to recruit retain and promote development. Despite the awareness and good intentions, women are not seeing that translate into real initiatives on ground," she said.

In addition, the double burden syndrome or balancing work with family demands)is much higher in Asia compared to Europe, she said.

"Plus, they don't see as many female role models, then there is the anytime-anywhere performance model and company support structure like childcare," she said, advocating proper public policy measures that boost companies to support childcare.

The complete report will be launched in three weeks, said Sarma.