The Companies Act, 2013 introduced a statutory requirement for listed companies in India to appoint at least one woman to their boards, resulting in a decade of formal compliance. This paper examines whether such compliance has led to genuine gender equity in corporate leadership or has remained largely symbolic in nature. At the core of the analysis is what the paper describes as a “compliance–power gap,” reflected in the disparity between women’s presence on corporate boards and their comparatively lower representation in key managerial roles where real decision-making authority is concentrated. It argues that while regulatory measures have succeeded in improving numerical representation, they have not adequately addressed women’s access to positions of substantive executive power. The study adopts a doctrinal and comparative methodology. It analyses the Companies Act, the SEBI (LODR) Regulations, and the BRSR framework, and situates these within the broader context of verified secondary data drawn from institutional and industry reports. The research does not rely on primary data but instead synthesizes existing sources to assess the effectiveness of the current framework. The findings suggest that increased representation at the board level has not been translated into meaningful inclusion within top management. Moreover, India’s progress remains limited when viewed against global benchmarks. The available evidence further indicates that board-level diversity, in isolation, is insufficient to influence governance outcomes without parallel representation at the executive level. The paper concludes that the present regulatory approach is narrow in scope. It calls for a shift in focus from formal board representation to substantive executive inclusion, emphasizing that meaningful progress depends on extending policy attention to positions where corporate authority and decision-making power are actually exercised.