Best countries for female workers
• Nine of the 10 best OECD countries for working women are in Europe, and two of the top three are in the Nordics.
• And although there is progress being made in other parts of the world to close the gender equality gap, there is still a lot of work to be done.
• This is according to the PwC Women in Work Index 2019, which identified a gradual improvement across the OECD for female economic empowerment.
• The two top spots are unchanged, with Iceland’s position as the top performer strengthened by an increase in female labour force participation and a fall in the female unemployment rate.
• One reason for Sweden’s consistently high performance is its progressive parental leave legislation, which actively encourages men to use their statutory time off.
• Norway was knocked out of the top five by Slovenia, which saw a rising number of women in work.
• New Zealand, the only non-European OECD country in the top 10, sits in third place – its highest ever placing in the index.
• Luxembourg and Poland also made significant improvements, through narrowing the gender pay gap and a large reduction in the female unemployment rate, respectively.
• However, Portugal, the US and Austria all fell significantly; Portugal saw a substantial rise in its gender pay gap while the US and Austria experienced a drop in female labour force participation and full-time employment, respectively.
• PwC also looked at the relative performance of two non-OECD countries – China and India.
• China would have ranked between Slovakia (26) and Japan (27). It has a larger than average (among the OECD) gender pay gap of 25% coupled with a relatively high proportion of working women in full-time employment – at 89%.
• Meanwhile, India would be languishing right at the bottom of the PwC index. It has a substantial gender pay gap of 36% (higher than any other OECD nation) and relatively low levels of female participation in the workforce.
• If India could get female employment up to the same rate as Sweden (69%) it could potentially generate an extra $7 trillion – approximately 79% of India’s GDP.
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