As we approach the International Women’s Day, an important ranking has come forward that delves into issues related to representation and welfare of women in workplaces. PricewaterhouseCoopers’ annual ranking of the representation and welfare of women in the workplace across 33 organizations for Economic Cooperation and Development countries, has brought forward an interesting picture.
While Iceland, Sweden and New Zealand have taken the top slots and are most conducive for women, the surprising let downs are US and UK.
The two largest English-speaking economies ranked 23rd and 13th, respectively.
The rankings (leading with 1st and onwards) are as follows –
Iceland, Sweden, News Zealand, Slovenia, Norway, Luxembourg, Denmark, Poland, Finland, Belgium.
According to the report, the Nordic countries held the top five positions. UK’s women participation rate of 57% was considerably behind Sweden’s 69%.
If UK could raise the employment levels vis a vis Sweden, it could actually bring in an additional $178 billion to the economy. Increasing female employment across all OECD nations could lift gross domestic product by over $6 trillion, PwC said.
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China and India weren’t included in the study because of their status as non-OECD (Organisation for economic cooperation and development) nations. If they were, then China would rank 27th, just ahead of Japan, while India would rank at the bottom, behind Korea, because of the extremely low level of female participation.
According to PwC, the US has fallen 14 places since 2000, as full-time female employment declined.
Britain’s gender pay gap remains a key drag on progress, especially in London, where it has “barely budged” since 2010, the report said. New rules introduced last year require all employers with more than 250 staff to publicly report the difference in average pay and bonus between their male and female workers on an annual basis.