Sweden, Iceland, Finland and Norway are the best places to work as a woman, according to a study of OECD countries by The Economist on the back of strong parental leave systems, flexible work schedules, access to university degrees and c-suite positions.
The United States ranked 20th out of 29 countries, slightly below the OECD average, with women in the workforce decreasing as well as number of women completing the Graduate Management Admission Test.
The study comes amid increasing recognition that gender diversity contributes to financial performance of companies with a McKinsey study showing that companies in the top quartile with regards to gender diversity on executive teams were 25% more likely to have above-average profitability than companies in the fourth quartile in 2019.
Canada maintained an above average 10th place. The fastest riser was Portugal, which went from 12th place to 5th between 2016 and 2021. Lowest on the list was South Korea, preceded by Japan, Turkey and Switzerland.
