Glass-Ceiling Index - measure of the Role and Influence of Women in the Workforce
- secbpwnz
- Mar 21
- 3 min read
The Economist’s Glass-Ceiling Index
Our annual measure of the role and influence of women in the workforce
To mark International Women’s Day on March 8th, The Economist has published its 14th annual glass-ceiling index. We rank 29 members of the OECD, a club of mostly rich countries, on how women fare in the workplace. Our index is calculated from ten indicators, including parental leave and the proportion of women in corporate leadership.
Index rank out of 29 countries
Iceland
Sweden
Norway
Finland
Poland
France
Denmark
Belgium
Hungary
Canada
New Zealand
Portugal - OECD average
Spain
Australia
Slovakia
Israel
Italy
Austria
Germany
United States
Greece
Britain
Ireland
Netherlands
Czech Republic
Switzerland
Turkey
Japan
South Korea
As in most years, Nordic countries are at the top of the table, and for the second year in a row we are crowning Sweden the winner. Like its neighbours, Sweden has high female labour-force participation rates and generous safety-nets for mothers, which help to give it the best overall environment for working women. France and the Netherlands are among the countries moving up the ranking this year. America and Spain are among the fallers. The table above provides a closer look.
We have selected the ten indicators in an attempt to reflect each stage of a woman’s career.
First, education. Across the OECD, a higher proportion of women than of men graduate from tertiary education—45%, compared with 37%—although that gap is slowly shrinking. At the top of the scale, nearly three-quarters of Canadian women are graduates, three times the proportion in Italy. The number of women who sit the GMAT test, which typically precedes entrance to an MBA programme, is another important marker. Just over a third of test-takers are women, a slight fall from last year.
The most fundamental of our indicators is labour-force participation. On average about two-thirds of women in OECD countries work, compared with four-fifths of men. But the rate for women varies widely across countries. At greater than 82%, Iceland, Sweden and the Netherlands top the list. Countries bordering the Mediterranean occupy the bottom three slots: Turkey (where only 42% of women are in the workforce), Italy (58%) and Greece (63%).
Next, corporate leadership. Overall, women on average hold a third of managerial positions. Countries beating that average include Britain, America and Sweden, all with scores over 40%. Representation on company boards is a more mixed picture. In America women have just 34% of seats, only fractionally above the OECD average. The leaders here are France (46%), Britain (45%) and Norway (44%). Promoting more women to corporate leadership should, in theory, shrink the gender wage gap—another of our indicators. The median gap has fallen to 11% across the OECD. The gap is notably wide in South Korea (29%) and Japan (21%), where the ratios of board seats and managerial jobs held by women are also low. Although they graduate in higher numbers than the OECD average, women fare less well at climbing the career ladder.
One reason for that is that many of them choose to have children. Our index includes child-care costs and the amount of paid maternity and paternity leave available to new parents. Measured at “full-rate equivalent” (ie, how much time off mothers can take at full pay), Hungary and Slovakia lead the group, offering more than a year. Japan and South Korea are the most generous to fathers. Spain has a strict policy of equal leave for both parents, which it introduced in 2021 in an effort to reduce workplace discrimination; mothers and fathers are offered roughly four months each on full pay. At the bottom of the table is America, the only country to offer no paid parental leave to both mothers and fathers (although some state-level policies make up for stingy federal provision). It also has the highest child-care costs in the group as a share of wages, putting new parents in a tight spot as they juggle career and family.
Our last indicator is political representation. Studies have confirmed what seems intuitive: that if more women have political power, governments focus more on women’s priorities, such as tackling discrimination and easing the economic burden of having children. Last year seven of our 29 countries held elections, which pushed the average proportion of women in parliaments to a record 34.3%. Top of the list are Australia, Iceland and Finland, all on 46%. Britain is on 41%, America 29%. Hungary, Japan and Turkey rank lowest on this measure.
The question of which country is the best for working women is nuanced and complex. The glass-ceiling index is our best stab at answering it. The numbers don’t move much from year to year, and the same countries fairly consistently over- and under-perform the OECD average. But over time, patterns emerge. And on the whole, almost every indicator is inching in the right direction.
