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In honor of International Women’s Day, The economist He launched its annual glass ceiling index that analyzes working conditions for women in the 29 countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
The countries were classified according to these ten measures:
- Higher education
- GMMA exams taken by women
- Workforce participation rate
- Gender salary gap
- Women in management positions
- Women on company boards
- Women in government
- Net costs of child care
- License paid for mothers
- License paid for parents
The United States failed to do the Top 10 classification, taking the No. 19 position on the list. It is something that Lizzy Peet, data researcher at The Economist, says that it is not surprising, since the United States generally falls below the OECD average for each of the measures considered.
“It is obviously not great, particularly for such a rich and important country,” he tells CNBC. “It really should be better.”
A reason why the United States classified itself is that the country has no federal mandatory parental license and is the only country in the OECD without politics.
“Not having forced the parental license forces to many women outside the workforce, which feeds the reason why there is still a considerable gender wage gap and why the representation of women in the roles of the Board and management is a little lower than it should be,” says Peet.
On the other hand, several Nordic countries were highly located in the glass ceiling index, including Finland, Denmark, Norway, E Sweden and Iceland, the 2 best countries for working women.
In a press release shared with CNBC, the economist said that “Nordic countries continue to prioritize helping women to complete the university, ensure work, reach higher positions and take advantage of parental license systems and flexible work schedules.”
Sweden is the best country to be a working woman in 2025
Sweden finished the winning streak of two years of Iceland to occupy first place in the list of the best countries of this year for working women.
Sweden
Murat taner | THE IMAGE BANK | Getty images
In 2024, women in Sweden made 7.3% less than men, which is higher than the OECD average of 11.4%. According to the report, 66.6% of women of working age had a job compared to 81% of men, but in Sweden, the number of women of working age is more than 82%.
In Sweden, 43.7% of women are in management positions, which is the best in the index, and 37.7% of women have seats in boards in the Nordic country.
Women have 46.7% of the seats in the government. In the USA. That number is below the OECD average to 28.7%.
Sweden also has one of the smallest salary gaps among working women, says Peet.
“The fact that (almost) 44% of the management roles in companies are in the hands of women links the reason why the gender gap is lower because these roles tend to be better paid,” he adds. “Countries with fewer women in administration, less women who climb the corporate ladder tend to have broader salary gaps.”
Sweden has always been a pioneer in gender equality. From the World Economic Forum Report It was launched in 2006, the country has never been classified below the Top 10 for the gap between women and men according to indicators such as health, education, politics and economics.
In 2023, according to the Country websiteThe average monthly wages of women in Sweden were 90% of men. Sweden was also the first country to replace the specific gender license license license.
The 10 best countries to be a working woman
- Sweden
- Iceland
- Finland
- Norway
- Portugal
- New Zealand
- France
- Spain
- Denmark
- Australia
Iceland ranked number 2 after being number 1 during the last two years.
It is important to keep in mind, says Peet, that Sweden dethroning Iceland does not necessarily mean that one country is better than the other. Both lead the load, but Sweden had slightly higher percentages in some of the ten measures used to classify countries.
Iceland
© Marco Bottigelli | Moment | Getty images
A measure that cost Islandia number 1 was the percentage of women in administration, which fell from 39.6% to 36.8%.
“The fact that a few percentage points fell would have harmed its position in the ranking, but in general, it works very well in many indications, especially compared to the United States,” says Peet.
Iceland is one of the most feminist countries in the world. He was the first to have a president and has one of the lowest general gender gaps.
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