These are the 10 best countries for working women—the U.S. isn’t in the top 10: ‘It really should be doing better,’ expert says

In honor of International Women’s Day, The Economist released its annual glass-ceiling index which analyzes working conditions for women across the 29 countries in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

The countries were ranked based on these ten measures:

1. Higher education
2. GMAT exams taken by women
3. Labor-force participation rate
4. Gender wage gap
5. Women in managerial positions
6. Women on company boards
7. Women in government
8. Net child-care costs
9. Paid leave for mothers
10. Paid leave for fathers

The United States failed to make the top 10 ranking — taking the no. 19 position on the list. It’s something Lizzy Peet, data researcher at The Economist, says is not surprising, as America typically falls below the OECD average for each of the considered measures.

“It’s obviously not great, particularly for such a wealthy and important country,” she tells CNBC Make It. “It really should be kind of doing better.”

One reason the U.S. ranked so poorly, is that the country does not have federally mandated parental leave and it is the only country in the OECD without the policy.

“Not having mandated parental leave forces a lot of women out of the labor force, which feeds into the reason why there’s still just a sizable gender pay gap and why women’s representation in board and management roles is a bit lower than it should be,” Peet says.

On the flip side, several Nordic countries ranked highly on the glass-ceiling index, including Finland, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden and Iceland, the top 2 best countries for working women.

In a press release shared with CNBC Make It, The Economist said “the Nordic countries continue to prioritize helping women complete university, secure a job, attain senior positions and take advantage of parental-leave systems and flexible work schedules.”

Sweden ended Iceland’s two-year winning streak to take the top spot on this year’s list of the best countries for working women.

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 working-age women had a job compared with 81% of men, but in Sweden, the number of working-age women is more than 82%.

In Sweden, 43.7% of women are in managerial positions, which is the best in the index, and 37.7% of women hold seats on boards in the Nordic country.

Women hold 46.7% of seats in government. In the U.S. that number is below the OECD average at 28.7%.

Sweden also has one of the smallest wage gap among working women, Peet says.

“The fact that [almost] 44% of managerial roles in companies are held by women links the reason why the gender gap is smaller because those roles tend to be better paid,” she adds. “Countries with fewer women in management, fewer women moving up the corporate ladder tend to have wider wage gaps.”

Sweden has always been a pioneer in gender equality. Since the World Economic Forum report was released in 2006, the country has never ranked below the top 10 for the gap between women and men according to indicators like health, education, politics and economy.

In 2023, according to the country’s website, the average monthly salaries of women in Sweden were 90% of men’s. Sweden was also the first country to replace gender-specific maternity leave with gender-neutral leave.

1. Sweden
2. Iceland
3. Finland
4. Norway
5. Portugal
6. New Zealand
7. France
8. Spain
9. Denmark
10. Australia

Iceland took the No. 2 spot after being No. 1 for the last two years.

It’s important to note, Peet says, that Sweden dethroning Iceland doesn’t necessarily mean one country is better than the other. They are both leading the charge, but Sweden had slightly higher percentages in some of the ten measures used to rank the countries.

One measure that cost Iceland the No. 1 spot was the percentage of women in management, which fell from 39.6% to 36.8%.

“The fact that it went down a few percentage points would have hurt its standing in the ranking, but overall, it does really well on a lot of indications, especially compared to the U.S.,” Peet says.

Iceland is one of the most feminist countries in the world. It was the first to have a female president and has one of the lowest overall gender gaps.

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