International Women’s Day is this week (8th March), and when it comes to gender equality in the workplace, Sweden is the top European country for women to work in 2023.
Interested in the European countries that provide women with the best opportunities, Reboot Online evaluated a variety of factors such as economic and leadership role opportunities, creating a points-based index out of 300 points to determine which European countries offer the best prospects for female professionals.
Key findings:
- Sweden is the best European country for women to work (241.4 points out of possible 300)
- Sweden is the only European country to score 100 points for economic opportunity.
- Neighbouring countries Finland (227.6) and Norway (213.8) are the second and third best European countries for women to work.
- Turkey is the European country with the least work opportunities in 2023 (31 out of possible 300).
- Slovenia, Romania and Lithuania are among the 15 European countries with the best opportunities for women in 2023.
The best European countries for women to work in 2023
| Rank | Country | Economic Opportunity (100 points) | Women in Leadership (100 points) | Full paid weeks of maternity leave (100 points) | Total of points (Out of 300) |
| 1 | Sweden | 100 | 93.1 | 48.3 | 241.4 |
| 2 | Finland | 86.2 | 86.2 | 55.2 | 227.6 |
| 3 | Norway | 79.3 | 79.3 | 55.2 | 213.8 |
| 4 | Lithuania | 82.8 | 55.2 | 69 | 207 |
| 5 | Slovenia | 89.7 | 34.5 | 79 | 203.5 |
| 6 | Romania | 44.8 | 51.7 | 100 | 196.5 |
| =7 | Bulgaria | 62.1 | 41.4 | 89.7 | 193.2 |
| =7 | Estonia | 75.9 | 20.7 | 96.6 | 193.2 |
| 9 | Iceland | 93.1 | 65.5 | 31 | 189.6 |
| 10 | France | 62.1 | 96.6 | 27.6 | 186.3 |
| 11 | Latvia | 93.1 | 6.9 | 75.9 | 175.9 |
| =12 | The UK | 58.6 | 100 | 6.9 | 165.5 |
| =12 | Germany | 27.6 | 72.4 | 65.5 | 165.5 |
| 14 | Spain | 41.4 | 89.7 | 24.1 | 155.2 |
| 15 | Denmark | 48.3 | 58.6 | 41.4 | 148.3 |
Please find the full data set attached here.
The UK is the 12th best European country for women to work
The UK ranks in 12th place with 165.5 points out of 300. Reboot Online found that the UK has the highest number of women in leadership positions of all the European countries studied, taking into account wage equality for similar work and estimated income – that’s 317 active duty leadership positions in 2022. As a result, it scored 100 points in our index. However, it is quite disappointing that The UK only has 11.6 paid full weeks of maternity leave which equals a score of 6.9/ 100 for this category.
Sweden is the best European country for women to work in 2023
Reboot Online can reveal that Sweden is the best European country offering the best work opportunities for women in 2023, with a combined total of 241.4 points out of a possible 300. It is unsurprising that Swedish women thrive in the workplace, as the data shows there are plenty of opportunities for women in leadership positions (93.1/100). This is 13.8 less points than neighbouring country Norway in third place.
Following in second place is Finland with a combined score of 227.6 out of 300, 13.8 fewer points than Sweden. Finland has scored 86.2/100 points for women in leadership positions and economic opportunity. This is 65.5 more points for women in leadership than Estonia in seventh with 20.7 out of 100 for this category.
In third place is Norway with a combined total of 213.8 points out of a possible 300, 6.8 more points than Lithuania in fourth. The data shows that the country offers 39.9 full paid weeks of maternity leave, giving them a score of 55.2/100, equal to the maternity leave in Finland.
Turkey is the country with the least economic opportunities for women
In last place is Turkey, scoring 31 points out of a possible 300. Despite its poor performance, the country has surprisingly earned more points for women in leadership (27.6/100) than countries known to champion gender equality, such as Austria (13.8/100 points).
Naomi Aharony, CEO and Co-Founder at Reboot Online has provided an exclusive comment on the results of the study and women in the workplace:
“The overall results have suggested that there is some progress in terms of gender equality in the workplace in Europe. Norway, Finland and Sweden ranked highly, indicating that there are some improvements being made. Although, the disappointing positions of European countries such as Austria and Czech Republic reaffirm that the progress towards gender parity remains slow in Europe.
Although it is good to see some advancement, women still face numerous challenges when it comes to gender equality in the workplace that involves not only the wage gap, lack of leadership representation, government incentives and work-life balance.”
Photo credit: Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock.com
Methodology:
- Reboot Online were keen to discover the European Countries that offer the best prospects for female professionals in 2023.
- Reboot Online made reference to the European Institute for Gender Equality to find the countries in Europe with most women in leadership positions. We averaged the number of women in leadership positions during B1 and B2 periods to get the average number of active duty leadership positions in 2022. Leadership positions include CEOs and Executive roles.
- The ‘economic opportunity’ for women in the workforce was found in the Global Gender Report 2022, and it takes labour force participation rate (%) into consideration.
- The maternity leave benefits of each country were found on World Population Review. To determine the scores we calculated the full paid weeks of leave in every country. This was done by totalling the minimum number of weeks maternity leave offered times by percentage of income paid. We then added this score with the optional weeks offered times by percentage of income paid. (So for example Sweden is (12 * 0.78% + 42.90 * 0.572%) = 33.9 (full paid weeks).
- Data was normalised using the percentrank.inc function in Excel. This ranks each factor between 0 and 100 based on the relative position within the sample.
- The final score is calculated as a sum of the three factors for each country, with the maximum possible score being 300.
- All other European countries such as Serbia and Croatia have been omitted from the results, due to lack of data available.
- Data was collected between 22nd and 27th of February 2023, and is accurate as of then.