Improvement in proportion of working women boosts UK’s ranking in PwC index but Nordic countries still leadThe UK has moved up a “women in work” league table after the economic recovery helped cut female unemployment but it still lags well behind Nordic countries when it comes to overall empowerment of women in the workplace.The UK is at its highest position since 2000 on the Women in Work Index from consultants PwC. It ranks 14th out of 27 developed economies, up four places on a year ago.The reality for many flexible workers is that they have to work harder for promotion and don’t progress as quickly. The decision to go part-time is often made for short-term reasons, but unfortunately for women it often seems to have a wider, long-term negative impact.The Shared Parental Leave policy, which comes into force in April, is a step in the right direction but the UK’s cultural perception of gender equality needs to catch up with such changes in policy. Some of the reasons the Nordic countries top the index is down to the recognition that all individuals should be able to balance their career and family life, and to support themselves.Southern European countries such as Greece and Italy at the bottom of the index are still struggling to improve their performance since the fallout from the economic crisis. Continue reading...
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