Where women have the best chance in the workforce

It’s no longer the 1950s, but many have observed that women still struggle in the workforce to varying degrees across the world. While women earn almost 60% of university degrees in the US and Europe, they nevertheless represent less than half of the workforce in the same places.

Women make up almost half the Canadian workforce, although there remains a 10% higher rate of unemployment for females. One factor affecting women's participation in the workforce is availability of childcare. In a 2008 UNICEF study Canada ranked at the very bottom on quality and access out of 25 countries surveyed. Canada spends just 0.3% of GDP compared to 1.3% in France and 2.7% in Denmark.

According to information from Eurostat, the US does manage to keep up with Europe’s leading workforces. Here are some leading countries arranged by their employment rates for women, compared with their total employment rates:

1. Iceland, 79.5% (82.8% total)
2. Sweden, 77.2% (79.8% total)
3. UK, 69.4% (74.9% total)
4. France, 65.5% (69.5% total)
5. USA, 65.3% (70.9% total)
6. Japan, 64.5% (75.2% total)
7. Canada, 62.1% (66.5% total)
8. Italy, 49.9% (59.8% total)
9. Turkey, 31.8% (53.4% total)

Meanwhile, Iceland, Finland and Norway were touted as the top countries for women to work in last year's Global Gender Gap Report.