UK achieves improved Women in Work Index position

Nick Elvin

The UK has made significant progress increasing female labour participation, according to the latest edition of PwC’s annual Women in Work Index.

The UK has risen to 14th position out of 27 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, its highest position on the index since 2000 and up four places from last year.

PwC’s research shows that the improvement in the UK’s performance was largely due to the strengthening economic recovery, which has driven improvements in female labour force participation (both in absolute terms and relative to men) and a reduction in female unemployment. This improvement in the UK’s labour market performance has been markedly stronger than the OECD average, pushing the UK back up the index rankings.

Despite this increase, the UK still lags well behind some other countries in overall female economic empowerment. The Nordic countries continue to lead the index, with Norway maintaining pole position, followed by Denmark and Sweden. These three countries have consistently occupied the top three positions in the index since 2000.

As well as the UK, Hungary and the United States have made the biggest progress on the index since last year, moving up five and three positions respectively.

The index shows that the UK is in the top ten performing OECD countries on overall female participation in the labour force and performs above average on female unemployment levels, but its performance is negatively impacted due to the low proportion of women in full-time employment. The UK ranks well below the OECD average on this measure and is in 25th place out of 27 countries.

The average gender wage gap across OECD countries has remained unchanged since 2012. While the UK has achieved a small narrowing of the gap since last year, Ireland and Australia fared the worst, reversing the gains made since 2000.

Gaenor Bagley, head of people and executive board member at PwC, said: “Whilst it is positive that the UK is gaining ground, it is clear that the low number of females in full-time employment is preventing the UK from competing with the Nordic countries at the top of the index.

“Despite the perception that flexible working helps women, our index and wider research suggests that it is still holding back women’s career progression. 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. For example, childcare and household tasks are shared between parents, which has enabled a more equitable distribution of labour at home and improved work-life balance for both men and women.

“For the UK to make real progress we first need to solve the culture challenge. We know women are confident and ambitious; they just need a workplace and society that support these aims. This often means getting the basics, such as how people are assessed and rewarded at work, right.”