Women in Work
Index 2019
Turning policies into effective action
March 2019

Contents

Foreword

2

1. Executive summary3

2. Key Index results

9

3. Potential economic gains from improving
female economic empowerment

12

4. UK and regional performance15

5. Special focus – China and India

21

6. Turning Policies into Effective Action

27

Appendices

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Appendix 1: Individual labour market indicators

30

Appendix 2: Methodology

36

March 2019
Contents

Foreword

International Women’s Day 2019 marks yet anotheryear of continued steps to improve therepresentation and welfare of women in the worldof work. From the first world leader taking
maternity leave, to the overwhelming response to#metoo, working women everywhere are
increasingly asserting their right to be respected
and treated fairly at work.
However, women in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation
and Development (OECD) still face significant challenges andinequalities in the workplace. The pay gap persists and womenare still under-represented in corporate leadership, with womenaccounting for only one-in-five of board seats in the largest
publicly-listed companies in the OECD.
Clearly, there is still a long way to go before we can achieve agender-equal workplace. The Women in Work Index shows thatwhile progress continues to be made across 33 OECD countries,
the pace of progress is slow. But there is a huge prize at stakefrom accelerating progress: Improving female

participation in work across the OECD could boost
OECD GDP by US$6 trillion, while closing thegender pay gap could boost GDP by US$2 trillion.
Iceland and Sweden continue to occupy the top two
positions on the Index while New Zealand moves up one place
to round off the top three. The UK made some small gains,
moving up from 14th to 13th position this year, but its
progress is held back by a stubbornly persistent gender pay gap,
which will require concerted government policy and businessaction to address.
We also find significant variation in regional performance on
the Index. Faster growing regions such as London, tend to havemade the biggest improvements in their Index scores since2010. Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales outperformed
most English regions, likely due to the higher share of public
Women in work index
PwC

sector employment in these regions that tend to have smaller
pay gaps and better female representation at senior levels.
These trends suggest that underlying structural factors and the
make-up of each region’s economic activity can influence female
economic opportunity.
While the focus of the Index is on the OECD, we should notunderestimate the contribution that China and India – the twomost populous nations in the world – have made in economicallyempowering millions of women. However, despite considerable
progress being made in both countries, there is room for further
improvement in female employment prospects. Had they bothbeen included in the Index, China would have placed in between
Slovakia (26th place) and Japan (27th place), while India would
have placed last, after Korea (33th place).

$6tn $2tn
Boost to OECD GDP
from increasing female
employment rates tomatch Sweden’s

Boost to OECD female
earnings from closing
the gender pay gap

These challenges will take time to address, but both economic
powerhouses could reap significant gains from promoting
gender equality. Closing the gender pay gap could result ingains of more than US$2 trillion, while improving female
participation in the workforce could result in gains of
US$7.5 trillion, more than the gains to the OECD combined.
While governments are responsible for shaping a policy
environment that supports gender equality and diversity in theworkplace, it is up to organisations and employers to put this into
practice. However, real and effective change remains elusive formany. In keeping with the theme of this year’s report – Turning
Policies into Effective Action – we discuss how effective
change within organisations requires strategic clarity,
accountability, measurability and transparency.

Jing Teow

Saloni Goel

Author and Economist

Author and Economist

Tara Shrestha CarneyAlex Cooper

Author and Economist

Author and Economist

Please do get in touch if you have further questions orcomments about this study, or to discuss how we can help yourorganisation address these issues.

March 20192

1
Executive summary

The world will never realise 100% of
its goals if 50% of its people cannot
realise their full potential. When we
unleash the power of women, we cansecure the future for all.

”Ban Ki Moon
Former UN Director-GeneralStatement published for International Women’s Day 2015

The OECD continues to make gradual progress to improvefemale economic empowerment, but there is still a long way to
go to achieve a gender-equal workplace
The seventh update of the Women in Work Index provides our assessment offemale economic empowerment in 2017 across 33 OECD countries. The Index
is a weighted average of five indicators that reflect female participation in thelabour market and equality in the workplace (see technical appendix for
more details).

Nordic countries occupy the top two positions on the Women in Work Index,
with New Zealand at the third place

2

Country rankings and trends
From 2016 to 2017, on average, the OECD achieved small gains to female economic
empowerment, mainly the result of reducing the average gender pay gap and female
unemployment rate, while performance on all other indicators remained broadly constant.
•Iceland and Sweden remain the top 2 performing OECD countries, while New Zealand joins
the top three ranks for the first time since this Index was first published. Norway slips to 5thplace, having been overtaken by Slovenia.

•

Ireland and the Netherlands improved their ranks since last year owing to positive
improvements across most of the indicators in the Index, and in particular the reduction in thefemale unemployment rate in the Netherlands.

•

Chile and Hungary both saw a decline in their absolute performance compared to last year due
to an increase in the gender pay gap. Switzerland’s fall in performance on the other hand wasdue to the widening gender gap in labour force participation and an increase in female
unemployment.

Over the longer term there have been significant movements in country rankings, largely due tochanges in the unemployment rate and the gender gap in labour force participation.
•

Since 2000, Luxembourg and Poland have made substantial improvements on the Index, as aresult of a significant narrowing of the gender pay gap and a large reduction in the female
unemployment rate, respectively.

•

On the other hand, Portugal, the United States and Austria have all fallen significantly on the
rankings since 2000. Portugal experienced a substantial rise in the pay gap while the US andAustria experienced a decline in female labour force participation and full-time
employment, respectively.

Sweden1
Iceland3

New ZealandPotential long-term economic gains•

Significant economic benefits can be reaped in the long-term from increasing
the female employment rate to match that of Sweden. The GDP gains acrossthe OECD could be over US$6 trillion.

•

Across the OECD, fully closing the gender pay gap could increase total female
earnings by US$2 trillion.

Boost to OECD GDP fromincreasing female
employment rates tomatch Sweden’s

Boost to OECD female
earnings from closing thegender pay gap

$6tn

$2tn

Source: PwC analysis, all data sources are listed in the appendix.
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March 20194

The UK has improved slightly, rising from 14th to 13th positionon the Index, but its performance continues to be held back by
a persistent gender pay gap

UK Ranking #13

Comparison against the G7
#11

#13
#18

The UK rose one place from 14th to 13th position on the Index, performing above
the OECD average.
•

#22

#23

The UK continues on a path of gradual improvement:#27− The UK has charted improvements across all five indicators of the Index.
However, the UK’s rank increased by only one position due to significant
improvements in female employment prospects elsewhere in the OECD.

#29− In 2000, UK stood at the 17th position, demonstrating slow but steady progressover the years.
− Between 2000 and 2011, the UK had an Index score below the OECD average.
The UK began to outperform the OECD average from 2012 onwards, reaching
13th place in 2017.
− The UK performs well when compared to other G7 economies, being second
only to Canada overall. It performs above the G7 average with respect to allindicators except the female full-time employment rate, on which the UK rankslowest in the G7.

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CanadaUnited Germany
Kingdom

FranceUnitedStates

Japan

Italy

Source: PwC analysis.

March 20195

Scotland tops the UK regional index with the South West andWales in 2nd and 3rd place, respectively
Regional trends
We assess how different UK regions would have performed by estimating
the Women in Work Index for each of these regions, applying the same
methodology as with our main Index calculations for the OECD but using the
UK average as a benchmark.
• The top three performing regions are Scotland, the South West and Wales.
These regions have large hospitality sectors and a high concentration of public
sector jobs, both of which tend to have more balanced gender representation at
all levels and hence smaller pay gaps.
• Yorkshire and the Humber, the East Midlands and the West Midlands are thethree worst performing regions. In the Midlands this is driven by the relatively
higher share of traditionally male-dominated sectors such as manufacturing
compared to the UK average. These sectors also tend to have larger pay gaps.
• From 2016 to 2017, Northern Ireland saw the largest improvement in its rank,
moving up from 8th position to 4th. The East Midlands saw the largest
deterioration in its rank, falling 5 places from 6th to 11th position.
• Looking at the period after the financial crisis – Wales made the most significant
progress, moving up four places since 2010 from 7th position to 3rd. This is dueto the increase in female labour force participation and a reduction in the pay
gap. The East Midlands fell by six places over the same period from 5th to 11 h,
as it was outpaced by improvements observed in other regions.
• Our analysis also finds a small positive correlation between the growth inregional gross value added (GVA) and changes in the Index score between
2010 and 2017, which may suggest that greater female economic participation
boosts growth.

UK regional rankings 2017
ScotlandSouth West
Wales
Northern IrelandSouth East
North West
East
North East
LondonYorkshire & Humber
East Midlands
West Midlands

#8
#9
#10
#11
#12
Source: PwC analysis, all data sources are listed in the appendix.

Movements in regional ranking over time2010

Change2017

Scotland1=01South West

2

=0

2

Wales

7

+4

3

Northern Ireland

3

-1

4

South East

6

+1

5

North West

4

-2

6

East

9

+2

7

North East

10

+2

8

London12+39Yorkshire & Humber

8

-2

10

East Midlands

5

-6

11

West Midlands

11

-1

12

Source: PwC analysis.
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#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
#6
#7

China and India could reap significant gains from promoting
gender equality and female participation in the workforce

China
•

If included in our Index, China would place in between Slovakia (26th) and Japan (27th). This islargely due to China’s gender pay gap of 25% which is substantially higher than the OECDaverage. However, China stands out for having a relatively high proportion of working womenin full-time employment, at 89%, which is 14 percentage points higher than the OECD average.

•

Closing the gender pay gap in China would generate a 34% increase in female earnings,
equivalent to a $2 trillion boost to female earnings.

•

Increasing female employment to match Sweden’s would increase Chinese GDP by $497
billion. However, as China’s female employment rate is already close to that of our benchmark
country, Sweden (66% in China and 69% in Sweden), the percentage increase in GDP fromincreasing the female employment rate to that of Sweden is relatively small, approximately 2%of China’s GDP.

India

26
Women in work rank

This year we assess how two of the world’s largest countries by population –China and India – would have fared had they been included in this year’s
Index. In recent decades, rapid economic growth in both these countries has
led to significant improvements in female economic empowerment.
Nonetheless, our analysis suggests that the further efforts to promote genderequality and female participation in the workforce could generate significant
gains for both economic powerhouses.

Slovakia

27

Japan

28

Spain

29

Italy

30

Chile

31

Greece32

Mexico

33

Korea
India

$497bn$2tn
Boost to China’s total female earnings
from closing the gender pay gap

If included in our Index, India would rank at the bottom of our index, which is not surprising
given its relatively lower state of economic development compared to OECD countries.

Boost to China’s GDP fromincreasing female employment rates
to match Sweden’s•

Like China, India faces a significant challenge with a fairly large gender pay gap of 36%,
significantly higher than any of the other countries included in our Index. Therefore closing thegender pay gap would generate a 56% increase in female earnings, equivalent to a $245
billion boost to female earnings.

Gains to India

India struggles with low levels of female participation in the workforce due in part to prevailingcultural norms about the role of women in society. The low rate of female employment in India
means that increasing female employment rates to the same level as Sweden would generate
a $7 trillion boost to GDP, approximately 79% of India’s GDP.

India would have come laston the Index, after Korea

Gains to China••

China would havebeen placed
between Slovakia(26th) and Japan(27th) on the Index

China

$7tn

$245bnBoost to India’s GDP fromincreasing female employment rates
to match Sweden’s

Boost to India’s total female earnings
from closing the gender pay gap

Source: PwC analysis, all data sources listed in the appendix.
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March 20197

Turning policies into effective change within organisations
requires strategic clarity, accountability, measurability andtransparency
While governments are responsible for shaping a policy environment that supports genderequality and diversity in the workplace, it is up to organisations and employers to put this
into practice.
Organisations globally are investing a significant amount of effort and resources in developing diversity policies andembedding these practices in their organisations. However, the results are not always matched by efforts. Our workwith organisations that are making the most progress highlights the importance of ensuring that diversity andinclusion (D&I) get the same direction, measurement and accountability that would be applied to any other strategic
priority. In practice, this comes down to five key foundations for effective change:

Align diversity with your business strategy
Articulate how D&I can support business priorities to build a strategy that resonates with all
stakeholders, including customers, suppliers, investors and wider society.

Drive accountability from the top
Ensure D&I is recognised as a business priority by making people accountable for making it happen byincluding D&I metrics in individual performance objectives and incentives.

Set realistic objectives and a plan to achieve themOnce D&I objectives are clearly identified, build an action plan based on them, and include
consideration of how key HR processes (such as performance management) will support these,
focusing on how they will be achieved and measured.

Use data: What gets measured gets done
Use data and analytics tools to measure progress and the return on investment, target problem areas
for intervention and drive accountability

Be honest: Tell it as it isClear and honest communication on your progress and plans for accelerating progress can help
demonstrate your commitment to D&I to your staff and external stakeholders.

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March 20198

2
Key Index results

The OECD continues to make slow but gradual improvements infemale economic empowerment over the past year, mainly driven
by a fall in the gender pay gap and the female unemployment rate
PwC Women in Work Index, 2017 vs. 2016
Rank (2016)

OECD average

2016: 60.4 2017: 61.9

Rank (2017)

1

=

1

Iceland2=

2

Sweden4↑

3

New Zealand

5

↑

4

Slovenia

3↓

5

Norway7↑6Luxembourg

6

↓

7

Denmark

9↑

8

Poland8↓9Finland

12↑

10

Belgium

11=

11

Canada10↓

12

Switzerland

14

↑

13

United Kingdom

13

↓

14

Hungary

15=

15

Australia

17

↑

16

Portugal

24

↑

17

Ireland16↓

18

Germany

23↑

19

Netherlands

20

=

20

Estonia19↓

21

Israel18↓

22

France21↓

23

United States

25

↑

24

Czech Republic

22

↓

25

Austria26=

26

Slovak Republic

27

=

27

Japan

28

=

28

Spain

29

=

29

Italy

30

=

30

Chile

31

=

31

Greece33↑

32

Mexico

32

↓

33

Korea

Iceland remains the top performer in our
Index, improving on its score from 2016 due toa reduction in the gap between the male andfemale labour force participation rate and thefemale unemployment rate.
Norway dropped from the 3rd position to the 5th
due to a fall in its female labour force
participation rate and outpaced by bigger
improvements made in New Zealand
Slovenia.
The UK rose by one place to the 13th position,
due to absolute improvements across all fiveindicators. However, the UK’s rank increased
by only one position due to significant
improvements in female employment
prospects elsewhere in the OECD.
Ireland experienced the largest improvement
in its ranking across the OECD – Rising by
seven places and moving above the OECDaverage. This is driven by significant gains infemale labour force participation rate.
Austria fell from the 22nd position to the 25th
due to a widening of the gap in participation
rates and as it was outpaced by improvements
in female employment opportunities elsewherein the OECD.

2017
2016

Mexico rose by one place and moved awayfrom its previous position at the bottom of theIndex bottom, mainly driven by a 5 percentage
point decrease in gender pay gap, the largest
decline across the OECD.

Source: PwC analysis.
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March 201910

Since 2000, Luxembourg has made the largest improvement in
its ranking, moving up 17 places from 23rd to 6th place
Biggest movers in the PwC Women in Work Index ranking between 2000 and 2017

6
8

2017

2000

10

17

13

23

19

20

25

17

Luxembourg

PolandBelgium

IrelandUnitedKingdom

FrancePortugal

Austria

UnitedStates

12

5

13

9

22

16

25

2000

2017
23

Source: PwC analysis.
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March 201911

3
Potential economic
gains from improving
female economic
empowerment

Increasing the number of women in work could increase
GDP across the OECD by over US$6 trillion
Our analysis provides estimates of the broad order of magnitude of potential
gains for each country from increasing female employment rates to match
those of Sweden – a consistently top performer in our Index with a female
employment rate of 69%.
•

The potential long-term economic gains across the OECD from an increase in women in
employment amount to a GDP increase of over US$6 trillion.

•

In absolute terms, the US is expected to gain the most, as much as $1.8 trillion, nearly
three times as much as the next biggest winner, Italy.

•

Countries with relatively low female employment rates such as Greece, Mexico and Italy arelikely to accrue the largest potential gains in percentage terms. Increasing the rate of female
employment to those in Sweden could generate GDP increases of c.30% for
these countries.

Gains from increasing the female employment rate across theOECD to match Sweden’s
28%

28%
27%

US$ 6tn
Potential total OECD GDP gain

The economic benefit to the UK could be significant:•Increasing the female employment rate from 57% to that of Sweden (69%) results in gains
of around 9% of UK GDP, or US$250 billion (or £178 billion).

Countries that exhibit a female employment rate close to Sweden’s female employment rates arelikely to generate a smaller boost in GDP; this includes the other Nordic countries like Norway
and Finland, as well as Estonia.

11%$250bn
9%

9%

5%

4%
1%

GreeceMexicoItaly

OECDaverage

UnitedStatesUnitedKingdom

Finland

NorwayEstonia

Source: PwC analysis.

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March 201913

Closing the gender pay gap could boost female earnings
across the OECD by over US$2 trillion, an increase of 22%
We consider the potential gains from closing the pay gap between men andwomen across the OECD.
Closing the pay gap by increasing female average wages to match their male counterparts
would generate a substantial increase in female earnings.
•

The gains to female labour earnings from closing the gender pay gap could be over US$2
trillion across the OECD.

•Of the OECD countries, the United States is anticipated to achieve the most gains inabsolute terms from closing the pay gap, with total female earnings increasing by$816 billion.

•

The largest gains in percentage terms could be found for countries with the largest gender
pay gaps, notably Korea, Estonia and Japan. The increase in female labour earnings fromclosing the pay gap in these countries could range from one-quarter to two-thirds of thecurrent value. Korea’s female earnings could see a whopping increase of 53% from pay
parity across males and females.

•

Gains from closing the pay gap across the OECD53%

US$ 2tn
Potential total OECD GDP gain

36%
32%

Closing the gender pay gap in the UK would increase female earnings by £92 billion (US$114 billion), implying an increase of 20% of its current value.

In our analysis, we assume that the counteracting effects of the wage and employment effects
broadly cancel out, meaning that an increase in wages does not lead to a net employment effect.
This takes into account the counteracting effects of labour supply and demand elasticities: anincrease in wages makes it more expensive for employers to hire more workers, however higher
earnings also incentivise potential workers to seek employment.

22%$114bn20%

Korea

EstoniaJapan

UnitedStatesUnitedKingdom

19%OECD
average

6%5%GreecePoland4%

Luxembourg

Source: PwC analysis.

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March 201914

4
UK and regional
performance

The UK continues to outperform the OECD, but progress
remains slow
UK performance 2016-2017
From 2016 to 2017, the UK rose one place from 14th to 13th position on the Index. Over thisperiod, the UK saw sizeable improvements in the female labour force participation rate, thefemale full-time employment rate and reducing the female unemployment rate.

•

One of the key areas holding back UK progress is the persistent gender pay gap, whichbarely budged between 2016 and 2017. In comparison, Luxembourg reduced its gender pay
gap by 1.3 percentage points, making it the country with the lowest gender pay gap in theOECD. One policy that Luxembourg has introduced to improve female employment
prospects and encourage gender parity in the workplace is the appointment of an Equality
Delegate within each staff delegation, which is mandatory for organisations with 15 or more
employees. The role of the Equality Delegate is to ensure the equal treatment of maleand female employees on access to employment, training and promotion and pay andworking conditions.

•

The UK performs well when compared to other G7 economies, being only second to Canada.
This is due to the fact that the UK performs better than the G7 average with regard to thefemale labour force participation rate, the participation rate gap, the gender pay gap and thefemale unemployment rate, however it lags behind Canada on all indicators except thefemale unemployment rate and the gender pay gap.

70.0
Women in Work Index score•

UK Index performance compared to the OECD average

65.0
60.0

56.4

55.2
55.0

54.8

50.0

56.2

56.8

58.3

56.5

56.8

2012

2013

60.1

57.8

61.7

58.8

62.8

60.4

64.3

61.8

50.0
45.0

49.2

40.0
2000

2007

2011

UK

2014

2015

2016

2017

OECD

Long term trends: UK performance since 2000

Source: PwC analysis.

•

In 2000, UK stood at the 17th position, demonstrating slow progress over the years.

•

Since 2000, the UK has improved its performance across all five indicators, with the largest
improvement made in reducing the gender pay gap and the gender gap in labour force
participation, which have fallen by 10 and 5 percentage points respectively.

Between 2000 and 2011, the UK had an Index score below the OECD average. The UK
began to outperform the OECD average from 2012 onwards, reaching 13th place in 2017.

•

In 2000, the UK performed above the OECD average for the gender pay gap and the female
labour force participation rate, and below the OECD average for the labour force participation
rate gap, the female unemployment rate and the female full-time rate. This remains the samein 2017, further demonstrating that the UK’s progress on female economic empowerment has
been slow over the years compared with other OECD countries.

Women in work index
PwC•

Over the long term, the UK has been a consistently strong performer on the female labour
force participation rate, staying at least 3 percentage points above the OECD average
since 2000.

•

In contrast, an area of weakness for the UK is the female full-time employment rate, on
which it has consistently remained below the OECD average since 2000 by more than
10 percentage points.

March 201916

In recent years, there have been a number of government policies aimed at
fostering a more gender-equal workplace, and businesses play a key role
putting these policies into action – we explore this in more detailin Section 6
Gender pay gap reporting

Shared parental leave

Women in Finance Charter

Hampton-Alexander Review

March 2019 marks the end of the first year
when UK companies (excluding Northern
Ireland) with more than 250 employees havebeen required to publish information on theirgender pay gap.

From April 2015, parents in the UK can shareparental leave following the birth or adoption ofa child. The scheme allows both new parents
to share up to 50 weeks of leave and 37 weeks
of statutory pay between them, in place ofmaternity leave and pay.

The financial services sector in the UK faces
serious diversity challenges, including the lackof women in leadership and leadershippipelines, and is an industry sector with one of
the largest pay gaps in the UK.

The Hampton-Alexander Review is anindependent, business-led initiative supported
by Government, which aims to improve further
the number of women in senior leadership
positions and on the boards of FTSE 350
companies. It has a stretching target toachieve female representation of 33% on
FTSE 350 boards by 2020.

Since then, the UK pay gap has only narrowed
slightly from 18.4% to 17.9%. It may be too
early if greater transparency has beeneffective, but publishing the pay gap has raised
greater awareness and executive focus,
spurring more companies to set targets, takeaction and report on progress.
The UK government is now looking to extend
the reporting requirement to include ethnicity
pay gaps, to encourage employers to identify
and tackle the barriers to creating a diverse
workforce. Businesses can start thinking aboutcollecting demographic data where possible tofacilitate future reporting requirements.

However, take-up remains low, with only
9,200, or 1% of all eligible parents opting totake it up in the fiscal year to March 2018. Oneof the key reasons for this is the significant
disparity in male and female pay, which meansthat the opportunity cost for men taking timeout of work remains higher than for women.
One possible way of addressing this is byintroducing “use-it-or-lose-it” quotas for fathers
in order to encourage take up. Similar policies
introduced in Sweden and Norway haveincreased male enrolment rates.

The Women in Finance Charter, launched by
the UK Government in March 2016 andspearheaded by HM Treasury, seeks toaddress the gender balance in the financial
services sector. The Charter commits firms to
supporting the progression of women into
senior positions and middle management,
implementing targets and appropriate
strategies to achieve this, and requires firms topublicly report on progress. The first annual
review of the Charter, in March 2018, showedthat 85% of signatories have either met theirtargets or are on track to meet them, but
progress remains slow.

The most recent review, completed in
November 2018 showed that although more
women are ascending onto the boards of the
FTSE350 and that only a small minority ofcompanies have an all-male board, the numberof female chief executives had also fallen from15 to 12 during the year.
UK companies still have a long way to go: thereview showed that in 2018, nearly two-thirdsof board appointees within the FTSE100 weremen, and unless the appointment rate forwomen is increased, it is likely that the 33%
target by 2020 will be missed.

1. This is from ONS reported data which differs from OECD reported data as the OECD only considers full-time employees and the self-employed, therefore part-time workers are not included.

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March 201917

All regions made absolute improvements in female economic
empowerment compared with 2016, with Scotland, the SouthWest and Wales taking the podium positions
We assess how different UK regions would have performed by estimating the
Women in Work Index for each of these regions, applying the same
methodology as with our main Index calculations for the OECD but using the
UK average as a benchmark.
•The top three performing regions are Scotland, the South West and Wales. This isunchanged from last year, had a UK regional index been constructed using 2016 data.

Women in Work Index score

1

Scotland

36.4

2South West

35.8

•

Scotland tops the Index with strong performance across the board for its strong all-roundperformance across the five indicators that make up the Index.

3

Wales

35.1

•

The South West comes second due to the highest female labour force participation rate (andconsequently a small gap between male and female labour force participation), and a low
female unemployment rate. Its gains on these indicators outweigh its poor performance on
female full-time employment rate where it ranks the lowest of all the regions.

4Northern Ireland

34.9

•

Wales comes third as it has the smallest gap in male and female labour force participation
rates and the second lowest gender pay gap among all the regions.

5South East

34.8

•

The West Midlands ranks lowest on the Index due to poor female labour force participation, alarge gap between male and female labour force participation and a high female
unemployment rate.

6

North West

33.1

7

East

33.1

8

North East

9

London27.8

10

Yorkshire and The
Humber27.6

11

East Midlands

27.2

12

West Midlands

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PwC

Source: PwC analysis.

29.3

25.2

March 201918

There appears to be a small positive correlation between the growth inregional gross value added (GVA) and changes in the Index score between
2010 and 2017, suggesting that economic growth tends to be associated withimprovements in female economic participation.

Relationship between long-term regional economic growth and changes inIndex performance, 2010-2017
North East

The association between economic growth and the Index score may be due to the growth ineconomic production capacity as more women enter the workforce (Klasen, 1999). It may be thecase that causality can also run in the opposite direction, i.e. economic growth can boost
economic and job opportunities for women. However, the evidence for this is mixed (Luci, 2009).
This suggests that growth-enhancing policies are insufficient to promote gender equality inlabour markets on their own, and must be considered alongside policies that promote female
participation and equality at work.

% change in Index score

Long-run trends in the Index suggest that economic growthtends to be associated with improvements in Index
performance, most notably in London

•

120%

Yorkshire and
The Humber

100%

Wales
South East

80%

North WestSouth West

60%

Northern Ireland

40%

ScotlandLondon is a middling performer, at 9th place. However, it was the fastest growing region in
the UK since 2010. This period coincided with London moving up 3 places as a result of
achieving the biggest regional improvement on the Index (in percentage terms). Thissuggests that working women may have played a role in driving London’s economic recovery
since the crisis. However, its performance is held back by the pay gap which has barely
budged since 2010.

Source: PwC analysis.

•

The West Midlands, East of England and the South East have also experienced a significant
growth in regional GVA and their Index score since 2010.

Biggest movers in the PwC Women in Work Index ranking between 2010
and 2017•

In contrast, slower growing regions such as Yorkshire and the South West have seen smaller
improvements on the Index.

2017

•

Wales is notable for its significant upward movement in the ranks, having moved up four
places since 2010. This is due to gains made across all indicators included in the Index. Most
notably, its female labour force participation rate rose by five percentage points, which has
helped close the gap in labour force participation between men and women.
The East Midlands’ performance has deteriorated since 2010, dropping six places between
2010 and 2017. While the region achieved modest gains in most indicators over this period,
the female full-time employment rate declined by two percentage points. The East Midlands
was one of only two regions that experienced a significant reduction on this indicator.

5%

10%

PwC

20%

25%

30%

West Midlands
East of England
London

3

9

7

12

Wales

London

2010

North
West

Yorkshireand
HumberEast
Midlands

4

8

5

6

10

11

2017
Source: PwC analysis.

Women in work index

15%% change in regional GVA

Over the long-term:•

East Midlands

20%

March 201919

The highest performing regions – Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales and the SouthWest have greater concentration of public sector employment, which tend to havemore balanced gender representation at all levels and smaller pay gaps
No. 6 – North West: Steady progress has been made on
all indicators since 2000, most notably the gender pay
gap which has closed by 12 percentage points. This
impressive improvement has taken the North West fromhaving one of the largest gender pay gaps in the UK to oneof the smallest.
No. 4 – Northern Ireland: Since 2000 Northern Ireland
has made the most progress in closing its gender pay gap,
reducing it by 13 percentage points. The region now has
the smallest gender pay gap as well as the lowest female
unemployment rate.
No. 12 – West Midlands: The region has made modest
progress on all indicators since 2010. Most significant is
the above average improvement in the female full-time
employment rate.
No. 3 – Wales: Since 2010, the female labour force
participation rate has increased by 5 percentage points
and the female full-time employment rate has increased by
2 percentage points, both of which are above average
improvements for UK regions.
No. 2 – South West: Since 2010, the female labour force
participation rate has improved by 5 percentage points,
which has helped close the gap with male labour force
participation.
No. 5 – South East: Progress towards closing the gender
pay gap in the South East was slower to take off thanelsewhere in the UK with a limited reduction seen between
2000 and 2010. However, between 2010 and 2017 thegender pay gap has declined by 5 percentage points, thelargest reduction of any region over this period.

No. 1 – Scotland: In 2000 Scotland had one of the highest female
unemployment rates in the UK. Since then it has declined from 6% to 4% in
2017, making Scotland one of the regions with the lowest female
unemployment rates.
No. 8 – North East: The North East has seen the largest reduction in the gap inmale and female labour force participation rates since 2000, falling from 11% to
8%. This is in part due to the region experiencing one of the largest increases infemale labour force participation rates over this period.
No. 10 – Yorkshire and the Humber: The region has achieved improvementson almost all indicators since 2000. The gender pay gap has experienced themost progress, declining by 9 percentage points over this period.
No. 11 – East Midlands: The East Midlands has made modest
improvements across almost all indicators since 2000, but its gains
have been outpaced by improvements in other regions since 2010,
meaning that the region now lags behind all regions except for theWest Midlands. However, the female unemployment rate has fallen
to pre-2000 levels. The region has also achieved an above average
reduction in the gender pay gap since 2010.
No. 7 East: The region has achieved an above
average improvement in its female full-time
employment rate since 2010. This has beenaccompanied by an above average reduction in
the female unemployment rate.
No. 9 London: London has consistently been theregion with the highest female full-time
employment rate. Since 2010, the female labour
force participation rate has increased by 6
percentage points, which may have been the
result of its relatively strong economic growth andthe creation of job opportunities.

Source: PwC analysis, Office for National Statistics.
Women in work index
PwC

March 201920

5Special focus – China
and India

China and India have made significant improvements in female
economic empowerment, however there is room for further progressto promote gender equality and economic opportunity for women
In this edition of Women in Work, we assess how two of the world’s most populous countries would have performed had they been included in the Index. While these countries are notformally part of the OECD, both countries are economic powerhouses in their own right. Between 2000 and 2017, these countries have added 167 million people to the global workforce,
including 26 million women. Today, these countries account for 35% of the global female workforce.

China

25%

% of the global female workforce

9%

12m

Females added to the global workforce since 2000

14m

69%

Female labour force participation rate

23%

25%

Gender pay gap

36%

4%

Female unemployment rate

8%

89%

Female full-time employment rate

26%

9%

% of females completing tertiary education

8%

India

1. The combined figures for India and China do not add to 35% due to rounding. China makes up 25.3% of the global female labour force and India 9.4%, this gives 34.7% overall.
Source: PwC analysis, World Bank, ILO
Women in work index
PwC

March 201922

China would rank in between Slovakia (26th) and Japan (27th)
on our Index, highlighting that there is significant scope forfurther improvement in female employment prospects
The world’s second largest economy, China has experienced cumulative
GDP growth of over 42% over the five years from 2012-2017 , which has
increased economic prospects for both genders.1
Over this period, China has continued to have one of the highest female
labour force participation rates (69%) and female full-time employment rates(89%) in the world, especially in comparison to other large economies in theregion. China’s female labour force participation rate and full-time
employment rate are around three times larger than those of India.
There have been gains for women in educational attainment with both UN
and Chinese official statistics showing that there are now more Chinese
women than men receiving a university education.2
If included in our Index, how would China perform?
••

China’s significant economic advancement has generated economic opportunities for
women, as highlighted by its high levels of female employment rates.
Women in China still face challenges in the workplace. It has a large gender pay gap (25%).
However, China stands out for having relatively high levels of female participation in workand a high proportion of women in full-time employment at 89% (which compares favourably
to the OECD) and low levels of unemployment (4%).

1. World Bank
2. United Nations, National Bureau of Statistics 2017
All other data is from PwC analysis, using data sources listed in the appendix.
Women in work index
PwC

How much are the gains to China from improving female employment?
•

China’s female employment rate is very similar to that of our benchmark country, Sweden,(66% and 69% respectively), and therefore the percentage increase in GDP from increasing
the female employment rate to that of Sweden is relatively small, approximately 2% of China’s
2017 GDP.

•

However, the large number of women of working age means that the boost to GDP fromincreasing female employment rates is significant in absolute terms. We estimate that
increasing female employment to match Sweden’s would increase Chinese GDP by$497 billion.

How much are the gains to China from closing the gender pay gap?
•

At 25%, China’s gender pay gap is higher than the OECD average.

•

Therefore there is likely to be a substantial increase to female earnings from closing thegender pay gap. Closing the gender pay gap would generate a 34% increase in female
earnings, equivalent to a $2 trillion boost to female earnings.

•

The increase to female earnings for China from closing the gender pay gap is larger than for
any country included in the Index, due to its large pay gap, but also due to the large populationof working women in the country.

2%

34%

Boost to GDP by matching
female employment rates
to Sweden’s

Increase to female earnings
from closing the gender
pay gap

March 201923

Women in China “hold up half the sky” with notable successes
in the large number of female entrepreneurs and billionaires,but challenges remain
There remain obstacles that prevent women from taking full advantage ofChina’s economic expansion but Chinese women have also enjoyedsuccesses, particularly entrepreneurship opportunities
In China, women still tend to be paid substantially less than their male counterparts in theworkplace, which is reflected in its high gender pay gap of 25%.
The gap in pay may be partly explained by social and cultural attitudes regarding the role ofwomen which can discourage women from work. For example, traditional gender norms that placehousehold and childrearing responsibilities on women are still pervasive in Chinese society andthere remains strong social pressure on women in their 20s to focus on marriage over career
ambitions, to avoid becoming one of China’s unmarried “leftover women”.
However, China stands out for having very high levels of women in full-time work, at 89%. The
high female labour force participation rate, and in particular the high female full-time employment
rate, may be explained by the social and family support networks available in China that make iteasier for working mothers to remain in full-time work. For example, parents that migrate to cities
for work (with women accounting for about half of migrant workers) often have the support of
grandparents providing childcare in their hometown (Emery, Dukstra and Djundeva, 2018).
One of China’s notable successes with regard to female economic empowerment in recent years
has been the rise of female entrepreneurship. According to government data, more than a quarterof all entrepreneurs in China are women, and in 2017, Chinese businesswomen made up 56 of
the world’s 88 self-made female billionaires, making China one of the best places in the world tobe a female entrepreneur.
One of the key drivers behind China’s female entrepreneurship success has been the growth ofthe digital economy and a thriving tech scene, comprising of sectors such as, e-commerce, AI androbotics. According to a report by the MSCI, out of 99 women who held chief executive positions in
2018, 17 of them were from Chinese companies, many of which were technology companies.

fostering a more female-friendly work environment and culture, an area where OECD companies,
including tech companies could learn from.

China’s challenge in improving gender equality in the workplace lies inreviewing policies and focusing on strengthening working women’s rights•

China has a number of laws and regulations in place to protect the rights of women in thelabour market. For example, the Chinese constitution stresses that women are not to bediscriminated against and China has numerous laws and policies designed to promote
employment equality.

•

However, in practice, gender discrimination in labour markets still exists, exacerbated by weak
enforcement and unintended consequences of policies designed to address discrimination(China Labour Bulletin, April 2018). Stronger action is needed to address both implicit andexplicit forms of discrimination, such as gender preferences when advertising job roles, butalso through better enforcement of existing laws on discrimination at work.

•

For example, the Chinese government recently passed improved maternity leave policies in
2016, partly as a measure to keep women from leaving the workforce and partly to improvedeclining fertility rates. However, there is yet to be significant changes made to paternity leave
policies, meaning that women still shoulder most of the burden of childcare. Improved parental
leave policies, such as shared parental leave could help address some of these imbalances
and to support mothers returning to work.

•

In addition, a formal gender pay equity review in China would likely help to diagnose further
the causes and highlight the presence of the gender pay gap, from which policy
recommendations on how to close the gap and improve gender equality in the workplace could
be made.

The digital economy is perceived to have lower barriers to entry and a more gender-neutral
environment compared to traditional sectors such as manufacturing and real estate. The growth ofthese sectors, combined with rising education levels has led to the digital economy becoming a
popular path to work and wealth for women in China.
With the greater involvement of female founders and leaders, Chinese tech firms are also

All data is from data sources listed in the appendix.
Women in work index
PwC

March 201924

India has made good progress on female economic empowerment since 2000, but
still has a considerable way to go to match OECD levels, indicating that substantial
gains could be made from tackling the gender gaps in the Indian labour market
India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world, with cumulative
GDP growth of 52% over 2012 to 2017.1 This rapid expansion has presented
greater economic opportunities for both men and women.
Over the same period, the female working age population grew by 9%, which
has resulted in an increase in the absolute number of women entering thelabour force. However the proportion of women entering the labour market
has remained fairly constant.
Women’s educational attainment is also on an upward trajectory, with 89%
women completing lower secondary education in 2017. As a result women are
becoming better placed to take advantage of the wider economic
opportunities in India.

How much are the gains to India from improving female employment?
•

The female full-time employment rate in India is half that of male workers. This large
disparity means that boosting female employment rates to that of Sweden, our benchmark
country, could boost GDP by 79%, equivalent to a US$ 7 trillion increase in GDP.

•The economic gains from increasing female employment rates for India are greater than thatfor any OECD country.

How much are the gains to India from closing the gender pay gap?
•

India has a substantially higher gender pay gap than any of the other countries included in
our Index. Therefore we estimate that closing the gap would lead to a significantly larger
percentage increase in female earnings for India than for OECD countries.

•

Closing the gender pay gap would generate a 56% increase in female earnings, amounting
to a US$ 245 billion boost to female earnings.

•

The gains from closing the pay gap are larger than for most OECD countries, with the
exception of the United States and Japan.

If included in our Index, how would India perform?
•

India has displayed significant economic and social progress over the past decades,
meaning that more women than ever are entering the labour market.

•

There is still room for improvement in terms of achieving a more gender equal labour market.
India’s poor performance on the Index is owing to it having fairly low levels of womenparticipating in the workforce (23%), and amongst those that do, only a quarter work full-time(26%). It also has a fairly large gender pay gap (36%).

•

India’s female unemployment rate (8%) is however, lower than some of its richer
counterparts in the OECD, such as Spain and Portugal.

1. World Bank
2. World BankAll other data is from PwC analysis, using data sources listed in the appendix.

Women in work index
PwC

79%

56%

Boost to GDP by matching
female employment rates
to Sweden’s

Increase to female earnings
from closing the gender
pay gap

March 201925

India’s rapid economic growth is set to benefit its large female working population.
Concerted action by the government and businesses can tackle the systemic
constraints working women face
Despite the significant gains in educational achievements and the growth ineconomic opportunity, there remain significant barriers to women in India
entering and remaining in employment.

Several initiatives by the government and the private sector are underway tobring more women into the workforce and promote economic opportunity
for women.

•

Women face cultural barriers to working, such as social expectations of a woman’s role, whichis to look after the home and family. These norms influence a woman’s decision to pursue
employment opportunities outside the home, limiting participation in formal work and theirearnings potential.

•

There is a growing trend of social enterprises that offer gender-inclusive professional
opportunities by offering more flexibility than their private sector counterparts. They challenge
gender stereotypes by employing women in less traditional roles, such as driving, and often
provide skill development training, to enhance a woman’s earning potential.

•

There also exists a U-shaped pattern for education and female labour force participation, in
contrast to male participation, which rises with education (Fletcher, Pande and Moore, 2017).
While women at very low levels of education are poor and work for a livelihood out ofnecessity, highly-educated women are less likely to work due to the social perceptions thatwomen having to work reflects poor living standards (The Economist, 2018).

•

The Maternity (amendment) Act, 2017 increased the duration of paid maternity leave from theexisting 12 weeks to 26 weeks, while also introducing an enabling provision to allow women towork from home after 26 weeks.

•

The government started the STEP (Support to Training and Employment Programme) for
women to upskill females from poor socio-economic background and provide employability
across a range of industries.

•

As a result, women spend a significant amount of time on domestic unpaid care work (90%more time than men, see OECD (2014)). The burden of care falls disproportionately on
women, thus reinforcing social expectations of their role in the home and gender disparities inaccessing work opportunities.

•

For women that are engaged in paid work (outside agriculture), 70% of them work in theinformal economy that falls outside the remit of laws around equal pay, maternity leave, andworker safety.

•

Women also tend to be under-represented in the services sector and rely heavily on
employment opportunities in the manufacturing sector. However, the manufacturing sector
also suffers from a large gender pay gap for the same work (Fletcher, Pande and Moore(2017)). In the largest 8 cities in India, there also exists substantial gender disparities in
occupations, hours worked, benefits and promotion opportunities.

•

Furthermore, as per the National Crime Records Bureau, cases of sexual harassment within
offices have risen rapidly since 2014. Safety for women remains a barrier that discourages
women from seeking work opportunities away from home.

1. World Economic Forum, The Gender Pay Gap Report 2018
2. Ibid
3. Ibid

Women in work index
PwC

90%

70%

More time spent on domestic
unpaid care work by womenthan men.2

Women engaged in paid workoutside of agriculture are in
the informal sector.3

March 201926

6
Turning policies into
effective action

How can organisations translate well-meaning policies into
effective change? It boils down to five key foundations
While governments play an important role in shaping a policy environment that supports gender equality and diversity in the workplace, it is up toorganisations and employers to put this into practice. Indeed, organisations globally are investing a significant amount of effort and resources in developing
diversity policies and embedding these practices. However, the results are not always matched by efforts. The lack of clear outcomes, targets andaccountability can all impede the pursuit for tangible change. So, how can your organisations move the dial? Our work with organisations that are making themost progress highlights the importance of ensuring that diversity and inclusion (D&I) get the same direction, measurement and accountability that would beapplied to any other strategic priority. In practice, this comes down to five key foundations for effective change
Align diversity with your business strategy

Drive accountability from the top

Set realistic objectives and a plan to achieve them

Diversity should ultimately be a business-led issue.
Identifying the business case for promoting diversity andinclusion within your business strategy is key. Articulate
how D&I will support business priorities such as improving
customer satisfaction, attracting hard-to-secure talent orenhancing business reputation. This will help build a D&I
strategy that resonates with all stakeholders in yourbusiness and ensure that your overall strategy thinks
beyond the workforce to include customers, suppliers,
investors and wider society.

Without strong business leadership and accountability,
progress will inevitably be limited. Set a clear direction
for your organisation and ensure D&I is recognised as abusiness priority. This requires more than juststatements of intent. Someone within the leadership teamshould be accountable for making it happen. Responsibility
must also cascade down to individual business units, e.g.
by building D&I metrics into individual performance
objectives and incentives.

To make concrete change, it’s important to identify clear objectives
and a pragmatic and focused action plan to achieve these. Identify
the headline diversity and inclusion objectives that are mostimportant to your business and shortcomings most in need ofaddressing. Use data to inform this process and sometimes you
may discover issues that you weren’t aware are there.

Use data: what gets measured gets done

Be honest: tell it as it isWhat gets measured gets done. Use data and analytics
tools to measure progress, target intervention and drive
accountability. Potential data sources include workforce
surveys, tracking the career paths of high potential
individuals and exit surveys to gauge why key talent isleaving. This data can be used to diagnose potential areas
for focus, set targets and measure progress, to create a
picture of progress, measure the return on investment of
your diversity and inclusion actions and identify areas forfurther improvement.

Clear and honest communication on your commitments isimportant. Focus on plans for addressing identified
deficiencies and progress over time, not just strengths.
Your business might be wary of drawing attention toshortcomings, but you can get on the front foot by
acknowledging shortcomings and setting out plans foraccelerating progress. This can make a positive public
impression but also shows staff that you are committed toaddressing D&I challenges, which is just as important as
managing your external image.

Women in work index
PwC

Once these objectives are clearly identified, build an action plan
based on them, embedded in data and analytics and include
consideration of how key HR processes (such as performance
management) will support these. It is important to set out
measurable goals for your action plan, decide how they will beachieved and assign business leaders who are accountable formeeting these goals. For example, your objectives could be
strengthening the wellbeing of your workforce, changing attitudes
to mental health, improving the experience of women or
increasing the representation of people from ethnic minorities insenior and technical positions. The action plan for boosting female
representation in senior and technical positions would focus on
drivers such as mentoring, senior sponsorship and promotingrole models.

March 201928

Testing the impact of diversity interventions
through analytics
Flow rate analysis, by tracking employees from entry to leaving, can offer insights on areas that contribute to gender disparity at all levels. By building up a
picture of how women move through an organisation over time, trends can be projected forward to predict the representation of women in an organisation in
the future. Tests can then be applied to this to understand how improvements to specific areas (for example graduate recruitment, or senior level retention) will
impact this picture, allowing organisations to understand the "return on investment" of different interventions and set appropriate targets and goals.
Recruitment

Retention

Progression

Getting diverse candidates in the door is often the immediatechallenge. Some businesses have adopted blind CVs toavoid unconscious bias in the screening process. Some arealso advertising roles as flexible by default to include
candidates who have the right skills and experience but havenon-standard work patterns.

There is little point in investing in recruiting women anddiverse staff only for them to leave because of the lack ofsustained and targeted efforts to retain them.

Businesses also need to tackle biases, as well as cultural or
structural issues that can hinder progression and result inless diverse leadership pipelines.

Predictive analytics can be used to identify the employees
most likely to leave an organisation, to identify the factorsthat may drive women to leave. At the same time, employee
sentiment monitoring can be used to understand theexperience of working in an organisation day to day and how
different factors. Technology tools can potentially beleveraged to address identified issues, such as AI in meetingrooms to invite diverse, unrepresented voices to join
the conversation.

Analysis of the probability of promotion (e.g. the likelihood ofa woman being promoted once adjustments have been madefor the number of women in the promotion “pool” can helporganisations understand if inherent bias may exist within
existing processes. Businesses can also help raiseawareness about the impact of decision making bypresenting promotion statistics to managers before decisions
on pay and promotion are made.

Staying in the labour market >Moving up the career ladder

Tech solutions and AI tools are increasingly being used toautomate HR processes, such as screening CVs. This canlower costs, remove human bias and screen morecandidates, but its use must be carefully monitored to avoid
introducing or reinforcing biases.

Getting into the labour market >Higher female labour
force participation

Lower
unemployment

Higher female labour
force participation

Smaller gap between male andfemale labour force participation

Lower gender
pay gap

Data, technology and analytics can help inform and drive diversity and inclusion
Using technology to detect bias and discrimination

Financial wellbeing and security

Technology can be leveraged to address bias and discrimination, such as using AI to scan
emails to detect inappropriate language. It can also be used in meeting rooms to identify who is
speaking the most and to invite diverse, unrepresented voices to join the conversation.

The pay gap can have far-reaching implications for society, as a large pay gap can significantly
contribute to large differences in pension savings between men and women, leading to lower
levels of financial security. Research by the CII (2018) shows that the average female retiree hasa pension pot that is only one-fifth the size of a male retiree’s. PwC has developed Savings Lab,a tool that can be used to assess employees’ financial wellbeing and pension outcomes andanalyse differences between employee groups

Women in work index
PwC

March 201929

A1
Individual labour
market indicators

The gender pay gap
Figure 5.1: Gender wage gap, 2000 – 2017
45%
40%
35%

Over the longer term, Luxembourg has
made the most significant improvements tothe pay gap, closing it by 11 percentage
points.

The average gender pay gap across the OECD countries
has fallen slightly from 16% to 15% between 2016 and 2017
and from 19% to 15% since 2000. Of the 33 OECD
countries included in our analysis, 20 have made gains tonarrow the gender pay gap between 2016 and 2017 and 25
countries have improved since 2000.

The UK gender pay gap narrowed from
26% in 2000 to 17% in 2017, but
progress has remained stalled inrecent years, with the gender pay gap
remaining constant at 17% since 2014.

30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%

2017

2016

2000

Source: OECD, Eurostat. OECD data refers to the difference in the median earnings for all full-time employees, while
Eurostat compares the mean earnings. Data extrapolated using linear interpolation where data unavailable.
Women in work index
PwC

March 201931

Female labour force participation rate
Figure 5.2: Female labour force participation rate, 2000 – 2017
100%
90%

The UK female labour force participation
rate has increased from 69% to 74% whencompared against 2000.

The female labour force participation rate remained unchanged at
69% on average across the OECD from 2016 to 2017. The largest
short-term gains were observed in Slovenia, Ireland and Estonia.

Over the longer term, the average female labour participation
rate across OECD countries has increased from 62% to 69%.
Chile and Spain have seen the largest improvements of 18
and 17 percentage points respectively since 2000.

80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%

2017

2016

2000

Source: OECD, BLS.
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March 201932

Gap between male and female labour force participation rate
Figure 5.3: Gap between the male and female labour force participation rate, 2000 – 2017
50%
45%
40%

The gap in participation rates between males
and females has remained constant on average
across the OECD between 2016 and 2017, with
Luxembourg experiencing the largest
improvement of 3 percentage points

The UK has reduced its
participation gap from 15% to
10% since 2000 but noimprovements were madecompared to last year.

Over the longer term, theparticipation gap has fallen from
17% to 11% on average across theOECD countries and has narrowed
in all countries except Poland

Mexico continues to experience thelargest gap between male andfemale labour force participation
rates at 35% but this has narrowedby 9 percentage points since 2000.

35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%

2017

Women in work index
PwC

2000

2016

March 201933

Female unemployment rate
Figure 5.4: Female unemployment rate, 2000 – 2017
30%

25%

Since 2000, Poland has
seen the most significant
reduction in female
unemployment, falling from
18% in 2000 to 5% in 2017

Female unemployment rate has moved around quite significantly over the period
2000-2017, partly because of the financial crisis and the Eurozone debt crisis. The
average female unemployment rate in the OECD in 2016 was the same as in 2000(8%), as it declined after the crisis from its previously higher levels. This saw slight
improvement in 2017.

On the other hand, female
unemployment in Greece
increased from 17% to
26% over the same period.

20%

15%

10%

5%

0%

2017

Women in work index
PwC

2000

2016

March 201934

Female full-time employment rate
Figure 5.5: Female full-time employment rate, 2000 – 2017
100%
90%

The share of women in full-time employment has remained constant between 2016
and 2017 across the OECD. Since 2000, the female full-time employment rate has
decreased from 76% to 75% on average, with countries such as Chile, Italy andAustria experiencing a large rise in the proportion of women working part-time

In the UK, the female full-time employment rate
has increased from 59% to 63% since 2000,
however the UK continues to lag behind the OECDaverage by 12 percentage points on this indicator.

80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%

2017

2000

2016

Source: OECD.
Women in work index
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March 201935

A2
Methodology

About the PwC Women in Work Index
The PwC Women In Work is a weighted averageof various measures that reflect female economic
empowerment, including the equality of earnings,
the ability of women to access employment
opportunities and job security. The indicators thatmake up the Index and their associated weights
are provided on the following page.

Women in work index
PwC

Scoring methodology

Data sources•

Indicators are standardised using the z-score method,
based on the mean and standard deviation of the sample
of 33 OECD countries (all OECD countries excluding
Turkey and Latvia) in 2000, to allow for comparisonsacross countries and across time for each country. This isa standard method used by PwC and others for manyother such indices.

••

Positive/negative factors were applied for each variable
based on the table on the next page.

Labour market data obtained for 2017, except where
specified. All data provided by the OECD with the
exception of data on the pay gap, which has beenobtained from Eurostat for all countries with the exceptionof the following, where data has been obtained from the
OECD: Australia, Canada, Chile, Greece, Ireland, Israel,
Japan, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, United Kingdom
and United States.

•

Methodological differences account for differences
between data on the gender pay gap reported by
the OECD and Eurostat. The OECD pay gap measuresthe difference in median earnings for all male and female
full-time employees in all sectors, whereas the headline
Eurostat pay gap (largely used in our analysis) measuresthe difference in mean hourly earnings for all male andfemale employees for all sectors except agriculture andpublic administration.

•

Note: Throughout this report, we follow convention in theliterature and refer to the gap between male and female
pay as the ‘gender pay gap’. This however accounts only
for differences in hourly earnings and not overall pay
which includes bonus payments.

•

The scores are constructed as a weighted averageof normalised labour market indicator scores.

•

Finally, the scores are rescaled to form the PwC Index
with values between 0 and 100 and an average value
across 33 countries set by definition to 50 in 2000. The
average Index value for 2017 can, however, be higher orlower than this 2000 baseline.

March 201937

Index methodology – Variables included in scoring
Variable

Weight %FactorRationale

Gap between female
and male earnings

25

Wider pay gap penalised

Earnings equality underpins the fundamental principle of equal pay for equal work.

Female labour force
participation rate

25

Higher participation rates given higher score

Female economic participation is the cornerstone of economic empowerment, which is afactor of the level of skills and education of women, conducive workplace conditions, andbroader cultural attitudes outside the workplace (e.g. towards shared childcare anddistribution of labour at home).

Gap between female
and male labour force
participation rates

20

Higher female participation rate relative tomale participation rate given higher score

Equality in participation rates reflect equal opportunities to seek and access employment
opportunities in the workplace.

Femaleunemployment rate

20

Higher unemployment penalised

The female unemployment rate reflects the economic vulnerability of women. Being
unemployed can have longer-term impacts in the form of skills erosion, declining pension
contributions and increased reliance on benefits.

Share of female employees
in full-time employment

10

Higher share of full-time employment
given higher score

The tendency for part-time employment may adversely affect earnings, pensions and job
security. However, this factor is given a lower weight in the Index since some women may
prefer part-time jobs to fit flexibly with caring roles.

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March 201938

Methodology for calculating potential GDP impacts fromincreasing employment rates
We break down GDP in the following way

GDP boost=

GDP/FTEx

We break down annual total earnings in the following way

Difference between Sweden's FFTE
and a given country's FFTE, if
Sweden’s FFTE is higher

Total earnings=

Increasing the female full-time equivalent employment rates (FFTE) to that of abenchmark country (holding the male rates constant). We use Sweden as our benchmark
country as it has the second highest female labour force participation rate. Iceland has thehighest female labour force participation rate, however we use Sweden as it is a reasonably
large economy and therefore a more suitable comparator country for the OECD.

Averagefemale earnings1* Female workers

+

where

We calculate full-time equivalent employment (FTE) as full-time employment plus half of parttime employment. We consider the potential boost to GDP under two different scenarios:•

Average maleearnings1* Male workers

Average maleearnings=

Average female
earnings/(1 – gender
pay gap)

In order to estimate the potential gains from closing the gender pay gap, we made the following
simplifying assumptions:•

Total employment in the economy is equal to employment within the 15-64 age group.

Simplifying assumptions•

The median wages are equivalent to mean wages.

In order to estimate the GDP impacts of increasing female employment rates, with the data
available, we have made the following simplifying assumptions:•

The gender pay gap is closed by increasing female wages to match male wages.

•

The elasticity of female employment to a change in wages is 0, meaning that a 1% increase inwages results in no change in female employment. This takes into account the counteracting
effects of labour supply and demand elasticities: an increase in wages makes it more
expensive for employers to hire more workers, however higher earnings also incentivise
potential workers to seek employment. Our literature review suggests that –•Total employment in the economy is equal to employment within the
15-64 age group.

•

A full-time (FT) worker is twice as productive on average as apart-time (PT) worker.

1Source: Blundell, R. et al. (2013) ‘Female Labour Supply, Human Capital and Welfare Reform’, IFS

Working Paper W13/10.
2Source: Merikull, J. and Room, T. (2014). ‘Are foreign-owned firms different? Comparison of

employment volatility and elasticity of demand’, European Central Bank Working Paper Series
No 1704.
3Source: ONS (2015) ‘Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, 2015 Provisional Results’.

Women in work index
PwC‒

Estimates of labour supply elasticity range from 0.5 to 0.9.

‒

Estimates of labour demand elasticity range from – 0.5 to – 0.3.

•

We take a conservative view that the counteracting effects of cancel each other out with noresulting change in female employment.

•

The simplifying assumptions provide us with conservative gain estimates because:‒

The gender pay gap is likely to be higher at the mean, which may be skewed upwards by asmall number of high earners amongst male employees, than at the median which has
been used to obtain data for at least 10 countries, as noted in the data sources above.

‒

The 64+ age group has not been included in the analysis.

March 201939

Data sources – India and China
Indicator

Female and male labour force
participation rate

India

China

SourceAdjustments

SourceAnnual report (2017-18),
Government of India

Applied the compoundedannual growth rate (CAGR) to datafrom 2011 to 2015 to get estimatesfor 2017

ILO 2017 estimate

Gap between male and female
labour force participation rate

Adjustments

ILO 2017 estimate

Female and male
unemployment rate

Annual report (2017-18),
Government of India

Female and male employment

UNDP and Annual report (2017-18),
Government of India

Female and male full time
employment rate

PwC India Research

Female and male working
age population

UNDP

Gender pay gap

Women and Men in India (2017),
Government of India and Gender
Pay Gap Report (2016), World
Economic Forum andApplied the CAGR to data from 2011
to 2015 to get estimates for 2017

Most recent data available was 2011

ILO 2017 estimate
ILO 2017 estimate

Data corresponds to Age 15+

China Labour Statistical
Yearbook 2016

Most recent data available was 2015.
Data corresponds to urban
employed women/men working 40 or
more hours a week

UNDP
Calculated using urban and rural
hourly wages (weighted by urban andrural employment proportions)(Tang and Scott, 2017) based on the2013 Chinese Household Income
Projects (CHIPs) data for both ruraland urban workers

Employment and Unemployment
Situation in India (2011-12),
Government of India and World Bank
GDP (USD and local currency)

OECD

OECD

Average annual earnings (USD
and local currency)

Women and Men in India (2017),
Government of India and Employment
and Unemployment Situation in India(2011-12), Government of India andWorld Bank

China Labour Statistical
Yearbook 2016

Women in work index
PwC

2017 estimate of average wage of
employed persons in urban units.

March 201940

Data sources – UK regional data
We have applied the same methodology as for the main index to construct the UK regional index. This includes using the same
weights and factors.
Indicator

SourceFemale labour force
participation rate

Annual Population Survey, Office of National Statistics (2010, 2017)

Gap in male and female labour
force participation rates

Annual Population Survey, Office of National Statistics (2010, 2017)

Female unemployment rate

Annual Population Survey, Office of National Statistics (2010, 2017)

Labour Force Survey, Office of National Statistics (2000)

Labour Force Survey, Office of National Statistics (2000)

Labour Force Survey, Office of National Statistics (2000)
Female full-time employment rate

Annual Population Survey, Office of National Statistics (2010, 2017)

Gender pay gap

Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, Office of National Statistics (2000, 2010, 2017)

Women in work index
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March 201941

Bibliography•

Attané, I. (2012). Being a Woman in China Today: A Demography of Gender. China
Perspectives, 2012(4), 5-15.

•

Chartered Insurance Institute. (2018) Insuring Women’s Futures.

•

Dutta, S. (2017). Indian Women in the Workplace: Problems and Challenges. International
Journal for Innovative Research in Multidisciplinary Field, 3(3), 152-159•

Emery, T., Dykstra, P. and Djundeva, M. (2018). Chinese Parent-Child Relationships in Later
Life in the Context of Social Inequalities.

•

Fletcher, E., Pande, R., & Troyer Moore, Charity. (2017). Women and Work in India:
Descriptive Evidence and a Review of Potential Policies, Harvard Kennedy School Faculty
Research Working Paper Series RWP18-004•

Klasen, S. (1999). Does gender inequality reduce growth and development?, World Bank
Policy Research Report Working Paper Nr. 7, The World Bank, Washington, DC.

•

Luci, A. (2009). Female labour market participation and economic growth. Int. J. Innovationand Sustainable Development Vol. 4(2).

•Ortiz-Ospin, E., & Tzvetkova, S. (2017). Working women: Key facts and trends in female
labor force participation. Our World in Data.

•

PwC. (2018). Good Growth for Cities 2018.

•

Salovaara, I., & Wade, J. (2018). Rethinking Women’s Work in India. Stanford Social
Innovation Review.

•

ShareAction. (2018) International Women’s Day 2018: Pushing for Progress in the
Workplace.

•Tai, J,. & Tse, E. (2018). Dare to fail: why China’s women entrepreneurs are finding greater
success. South China Morning Post.

•

Tang, Y,. & Scott, R. (2017). "Glass Ceiling" or "Sticky Floor": The Evidence from ChineseLabor Market. Advances in Economics and Business, 5(10), 531-538.

•

The Economist (2018). Culture and the labour market keep India’s women at home.

•

World Economic Forum. (2018). The Global Gender Gap Report 2018.

•

World Economic Forum. (2018). Five ways China's women are closing the gender gap.

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March 201942

For more information about this report, please contact
members of our team
Jing Teow
Senior Economist
yong.jing.teow@pwc.com

Saloni Goel
Economist
saloni.x.goel@pwc.com

Our Economics practice in the UK offers a wide range of services
covering: market reform in a range of industry sectors (including
energy, water, media and telecoms, financial services, health andgovernment services); competition policy, disputes and otherinvestigations; economic, social and environmental impact analysis;
financial economics; fiscal policy and macroeconomics.
This practice forms part of Strategy&, PwC’s strategy
consulting business.

Tara Shrestha Carney
Economist
tara.shrestha.x.carney@pwc.com

Alex Cooper
Economist
alexandra.x.cooper@pwc.com

For more information about our Economics services
please visit: www.pwc.co.uk/economics

Our Women in Work Index is one of a series of related PwC labour
market indices. Please take a look at our other indices for older andyounger workers at the links below:

Jon TerryPartner, UK Diversity and Inclusion
Consulting Leader
jon.p.terry@pwc.com
pwc.com

Katy Bennett
Director, Diversity andInclusion Consulting
katy.e.bennett@pwc.com

PwC’s Golden Age Index
How well are the OECD economies harnessing the power of anolder? www.pwc.co.uk/services/economics-policy/insights/goldenage-index.html
PwC’s Youth Employment Index
The potential £40 billion prize from boosting youth employment,
education and training in the UK
www.pwc.co.uk/services/economics-policy/insights/youthemployment-Index.html

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