According to The Economist’s 2022 Glass Ceiling Index, the UK lags behind 16 other countries when it comes to giving women the chance for equal treatment in the workplace.

This year’s index shows for the second year in a row that Sweden is the best place to work for women, followed by its Nordic neighbors Iceland, Finland and Norway.

South Korea has hit the index low for the tenth year in a row, with Japan and Turkey close behind.

The UK came in at the bottom of the top 20 list, but it still exceeded the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) average for the first time since the rankings began, coming in 17th.

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The proportion of women completing higher education in the UK has risen from 49% to 52%, while the proportion of women in the workforce has also increased, according to The Economist. said.

The United States fell two spots to 20th, with both the proportion of women in the workforce and the number of women taking the GMAT exam declining. The country remains an outlier because it has no government-mandated parental leave.

France fell two places to seventh. While it performed well overall in terms of female representation in companies, it was dragged down by rising childcare costs.

Germany moved up four places to 18th place. The proportion of women in the German parliament rose to over a third after the September elections, and parental leave in Germany remains above the OECD average.

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Overall, women in management positions in companies still lag behind their male colleagues: in the OECD area, they occupy on average only a third (33%) of managers and just over a quarter of board seats.

Elections held last year in several OECD countries, including Iceland, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic, helped to increase the average proportion of women in parliaments, which stood at just 26 percent when the index was first compiled in 2013.

The index, which ranks countries within the OECD, combines data on higher education, labor force participation, pay, childcare costs, maternity and paternity rights, business school applications and representation in leadership positions.

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