PA Life is sharing the latest data on women in leadership and employment head of the International Women’s Day on March 8th. For every 100 men promoted to manager, only 81 women received the same promotion in 2024. At this rate, it will take nearly 50 years to achieve gender parity for all women in the workplace.ย
To provide transparency for the fifth year – ahead of International Womenโs Day (Saturday 8th March) – digital PR agency Reboot Online analysed the year-on-year change in leadership and employment growth, alongside the Global Gender Gap report and maternity leave rate for each European country.
European women in leadership growth and employment
Their team of Ph.D.-level data scientists collected the data and calculated an overall score to find the best countries in Europe for women to work in 2025.
- Women in the UK are 10th most likely to be successful when analysing year-on-year growth
- UK women have seen the largest leadership growth in Europe
- Lithuania places first, while Cyprus is ranked the worst country for working women in Europe
The United Kingdom is the 10th best country for women to work in 2025
Please see the full data here.
Placing 10th overall is the UK with a score of 7.72 out of 10.
Reboot Online discovered that the UK is the best in Europe for women in leadership positions – placing the highest overall (8.39) and in five-year growth (8.09). The report also found the UK ranks in the top half of Europe for the Global Gender Gap – a comprehensive measure of equality analysing many factors from health to educational attainment.
However there is room for improvement as the maternity leave with full pay rate comes in at just 12 weeks – the third lowest in Europe, only behind Ireland and Switzerland.
Lithuaniaย is the best country in Europe for women to work in 2025
With a total gender equality score of 8.54 out of 10, the country moved up from seventh place in last yearโs rankings.
Lithuania has reported the highest growth in women in leadership positions over the past five years – the fourth highest overall. In 2024, Lithuania reported the highest number of female CEOs of any European country. Although their total number of non-CEOs is average for Europe, the recent increase in representation boosts them up the rankings.
Lithuaniaโs maternity leave sits comfortably in the top 10 in Europe, with just over 52 weeks of pay at full rate. The percentage of women in employment is also high, resulting in a score of 8.1 out of 10 – however, the growth of women in employment over the past five years is lower than average.
2. Norway takes second place for women in leadership and employment
With the Nordic countries dominating the top 10, itโs no surprise that Norway is ranked the second-best country for women to work in 2025. Its high ranking can be attributed to a large percentage of female executives and board members in its largest listed companies – resulting in a normalised score of 7.78 out of 10 and placing Norway third overall in Europe.
Norway also ranks third overall in the Global Gender Gap Index (8.75/10), evaluating various indicators including Work and Economic Participation, Educational Attainment, Health and Survival, and Political Empowerment, serving as a comprehensive measure of gender equality.
3. The Netherlands
Moving up from fourth place last year, the Netherlands placed third with a total gender equality score of 8.54 out of 10. A huge percentage of women are in work according to the European Institute for Gender Equality, with a normalised score of 9.47 out of 10 – the second highest in all of Europe, behind only Iceland. Despite ranking average in the Global Gender Gap Index, their stats for women in the workforce are stronger than most other countries.
Cyprus has the least opportunities for women in leadership and employment
Unfortunately, Reboot Online found that Cyprus is in last place, with a score of 6.21 out of 10. Despite its poor performance overall, the country has surprisingly earned more points in women in work and the overall gender gap index. Its low score can be attributed to the lack of women in leadership positions (1.36/10) and their below-average full-pay maternity leave (15 weeks).
Second to last is Luxembourg with 6.59 out of 10 – seeing struggles in the five-year growth of women in work and the number of women in leadership. Following is Belgium (6.75), Malta (6.79) and Italy (6.85).
Naomi Aharony, CEO and Co-Founder at Reboot Online has provided an exclusive comment on the results of the study and women in the workplace: โThe overall results suggest that there has been some progress with gender equality in the workplace – especially across the past five years, as shown by the growth scores in our study. Lithuania, Norway and the Netherlands ranked highly across the board, indicating that some improvements are being made across the continent. Particularly with the number of women in CEO, President and Executive positions. It appears that companies are making big strides with representations in business, indicating their larger understanding of its importance.ย
โHowever, the disappointing positions of European countries such as Cyprus and Luxembourg reaffirm that the progress towards gender parity remains slow in Europe.
โAlthough it is good to see some advancement, we know that women still face numerous challenges when it comes to gender equality in the workplace. Ahead of this year’s International Womenโs Day conversations, itโs important to reaffirm that there are still hurdles we need to jump to tackle the wage gap, lack of leadership representation, government incentives and work-life balance.โ
When it comes to equal pay we have a long way to go still as nearly 80% of businesses pay men more than they pay women.
