From wage gaps to discrimination in the workplace and barriers to progressing up the career ladder, being a working woman can be tough. Not feeling appreciated and being unable to see a path to progress in their careers can negatively impact the employee engagement of women in an organization, which has a knock-on effect for the whole company.

However, the picture does vary around the country, so where in the UK is it best to be a working woman? And how does the UK compare to countries around the world? We’ve ranked areas around the UK on a range of factors such as the gender pay gap, how many women are part of the total workforce and in senior positions, to find out, as well as seeing how the UK shapes up in a global sense.

The Best Places in the UK

for Working Women

Ranked

Working Women Score /10 (Higher is Better): Score of 0-2.99 Score of 3-3.99 Score of 4-4.99 Score of 5-5.99 Score 6+ No Data
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Key Gender Wage Gap Median Annual Earnings Women as % of Total Workforce Women Employed as Managers, Directors & Senior Officials Overall Working Women Score /10

Rank

Local Authority

Region

The Best Places in the World

for Working Women

Ranked

Key Gender Wage Gap Women as % of Total Workforce Total Maternal and Parental Leave (Weeks) Average Cost to Register a Business as a Woman (% of Average Gross National Income) Average Number of Days to Start a Business as a Woman Overall Working Women Score /10

Rank

Country

Methodology

For both our UK and global rankings, we looked at a range of different factors, giving each place a normalized score out of 100 on each factor, before taking an overall average score across each one.

UK Ranking

Global Ranking