SCOTLAND has been ranked top in the UK for gender diversity in the workplace, retaining its position from the previous year.
PwC’s latest Women in Work Index found a high representation of women in senior positions helped set Scotland apart.
It revealed that losing the UK’s gender pay gap would increase female earnings by £92 billion – a rise of 20%.
The index analyses the representation and welfare of women in the world of work across 33 OECD countries in 2017.
The UK overall rose one place from 14th to 13th in the index, and was second among the G7 nations behind Canada. Iceland was ranked first, ahead of Sweden and New Zealand.
The index assesses how different UK regions would have performed by estimating the Women in Work index for each of these regions and applying the same methodology as used in the main index calculations for the OECD, but using the UK average as a benchmark.
Scotland ranked above the UK average in two of the five metrics and equal in a further two. The only metric where Scotland trailed the UK average was in the number of women in full-time employment, with 59% to the UK’s 60%. 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. This put Scotland fifth in the UK rankings for female unemployment.
Looking at the labour force participation rate, Scotland ranked fourth with 73%. The gap in the male and female labour force is 8%, ranking Scotland third in the UK. The country was fifth for females in full time employment, at 59%. In the final metric, Scotland’s gender pay gap is 16%, ranking fourth overall.
One reason why Scotland performed well is the high proportion of jobs in the hospitality sector and a high concentration of public sector jobs, which tend to have more balanced gender representation – while areas such as London and the Midlands have more jobs in traditionally male-dominated sectors such as manufacturing and financial services.
Lindsey Paterson, head of diversity and inclusion for PwC in Scotland, said: “Scotland’s strong performance across all metrics shows our country is making significant progress in addressing gender imbalance. The issue is clearly moving up the political agenda and is something all businesses must address.”
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