The best countries for women in business

The top five countries for women in business  

The countries that performed best scored highest for both the factors of women in business and gender gap scores. The top five countries are below: 

1. New Zealand  

The country that ranked first in our index was New Zealand, as it received a high gender gap score (0.827, fourth-highest in our index) and had a very high percentage of firms with female ownership at 58.2%. One area that may require more encouragement include female self-employment which was only made up 15% of the self-employment workforce.  

2. Moldova  

Moldova ranked second overall, supported by a high gender gap score of 0.813. Further high scores included its female self-employment rate of 59.5% and 39.4% of firms with reported female ownership. Areas that could be improved were the numbers of new businesses registered per 1,000 people, which was only 3.1, and a reported 18.6% gender gap in top management positions. 

3. United Kingdom 

The UK had the third-highest gender gap score and ranked third overall in our Women in Business Index. The UK reported the second-highest rate of newly registered businesses with 18.6 opening per 1,000 residents, paired with 47.1% of firms with female ownership. However, the country experiences a low female self-employment rate of 9.9%. 

4. Philippines  

The Philippines was ranked fourth overall in our Women in Business Index and stood out with over half (56.7%) of businesses owned by women. The overall gender gap score was relatively high at 0.781. Female self-employment was also high, with 41.1% of women workers identifying as self-employed. Where it can use some encouragement was the number of newly registered businesses, with only 0.3 per 1,000 people. 

5. Spain 

Spain was ranked fifth in our Women in Business index. The nation reported more than half (56.6%) of their firms to have women ownership, paired with a good gender gap score of 0.797. However, female self-employment rates were low at 11.1% and just 3.1 new businesses have been registered per 1,000 people. The share of women among managers was also low with a 17.6% of a gap between their male counterparts. 

How does Australia compare? 

Australia ranks just within the top 20 in our Women in Business Index, with an overall score of 55, placing it on par with Germany and Switzerland. With a solid global equality score of 0.792, we stand out for our low perceptions that men make better business executives than women (10.7%),  and a high new business establishment rate of 17.3 per 1,000 residents. However, we had a low rate of a rate of female self-employment at only 12.3%. 

Where women are thriving as entrepreneurs 

Thailand, Indonesia and New Zealand had the highest percentage of female-owned businesses. At the same time the countries with the highest female self-employment were Burundi, Burkina Faso and India, which could highlight that many women in these areas are venturing out as entrepreneurs or working independently in these countries. In Burkina Faso (West Africa), a staggering 88.9% of women considered themselves self-employed. Despite this, 71.3% still claimed that men make better business executives than women.  

Leadership gaps and cultural barriers 

While progress is clearly visible, we still have a long way to go. Despite this rise in self-employment and women-owned firms, there are still many gaps across the globe when it comes to women working within leadership. 

Highlighted in our index was the gender gap in top management positions. This gap was visibly lowest in areas such as Thailand (64.8% of firms have a female as their top manager) and Cambodia (57.3%), with lower rates of women in top management positions in countries such as Bangladesh (3.6%) and Türkiye (3.9%).  

It’s interesting to note that countries with a high gender gap score are not always the pioneers of women flourishing in business. Norway is a perfect example of this. Their gender gap score is one of the highest in our index (0.863), but their share of women in self-employment sits at just 3.4%. This shows that a progressive country does not guarantee thriving conditions for women in business. 

Cultural perceptions also play a major role. A large proportion of the populations seems to think men make better business executives than women ever could.  

Burkina Faso has the strongest perception bias in our index, with 71.3% thinking men make better business executives, and Bangladesh reported 69.2% believing the same. These biases may contribute to some countries not seeing a rise in female-run businesses, and it could discourage some women from ever getting their foot in the door in the first place and taking a chance on themselves.