Though Switzerland is known as a land of high salaries, the latest Glass Ceiling Index has argued that it is one of the worst countries in the developed world for women workers. Sky-high childcare costs and lacklustre maternity leave were the main stumbling blocks.
Glass Ceiling Index 2025
To create the index, the British business magazine The Economist compared women’s working conditions in 29 of the 38 countries of the OECD - why the nine other countries are not mentioned is not revealed. 10 different indicators were used to place each nation on the ranking:
- Inequality in higher education
- Graduate management tests completed by women
- Employment rate of women
- Wage gap between men and women
- Percentage of women in management positions and on the board of directors
- Number of women in parliament
- The cost of childcare services
- Quality of paid maternity leave
- Quality of paid paternity leave
The Economist argued that, to mark International Women’s Day on March 8, it is important to continue to expose the barriers women encounter in their careers and what measures need to be taken to reach an equal standing with men.
Nordic countries the best places for workplace equality
For the 2025 report, The Economist’s data notes that inequality between women and men in the richest nations on Earth is narrowing, albeit at a snail’s pace. While wage inequality between the sexes stopped closing during the COVID pandemic, the proportion of women in higher education, the workforce and the boardroom is rising.
This year, the best places for women workers in the world were the Nordic countries, with Sweden, Iceland, Finland and Norway occupying the top spots. All four were given high praise for granting women greater access to higher education and executive positions and offering generous amounts of paternity and maternity leave.
Why is Switzerland one of the worst countries for working women?
Interestingly, Switzerland ranked as the fourth worst country in the world for women workers. Only Türkiye, South Korea and Japan ranked worse. The poor score was mainly attributed to the high cost of childcare, with The Economist estimating that it consumes around 49 percent of the Swiss average annual salary.
Despite attempts by the government and cantons to reduce the cost of private childcare through the family allowance and other benefits, OECD data from 2023 notes that federal authorities only spend around 26,5 million francs a year subsidising the system. To put that into perspective, in 2019 alone, the Dutch government spent the equivalent of 4,8 billion francs on childcare.
The Swiss system of maternity and paternity leave was also ranked as the worst of the countries analysed. Wage inequality also remains below average in Switzerland: the latest government data notes that on average, women earn 16 percent or 1.364 francs a month less than men. Of this gap, 48,2 percent cannot be explained by factors such as different levels of work, job titles and working hours.
The few bright spots for Switzerland lay in the number of women in the workforce, in government and on the boards of directors, which was rated as above average. As of 2024, 88 percent of women aged 25 to 39 years old were working, compared to 72 percent in 1991.
Best and worst countries on Earth for working women
In all, here are the best countries for working women, according to the 2025 Glass Ceiling Index:
- Sweden
- Iceland
- Finland
- Norway
- France
- New Zealand
- Portugal
- Spain
- Denmark
- Australia
Here are the worst places for workplace inequality:
- Türkiye
- South Korea
- Japan
- Switzerland
- Czechia
- Hungary
- Israel
- Germany
- The Netherlands
- United States of America
For more information about the study, check out the report in The Economist (subscription required).