Scotland retains top three position in PwC’s latest Women in Work Index

Scotland retains top three position in PwC’s latest Women in Work Index

Claire Reid

In the latest iteration of PwC’s Women in Work Index, Scotland has kept its top three position among the UKs nations and regions.

The Index, first launched in 2010, is a weighted average of the five indicators that reflect women’s participation in the labour market and equality in the workplace, and analyses female economic empowerment across 33 OECD countries.

Despite its overall Index score falling by 0.2 points between 2020 and 2021, Scotland demonstrated relatively strong performance across all five indicators, in particular a low female unemployment rate of 3.4% (below the UK average of 4.4%) and a slightly higher than average female full-time employment rate (64% compared with the UK average of 62%). Relatively narrow wage gaps and participation gaps — 11% and 6.2%, respectively — also contributed to Scotland’s high Index score.



The small absolute decline in Scotland’s Index score was driven by a fall in the female labour force participation rate (73.2% in 2021 compared with 74% in 2020) plus stagnation in wage gap — which remains the same as 2020 — and a widening participation gap.

Among the regions, Northern Ireland topped the Index, after increasing its overall score by 6.3 points — showing improvements across four of the five key indicators including the lowest female unemployment rate (3.1%) and gender pay gap (5%). Northern Ireland took the top spot from the South West, which only moved one spot to second overall, thanks to its low participation rate gap (5.5%) and high female participation rate of 77%.

PwC’s report highlights a number of factors at play that could be impacting the UK’s performance in the Index — which showed an absolute decline, with the country dropping five places to 14th in the 2021 rankings — including the affordability of childcare.

Claire Reid, deals partner at PwC Scotland and head of forensics and restructuring for PwC UK, said: “It’s encouraging to see Scotland retaining its place among the top three UK nations and regions in terms of women’s employment outcomes, but the small absolute decline in index score does go some way to demonstrating the impact of the pandemic on women in work — which has evidently been felt across the UK as a whole.

“Whilst families in Scotland are provided with more generous free early learning and childcare in comparison with other parts of the UK, the fall in labour force participation rate, as well as participation and pay gaps, make it clear that barriers associated with childcare — such as cost and provision — alongside the increasing cost-of-living remain for women in work in Scotland. There is still work to be done at a local and national level, to level the playing field and provide equity as well as equality.

“Investment into skills will continue to be key in creating more inclusive workplaces and equal opportunities for women from all backgrounds — particularly from an early age.

“Programmes like TechSheCan, which is avidly supported by PwC in Scotland and encourage and empower young women and girls into considering careers in tech, are vital to ensuring more favourable employment outcomes for women.”

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