Australia has ranked within the top 20 countries in the Female Opportunity Index 2021.
Focusing on political representation, corporate leadership and legislations, international bank N26 created the Female Opportunity Index by investigating 100 countries included in the World Economic Forum Global Gap Report 2020.
The index ranked countries based on statistics of women in government, women in management, women in entrepreneurship, women in STEM, pay equality, female access to education, legislation and maternity leave.
Australia ranked 16th with an overall score of 89.2 out of 100, while New Zealand reached the top 10 in sixth place (94.28).
Scandinavian and Northern European countries led the way for female empowerment, with Norway (100) coming first overall, while Finland (99.31) and Iceland (95.24) came second and third respectively. Pakistan came last (50).
Australia improved for women in management, coming in 10th with a score of 97.5. Sweden came first in this sector (100), while New Zealand had a score of 97.
Australia came third for women in entrepreneurship (99.5). New Zealand came second (99.7), while the US was first (100).
Singapore dominated salary levels and the reduction of gender wage gaps, coming in first (100). Again, Northern European countries made up the majority of the top 10.
Australia ranked 22nd for salary level with a score of 93, while New Zealand followed close behind with a score of 92.2.
Women in Japan have the greatest access to education in the world, followed by the Czech Republic and Canada in second and third respectively.
Australia again ranked 22nd for female access to education (94.1). New Zealand ranked eighth (96.2).
Maternity leave was ranked slightly differently, with the number of days offered determining the score.
Estonia offers the most maternity leave days (1162), followed by Slovakia (1148) and Finland (1127).
In comparison, Australian has just 89.2 days on average, while New Zealand has an average of 94.2 days.
For female-focused legislation, New Zealand came seventh, while Australia came 31st. Iceland came first.
