CANADA
An international report has found that Canada is the best among G20 countries when it comes to the proportion of women amongst its senior public servants.
The Global Government Forum’s Women Leaders Index had Canada in first place with a 48.1 per cent figure, putting it 1.8 points ahead of second-placed Australia.
The United Kingdom was third, with 44.7 per cent representation, followed by South Africa and Brazil respectively.
The ranking also sets out the proportion of women among nations’ Cabinet Ministers, national parliamentarians and business leaders.
At 27.7 per cent the G20 average is 1.4 percentage points up on the last Women Leaders Index, published in 2017, and eight points up since the first index was published in 2013.
However, the mean for the lowest ranking seven countries — including China, Turkey, South Korea, Japan and Saudi Arabia — has risen just 2.7 points over that period, to 10.2 per cent.
While most countries have made progress since 2017 — the proportion of women in the top two tiers of Italy’s Public Service, for example, has leapt by 6.2 points over the period —the United States has seen a decline in the percentage of women in leadership positions, falling back from sixth to ninth place in the rankings.
Managing Director of Global Government Forum, Kevin Sorkin said since the index was first published the six top performers in the G20 have inched ever closer towards gender parity amongst senior public servants, with their mean score rising from 36 per cent to 42.7 per cent.
“The middle-ranking seven countries have made even faster progress, with their average score climbing from 18.3 per cent to 32.4 per cent,” Mr Sorkin said.
“This kind of progress produces big rewards in terms of better decision-making, bigger talent pools and, ultimately, stronger Public Service delivery for the public — but there is more work to do.”
Ottawa, 10 March 2020
